by

 

Ike Levick 

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Ike Levick is Associate Director, Communication Specialist, ABN AMRO Australia and New Zealand.

 

 

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 Nelson & Spitzer

 

 

In Australia and New Zealand, the investment banking industry is extremely competitive and growing rapidly to meet steady economic growth. Headhunters, competitors and clients regularly approach employees with interesting employment opportunities. In response, ABN AMRO Australia and New Zealand have introduced a range of initiatives in recent years to ensure our bank is a great place to work.

 

 

Initiatives include a program that matches employee donations to an employee-selected list of charities - dollar for dollar and with tax benefits. Leveraging interesting and unusual sponsorships to the benefit of employees is another. Offering employees a substantial, capped annual refund for monies spent on a variety of pursuits outside work is also differentiating. Most recently with the growing interest in climate change, we have introduced a campaign to help employees calculate and minimise their carbon footprint through buying carbon credits at special wholesale rates.

 

 

This chapter focuses on yet another initiative aimed at making ABN AMRO Australia and New Zealand great places to work: the Triple A Awards program. Designed and launched in-house in 2003, this tailor-made program encourages peers and local management to openly recognise those individuals and teams who make lasting contributions to the company's success. In doing so, we don’t only identify and promote a sense of goodwill and pride; we are also able to share success stories around the organisation in Australia and the rest of ABN AMRO globally and spread great ideas around so others can learn from them. In addition, the program is designed to embrace front, middle and back office employees in an effort to generate a sense of unity across the various business areas.

 

 

We believe it is this type of initiative that can give employers an edge in their employees’ mind, especially when they are weighing up the pros and cons of changing jobs. It's what can make your company the more meaningful one to work for.

 

 

 

II         Background

 

 

 

 

So, why bother with an internal reward and recognition program?

 

 

 

 

The idea of having an internal, company-wide awards program started in exactly the right place – with the local management team. By late 2002, it was agreed that a formal mechanism to recognise people who made exceptional contributions towards ABN AMRO’s success in Australia and New Zealand was required. In addition, the management team wanted to actively encourage and celebrate the behaviours, actions and thoughts required to achieve our business goal at that time – to be a Top 3 bank in the markets in which we operate. The local marketing communications team was tasked with exploring the idea further and making it happen.

 

 

 

 

 

After careful consideration by the marketing communications team, a program was created to not only meet the management team’s objectives outlined above, but also:

 

 

 

 

 

·         Encourage employees to celebrate outstanding contributions to teamwork, transactions, cross-Business Unit working, efficiency gains and innovation - all recognised as the desired behaviours to be a Top 3 bank

 

 

·         Increase employee understanding of ABN AMRO’s local operations, what we stand for, and how we are different

 

 

·         Increase awareness of the four global corporate values – teamwork, respect, integrity and professionalism

 

 

·         Communicate the importance of our brand and what the company aspires to be

 

 

·         Make people feel a sense of pride in working for ABN AMRO.

 

 

 

 

 

Ultimately, we also hoped that the program would strengthen our general reputation through positive word of mouth and more specifically, our status as a preferred Employer of Choice within the Australian Financial Services industry.

 

 

 

 

III        Making it happen: Developing a program from scratch

 

 

 

 

In addition to outlining our local program, this chapter includes specific tips and thought provokers to anyone thinking about creating, launching and maintaining an employee reward and recognition program. As with all efficient communication, it is all about the planning and playing devil’s advocate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

IV        The Communications Strategy: Who, what, why, when, with (how much)?

 

 

 

 

As part of a large global company, it was necessary to complete a Communications Strategy that clearly showed our objectives and how we would launch and run the new program. This proved to be an exciting challenge to overcome as it encouraged us to really think through how we were going to implement it. Essentially, the Strategy outlined how we would develop strong, inter-linked internal communication activities along with expected costs. We also demonstrated how we would maximise employee acceptance amongst all ABN AMRO employees located in Australia and New Zealand.

 

 

 

 

 

The Communications Strategy was also a great tool to demonstrate to local management how we had interpreted their awards idea and converted this into a tangible, effective communication campaign.

