SSOE partnered with Workhuman® to build its custom employee recognition platform, C3, a nod to its vision of designing and building the future for its clients, colleagues, and communities.
For SSOEOpens in a new tab, a global architecture and engineering firm, premium results and service are of the highest priority. Founded in 1948, SSOE works with 150 clients that have been with the company for more than 20 years. Such a track record requires consistency in innovation, values, and quality.
Understandably, finding and retaining the talent that will help SSOE achieve its goals is paramount. To get the best quality work, the company’s employees need to feel valued and, when the organization grows, SSOE needs to be able to flex to meet the moment without sacrificing the quality of the employee experience.
In 2016, SSOE partnered with Workhuman® to build its custom employee recognition platform, C3, a nod to its vision of designing and building the future for its clients, colleagues, and communities.
Since then, the partnership has evolved to include other products from the Workhuman Cloud, like Conversations® and Service Milestones®, to continue strengthening the relationships between employees and managers as well as colleagues all over the world.
“We’re on a journey, like every other company. We’re constantly telling the story of recognition and leading with gratitude. Being able to say ‘thank you’ through the Workhuman platform lets everyone see that gratitude – and it’s so critical.”
The challenge
Gallup and Workhuman research has found that to see outcomes like retention and employee engagement improve with recognition, it needs to be fulfilling, authentic, personalized, equitable, and embedded in the company culture. SSOE needed to look at all the ways it could elevate employees throughout the year in a way that was honest and impactful.
A platform to recognize and reward the efforts and accomplishments of employees is a great baseline, but SSOE needed that platform to have a global reach. That need was two-fold.
One, SSOE needed to ensure moments of recognition were seen by everyone no matter where they were working. And two, the company needed to make rewards equitable with varying standards of living in all the regions it has offices.
Outside of recognition, SSOE wanted to mine all the moments that could potentially provide a lift to employees through appreciation. Knowing so many of these moments happened in one-on-one meetings with managers and employees, they wanted to find a way to easily document and highlight those moments, so they were not lost to time or memory.
Another obvious lift opportunity was a date significant to each employee: their work anniversary. Retaining talent is critical to SSOE’s success so a way to systematically celebrate these milestones would help showcase the long-lasting connection employees felt toward the organization.
The solution
SSOE partnered with Workhuman to onboard Social Recognition® to its global workforce. Instantly, anyone in the organization could nominate colleagues for values like collaboration, agility, quality, integrity, and social responsibility. And with the social feed, everyone else in the organization could see it, like it, and leave their congratulations.
That's recognition embedded in SSOE's culture. And that's what Workhuman calls recognition done right.
“Before we implemented Workhuman, we had a disparate program where managers could give rewards like gift cards. We didn’t have a clear line of sight into why people were being recognized – and how others could aspire to those same behaviors. That lack of peer-to-peer recognition was missing.”
A Standard of Living index embedded in the tool gave all employees the relief that rewards would be equitable no matter where they resided.
A superuser of Conversations, SSOE gave employees and managers a platform to document to-do lists, deadlines, project outcomes, and goals. And soon, they had onboarded Service Milestones to celebrate marquee anniversaries like onboarding, promotions, years of service, and so on.
The key for SSOE in building and scaling recognition across the organization has been to maximize the frequency of recognition. It isn’t so much about the monetary value of the recognition – it’s about the impact of frequent, ongoing recognition that touches every individual at SSOE.
“Over the years, I’ve heard Eric Mosley talk so many times about the lift that you get when give recognition,” said Jennifer. “If you give a $500 award, you get a certain amount of lift – but what if you give five $100 awards, just think about that same lift that you’re getting. How much more are your employees able to do and able to give – and how much more successful is your business?”
The results
Since onboarding Social Recognition in 2016, SSOE has continually expanded its use of the product and the number of Workhuman Cloud offerings.
Last year, SSOE conducted an all-employee award for Employee Appreciation Day and the total awards placed for the year reached 95% of the organization. SSOE has also given holiday awards, service awards, special cash awards, referral awards, and licensure awards. In short, the company has evolved with Workhuman, embracing new features and flexing the full functionality of the platform.
SSOE has seen various returns on its investment. One of the most critical outcomes has been the improved retention of new hires during COVID. SSOE has seen that when recognition is high, engagement is high across the organization. And, at the end of the day, highly talented, highly engaged employees will help SSOE innovate, build, and design for the future.