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Are you currently using recognition to boost employee engagement across your organization? You should. Scotiabank, a leading financial services provider, is already ahead of the curve and finding innovative ways to spread employee recognition across 90,000 employees globally. Before diving straight into Scotiabank’s recognition success, let’s get to know the company a bit. Scotiabank was founded in 1832 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. With close to 90,000 employees around the world and over 23 million customers, Scotiabank is a leader in financial services in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and Asia-Pacific. They offer a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets.
In order to maintain and build their strong global reputation, Scotiabank had to make sure they focused on their employees to maximize productivity and business success. Where did Scotiabank start? The answer is with their Applause 2.0 informal recognition program, powered by Achievers.
A round of Applause for Scotiabank
Scotiabank was running on a legacy platform from the early 2000’s before upgrading to its Applause 2.0 recognition program in March 2016. Applause 2.0 leverages advanced HR technology that enables ongoing employee recognition at all levels, linking to the company’s core values. Scotiabank’s employees across the world are able to participate in the program, including regular and contract employees. To simplify the employee experience, Applause 2.0 was integrated with other core systems, including Scotiabank’s internal social collaboration platform. With the ability to earn points through point-based recognitions, employees can work towards redeeming from a wide variety of reward items in the catalogue.
Let’s Pay It Forward with recognition
In order to keep the momentum going with their employee recognition program, Scotiabank decided to build a 2-week campaign to create excitement in the workplace and keep the program fresh. The campaign, named Pay it Forward, encouraged employees to view each received recognition as an opportunity to pay it forward and recognize another peer. To further empower employees during the campaign, individual contributors, who typically only have access to social (non-monetary) recognition, were given access to points to award.
A domino effect shortly followed after the campaign launch and the results were extremely positive. So positive that Scotiabank has run the campaign two years in a row. In 2018, 86,243 total recognitions were sent during the same campaign period as the previous year, resulting in a 46% increase year-over-year for all recognition activity on the platform. Also, 20% of all employees sent more than one recognition during the campaign period, revealing that this campaign wasn’t all about the points for employees – it was about being intentional and conscious, and recognizing others based on performance. Scotiabank’s recognition program and Pay It Forward campaign truly aims to seek out employees that have gone above and beyond their normal duties. What other success did Scotiabank see with their Pay It Forward campaign in 2018? We’ll tell you.
Scotiabank saw the following positive results:
- 47,586 Pay It Forward points-based recognitions were sent
- 1,677 users activated their account during Pay It Forward, bringing Scotiabank up to 86% activation globally
- 37% of employees sent at least one recognition during the campaign, an increase of 13% compared to 2017
It’s clear that Scotiabank’s Pay It Forward campaign was a huge success. But, what about Scotiabank’s KPIs? Did their KPIs see a positive impact as well from the campaign? The answer is absolutely. Employee participation from Pay It Forward ended up positively impacting KPIs in 2017, which was a great win for Scotiabank’s HR team.
2017 KPI results included the following:
- People managers sent 3.0 recognitions on average in the campaign period, up from a 2.0 two months prior.
- Recognition coverage jumped to 65%, resulting in a 10% increase month-over-month
- 70% of employees globally logged into the platform, resulting in a 20% increase month-over-month
Scotiabank saw tangible and outstanding results from their targeted Pay It Forward campaign every year and it showcases the true value recognition has towards driving employee engagement. Let’s give a round of Applause to Scotiabank and their employee engagement success!
To learn more about Scotiabank’s recognition journey, check out this webinar recording on Using Recognition to Drive Engagement – A Best Practice Guide with Scotiabank.