 

 

 

 

 

TIPS: 

 

 

(1)     Involve, involve, involve: In your Communications Strategy, demonstrate how employees will be involved from an early stage to encourage buy-in and interest

 

 

(2)     Conduct short informal interviews with different people (natural enthusiasts and cynics) to find out what would make the program a success and incorporate this into your Strategy

 

 

(3)     Carefully compare the pros and cons of investing time, money and effort in running an internal reward and recognition program (for example, what would the consequences be if a program was not introduced?).

 

 

 

 

V          Measurement: Keeping an eye on the ball

 

 

It is important to make sure that the program is meeting its objectives and staying on track.

 

 

 

 

In addition to meeting the objectives stated earlier, we felt that success could be measured by achieving the following results:

 

 

 

 

 

·         CEO and Management Committee endorsement and ownership

 

 

·         Between five and 10 completed Nomination Forms for each award

 

 

·         Participation from a range of employees, located in every city in which we are located

 

 

·         A quality library of winning examples that can be used for internal marketing purposes (and external, if appropriate)

 

 

·         Program perceived as a tremendous start to a new annual tradition throughout Australia and New Zealand

 

 

·         Contribution towards the company’s desired positioning as a great company to work for

 

·         Increased sense of passion in the workplace

 

 

 

 

VI        Award categories: What behaviour are you recognising?

 

 

 

 

Nothing is set in stone. When creating award categories, be prepared to be a little bit flexible, to accommodate changes in trends, market conditions and management opinion. In ABN AMRO’s case, the four award categories that were launched in 2003 have since been tweaked and grown to five award categories, ensuring that the program remains relevant at all times and truly reflects our desired business behaviours. For example, an early category, which rewarded effective cost control, has since evolved to include recognition of Sustainable Business practices to more accurately reflect where we are headed as a business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIPS: 

 

 

(4)     Think about your corporate values and how these can be incorporated into the program categories – internal communication should use every opportunity to bring your brand to life!

 

 

(5)     Remember to include categories for each target audience (front, middle and back office) as well as teams and/or individuals, depending on the makeup of your business. It is important to be inclusive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VII      Nomination process:  Obtaining enough information for judging purposes with minimum effort

 

 

 

 

We felt it was important to create a nomination process that enabled both individuals and team representatives to complete nominations. Keep this in mind when creating the check-boxes on your Nomination Form to help people realise that they are not expected to nominate themselves (even though this is possible) but rather nominate their colleagues.

 

 

 

 

 

In the first two years, we used hard copy forms that could be downloaded from the intranet or requested from the team. This evolved to include an on-line nomination form, accessible through the local intranet, to reflect changes in employee preferences as well as a more paper conscious working environment. In 2007, the majority of employees used the on-line version.

 

 

 

 

 

To indicate that you appreciate the effort people have gone to in completing a nomination, acknowledge receipt of nominations with a quick courtesy email. In our case, we used a dedicated Triple A Award Lotus Notes email address to further raise awareness of the program’s existence and branding.

 

 

 

TIPS:

 

 

(6)     Try to make sure it does not take more than 30 minutes to complete a form, or else people will not take the time to participate

 

 

(7)     Set word limits (for example, 250 words per criteria), so nominators clearly articulate why they think their nomination should win and judges will not end up needing to read too much

 

 

(8)     When the time comes for nominations, make a list of which projects, deals and people you think should be nominated. Search the local intranet for good news stories, research press releases, review emails, and ask Business Managers and the CEO/senior managers for suggestions. Armed with this information, actively encourage people to make nominations. If necessary, offer your assistance in putting together first drafts for their review, making the nomination process as easy and painless as possible. The more nominations you help generate, the more nominations you will end up receiving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VIII     Rules and conditions: Keeping it fair

 

 

 

 

Making sure you end up comparing “apples with apples” requires clear Rules and Conditions. It is also about creating the right feeling around the company – one of inclusion rather than exclusion. For example, one of the Triple A Award program award categories is the Deal of the Year Award. To make sure everyone was on a level playing field, we asked nominators to only include those projects and mandates which were successfully closed within a time period by a certain date. This practice was familiar to our bankers, as external industry awards use similar policies.

