Employee Recognition Program Case Study: Scotia Applause

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1 Employee Recognition Program Case Study: Scotia Applause Client: Objectives: Incentive Professional: Yvette Bryan, Director, Employee Recognition & Motivation Scotiabank Toronto, Ontario Canada Ian Citulsky Carlson Marketing Canada Establish benchmarks and achieve significant improvements in website traffic, focusing primarily on metrics such as site visits and page views. Boost overall program engagement and issuance of peer recognition certificates. Achieve an industry leading 70% employee participation in online training games supporting the Bank s key marketing campaigns. Introduce exciting new rewards options to drive increased redemptions and minimize expiring point liability. The Scotia Applause program was launched in 2001 and has helped foster a universal recognition culture during its 5 years in existence. Employee recognition is a cornerstone of the Applause program that has been widely embraced by Scotiabank s 35,000 employees across Canada. Nonetheless, Scotiabank felt it needed to take the mature program and evolve it to an even better program, re-energized and bolstered to higher levels of engagement, in order to continue to drive top performance and align with business goals. Scotia Applause is a four-tiered program that addresses different lines of sight (daily, monthly, quarterly and annually), to help drive initial employee involvement and long term engagement and resiliency. The program maintains a highly customized and flexible matrix program design (customized recognition programs across 9 key divisions of the Bank) under one Scotia Applause umbrella and reaches all employee levels across all provinces from line staff through senior management. Program eligibility is driven by

2 the employee s position level. Managers and Senior Leadership from across these 9 divisions use Applause as a total tool to motivate and drive the right activities and behaviors in a customer focused environment. This multi-dimensional, web-based recognition program was designed to help strengthen employees focus on the Bank s corporate values, and on delivering exceptional customer service. It includes formal recognition of top performers through Best of the Best, online training, and Peer Recognition certificates which allows employees to recognize each other for living the corporate values: Integrity, Respect, Commitment, Insight and Spirit. Employees have a number of opportunities to earn prizes and Applause loyalty points that can be redeemed through a customized online rewards catalog. Employees are motivated through Applause points to exceed their assigned business objectives by striving to earn points through participation in the range of program activities. These points can then be redeemed for merchandise available through an online reward catalog offering a selection of 400 items including sports equipment, home electronics, family entertainment, travel packages and much more. Applause directly supports Scotiabank s strategic focus on building a customer-centric culture, aligning employee recognition to proactive/leading activities that are effective in creating the desired customer experience. The incentives offered through Scotia Applause are highly relevant and have a tremendously positive impact on employee behavior. Applause points currency is therefore leveraged to help further support strategic business building activities in areas such as Domestic Personal Banking, including the Branch Network and Call Centres, and Shared Services divisions of the Bank. The implementation approach for 2006 was front-end weighted, with a number of initiatives launched in January, followed by the delivery of at least one initiative per month for the balance of the year. This approach created significant excitement at the beginning of the calendar year, a period that historically experiences low engagement levels. An extensive quantitative analysis

3 project was undertaken from February to April to determine the success of the January initiatives in driving sustained engagement and reengaged lapsed program users. Quarterly reviews were also conducted in March, June, and September and December to monitor the progress and determine appropriate implementation strategies for subsequent initiatives. All activities were promoted through a mix of online and offline media for maximum reach and audience impact Online customized newsroom messages supported by a content management system driven by access levels. Interactive flash coupon. Special edition insert with internal newsletter Marketing at a Glance. Envelope with balloon enclosure sent to all branches with A Gift To You message. Redesign of peer certificate and Wall of Fame banner with a new celebratory look and feel. Communication to Program Champions to help drive program promotions and initiatives. Scotia Applause is visually identified by the fly guy logo that has become synonymous with recognition and is effectively used to brand recognition activities in all employee communications channels. This branding was effectively used throughout the year to draw participant attention to the various promotions and enhancements. In 2006, the Scotia Applause program featured a number of distinct recognition initiatives. The Our Gift to You program was a drive-to-web initiative and was promoted by an envelope sent to staff with a balloon enclosure and a message directing them to the website for a special gift from Scotia Applause. Once they entered the site each employee received an interactive Flash application with floating balloons and a call to burst (or click ) one to receive their gift. An automatic point upload of 50 Applause points were then uploaded to their personal accounts. The a-maze-ing Quest games were a newly designed series of online training games supporting key marketing campaign. Participants entered an online labyrinth where they encountered customers

4 seeking help with their unique financial needs. Their scenarios allowed participants to increase their knowledge of Scotiabank s marketing campaigns, products and services. Participants earned Scotia Applause loyalty points in the process of completing the games. The Find Success on the Big Screen game was designed as an investment simulation game, where employees earned Applause points by beating the stock index. Through the Wealth Management Referral Program points were awarded for referrals resulting in closed sales. The Double-double Sweepstakes was a time-based promotion encouraging bank-wide participation in peer recognition. The program featured a monthly sweepstakes draw whereby winners could double the number of Applause points or select two prizes from the rewards catalog. Points redemption could be accomplished in a variety of ways. The new Scotia Outlet offered online access to limited availability, discounted merchandise. Point Conversion was also a new module for 2006 and allowed the conversion Applause points to ScotiaGold VISA loyalty points. Catalog Refresh introduced new and exciting merchandised and gift certificate options for employees prior to the Christmas season. Program participants could opt to use the My Wish List, Special Shopper and Cash Top-up tools are available on the website. The My Wish List allowed participants to create a list of items that they wished to work towards so the items could be found quickly when shopping online. Once enough points were earned, the item could be moved to the shopping cart directly from the list. The Applause Special Shopper service allowed participants with 6,000 or more Applause points to purchase an item not in the catalog. The service sourced the items among the manufacturers represented in the catalog and provided a quotation to the program participant. The Top Up option allowed participants to use cash up to 10% of the total cost of the item to make up a short fall in points required. These options allowed for great flexibility and greater award relevance when redeeming points. The website content is personalized to the employee s access level and specific Applause program to help maximize the relevance of the information. This personalized content is generated when a user logs into the website and is pulled from an underlying database of

5 personal information. For example, Branch frontline employee access would include Best Practices for your access level, relevant Newsroom announcements, and other access level driven functionality while Branch Manager access would include to program components such as budget distribution, management reports, and Best Practices for recognizing employees. Results: 94% of eligible Branch employees and approximately 18,000 staff (80% of all Bank employees) participated. Web site traffic had 1.5 million site visits and 22.4 million page views in ,189 Peer Recognition certificates sent bank-wide (477% more than the first year of the program). 77% employee participation rate was achieved for the new a-maze-ing Quest game (11% over target) The New Scotia Outlet redemption had 108,000 page hits with 1,100 redemptions. New Point Conversion Module 1,600 transactions with 5.5 million Applause points converted 172% over target of 500 transactions in first year. Catalog Refresh resulted in 13% more merchandiser redeemed than same period in the previous with 99% of all Year 1 expiring points were redeemed in fiscal 2006.Gift Certificate Strategy 15% of total redemptions represented in gift certificate category 10% increase from beginning of promotion. The consistent flow of customized initiatives and supporting communications resonated with Scotiabank employees. Now ending its 6th year, Scotia Applause has further evolved into a powerful employee brand that helps drive employee satisfaction, loyalty and a best-in-class culture of recognition, and continues to remain strong propelling Scotia Applause to its most successful year to date.