 

 

 

 

 

Something else to think about when developing Rules and Conditions is employee eligibility. For example, we articulated that all full- and part-time employees were able to participate. However, for one of the awards - the individual CEO’s Living the Values Award - it was decided that Senior Executives would not be eligible in case this sent the wrong message to employees.

 

 

 

 

 

Rules can be easily developed in response to the questions you think employees are most likely to ask:

 

 

 

 

 

·         What are the timescales – for example, when did the work in question need to be completed by? What are the award deadlines? When will judging take place and winners be announced?

 

 

·         What are the prizes?

 

 

·         Who is eligible and who is entitled to make nominations? Can people make more than one nomination in general or per category?

 

 

·         What format are nominations to be made in? What can I submit?  Is additional supporting documentation/material acceptable? If so, how much and what type (eg press release, colleague or client feedback)? Are people disadvantaged if they do not include additional material?

 

 

·         Can I submit the same nomination more than once (eg for different award categories)?

 

 

·         When will the winners be announced?

 

 

·         Can there be more than one winner per award category?

 

 

 

The Rules and Conditions should also outline whether you intend to share the content received via the nominations in any way. For example, do you intend to use content for internal and/or external marketing purposes of success stories? If so, the Nomination Form and related communication materials should clearly alert nominators that by submitting an application, they are thereby giving the marketing communications team permission to use its content to spread great ideas and good news, such as through newsletter articles, websites, roadshows etc.

 

 

 

 

 

TIPS:

 

 

(9)     Keep your Rules and Conditions to one page – employees won’t read more!

 

 

(10) Consider how your Rules and Conditions will be communicated. To encourage virtual communication, think about using the intranet to host these and other key documents and information

 

 

(11) Make sure your Rules and Conditions filter through all communications, especially the Nomination Form and judging guidelines

 

 

(12) Use the Rules and Conditions to develop an FAQ document and remember to update both when reviewing key communication tools each year, as dates and details etc. will change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

IX        Judging: Keeping it simple but effective

 

 

Who will be the judge?

 

 

 

 

 

At ABN AMRO we form an annual Judging Panel made up of the entire senior management team, an HR and a Communications team representative. Judges are allocated to judge those awards they will be least likely to be unintentionally prejudiced in (for example, the Head of Equities helped to judge the Sustainable Development Award in 2007).

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping the Judging Panel informed with the right amount of information at the right time is very important in maximising their involvement. Briefing packs should be emailed out to every judge at least 48 hours prior to the judging meeting, which typically takes up to one hour. Materials included the judging criteria, examples of what the judges should be looking for, copies of the nominations and a judging score card using the Likert Scale which allows judges to measure the extent to which each of the different award criteria were met (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likert_scale). As the Communications team representative, it is essential that you have an opinion on all the nominations and their merit in case the judges have not had the time to read all of the nominations and you are required to play a hands-on role.

 

 

 

 

 

TIPS:

 

(13) Before judging, decide whether you will allow for a Highly Commended category in addition to the Winners category. Consider this question: does having a Highly Commended winner devalue the award, or does it allow you to openly recognise more people? Also, if including trophies and prizes, will a second category exceed your budget?

 

 

(14) When judging, consider what the employee reactions may be to the winner/s. Try to avoid being too one city/country-centric, so people do not feel left out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

X          Launch:  Capturing employees’ hearts and minds

 

 

 

 

To make sure all related communication is immediately recognisable, create a brand for the program that reflects its name and spirit. Once we had decided on The Triple A Awards, we commissioned an external designer to come up with a unique logo, using the colour yellow to signify innovation and positive energy. This logo has remained unchanged since the launch almost five years ago, giving a sense of continuity and longevity.

 

 

 

 

 

To make a widespread impact at launch, we found it helpful to work with natural communication champions throughout the business – such as the Business Managers for the Business Units, enthusiasts and people we knew could lead by example. It was these same people we used to test different communication tools such as the Nomination Forms and FAQs as we originally designed and later tweaked the program.

 

 

 

 

 

In our first launch year, we asked random, but enthusiastic, employees to become involved in the development of the brochure. By creating our own photography style guide and distributing disposable cameras to key business contacts, we asked colleagues to contribute photos of peers “at work” and “at play” for inclusion in the Polaroid-style visuals in the brochure (see diagram). This early involvement created a wonderful sense of unity across the business and also meant people had some fun. We made sure in advance that the quality of the disposable camera pictures would create good quality pictures for the final brochure. Copies of some of the pictures were sent around the business as keepsakes and thank you’s. We also used the photos for the Triple A Awards intranet site to further leverage their use. If you feature employees then ask for their permission first (this does not typically cause a problem) to use their picture. Also think about people who may be in the process of changing roles. For example, we experienced that one of the people on the brochure’s front cover was soon relocated to the ABN AMRO London office. Fortunately people felt the brochure was a nice reminder of her, rather than something outdated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIPS:

 

 

(15) Remember, it is not just the initial launch you need to think about. Every year you will need to excite and enthuse employees. The way in which you communicate the awards’ key dates and invite nominations will play a key role in generating interest. For example, in our second year every employee received a postcard desk drop with key information on it

 

 

(16) Don’t be shy. Employees are only too happy to share their opinions and thoughts if you ask them during quiet times in the day. Often they will come up with some excellent ideas for your consideration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XI        Naming competition: Involving employees early on

 

 

 

 

 

fig. Levick 1 - Triple A logo

 

 

 

As outlined earlier, it is important to involve employees early. By using a brightly coloured desk drop (to stand out from all the other paper on employees’ desks!), we briefly communicated the program’s objectives and invited employees to christen the new program. This communication process created early employee awareness and also generated a sense of excitement and fun. Whilst it’s not essential to have a naming competition, we found it helped increase acceptance of the new initiative.

 

 

 

 

 

We included some naming criteria with the desk drop to guide people’s ideas in a common direction:

 

 

 

 

 

·         Make it easy to remember

 

 

·         Be aspirational

 

 

·         Have longevity

 

 

·         Reflect our culture and values (including our Australian/New Zealand roots)

 

 

·         Be meaningful to ABN AMRO employees.

 

 

 

 

 

We had an excellent response rate (one in every seven people throughout Australia and New Zealand), with eight people winning a bottle of French champagne, along with the reward of seeing their suggestions up in lights in the coming months. The Triple A Awards name worked for several reasons: it is a well-recognised high industry ranking and it stood for ABN AMRO Australasia. In addition, the three AAAs can be thought of as some of the actions required to win an award – Asking the right questions, Applying yourself and Achieving success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIPS:

 

 

(17) Consider which media to use in today’s work environment: would an on-line mechanism prove more effective than a hard copy desk drop? 

 

 

(18) Carefully think about the naming criteria, so you provide clear guidance about the objectives and purpose of the program and manage employee expectations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

XII      CEO endorsement: Flagging that this matters to senior management

 

 

 

 

We felt it was important to indicate to employees that this program was of personal interest to our CEO and his team. By showing this clear endorsement, employees took notice and realised that this program would be and still is an opportunity to be recognised by members of the senior team.

 

 

 

 

 

Ideas for showing CEO endorsement include (see table at chapter end):

 

 

 

 

 

·         Face-to-face launch at large employee gatherings - in ABN AMRO’s case this was the half-yearly Staff Update, a forum designed for top down face-to-face communication. In addition, every year we remind the CEO and his team to encourage (and suggest) nominations during the nomination period

 

 

·         Paper communication – again, in our case we followed the face-to-face launch with a brochure desk drop, containing a personal foreword by the CEO. In subsequent years, we have opted to use screen savers and posters in the lift wells

 

 

·         On-line – each year, we include a CEO or COO introduction on the Triple A Awards intranet site.

 

 

 

 

 

TIPS:

 

 

(19) Remember that there are both formal and informal opportunities for the CEO to encourage uptake of the program

 

 

(20) Also see Tip 8, which suggests asking the CEO for nomination ideas and using this when approaching people to make nominations (For example, the CEO thinks that XYZ is an exceptional project to include in the ABC award category …).

 

 

 

XIII     Maintaining momentum: sharing the good news

 

 

 

 

Recognition can begin as soon as all nominations have been received. It is important to start spreading the good news of who has been nominated early. Although this is a very delicate communication challenge - either by emailing all employees or posting the news on the intranet – inevitably you also expose who has not been nominated. There is no real way to overcome this, other than making sure that for those nominations that have been completed, the team nominations have been double and triple checked with the nominators (see the lessons learned section).

 

 

 

 

 

Once judging decisions have been made, communicating the winners (and highly commended winners, if applicable) is the next communication milestone. In our case, the management team are the first to find out who the winners are in a confidential email. For the wider internal audience, we reveal who the award winners are at the company-wide Staff Updates, which are held soon after judging is completed. The results are communicated after the business performance results in an Oscar-style way: A quick reminder of the award category and what it is designed to recognise, who judged it, who was nominated and who won, and why. To raise the profiles of individual senior managers, we ask one judge of each award category to present the results (this means that they will require speaker notes and slides). This also gives the presentation process some momentum and variety.

 

 

 

 

 

Once your immediate target audience is informed of the nominees and winners, you can spread the good news further a field. For example, develop stories for the global intranet, internal newsletters, emails to other communication colleagues and more. Soon you will be asked to advise on award programs in other countries or be paid the ultimate compliment of your award program being copied elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

TIPS:

 

 

(21) Remember to start the recognition process early, to create a sense of ‘feel good’

 

 

(22) Depending on the number of nominees and winners, consider writing letters to everyone who was nominated and why, as well as everyone who ends up winning. You can cc direct line managers and Heads of Business Units to further spread recognition of employee performance. Whilst this sounds like a simple communication exercise, it can be tricky as many people are nominated for more than one award and you can end up writing over 300 letters! It is a very worthwhile exercise but can take several days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

XIV      Lessons learned

 

 

 

 

Team make up and size

 

 

 

 

We have learned several lessons over the last five years. Of these, probably the most difficult challenge was and continues to be the size of teams in team nominations such as for our Deal of the Year category. We found that front office employees do not tend to include back and middle employees when making team nominations. In reality, many people play an instrumental role in making projects and deals happen. Where do you stop when making a team nomination: just list the key people, list everyone involved (which could mean up to 50 people in some cases) or set a limit of 15 people? Either way, some people’s feelings may end up getting hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

In ABN AMRO’s case we invited nominators to reconsider their team nominations to ensure that everyone was included. We also sent emails to the support heads to give them the chance to suggest the names of people who may not have been originally included. Although this has meant that we have had some large teams, it has meant that everyone is recognised. After all, this was one of the objectives of the program. We will continue to review this important aspect of the program.

 

 

 

 

 

The prizes

 

 

 

 

Hand in hand with team size comes the value of individual prizes. Beyond the honour of being recognised, what is considered to be a worthy prize? Do you want to leverage external sponsorships, give gift vouchers, restaurant vouchers or use corporate frequent flying points? This will depend on the culture of your organisation and the budget of the program.

 

 

 

 

 

Also, does each award give the same prize? For example, ABN AMRO’s Living the Values Award winners receive a more valuable individual prize than the other categories, such as a considerable amount of frequent flyer points, in addition to the trophy and certificate. We review the prizes, trophies and certificates each year to ensure we continue to hit the mark and also respect the environment.

 

 

 

 

After word

 

 

 

The Triple A Awards program was designed to be flexible and accommodating. In its fifth and most recent year, it was decided to increase the frequency of employee recognition from every year to every month. To achieve this without causing confusion, it was decided to introduce a new, stand-alone award known as The Way We Work Award. This award is designed to recognise and reward one individual – also nominated by colleagues – to win an instant cash prize every month for best living the corporate values. The Communications team manages the process and the Management Team decides on the winner and sends a results email to all employees each month. At the end of the year, all winners of this monthly award will be short-listed for the Triple A Awards' CEO's Living the Values Award category. The key benefit of introducing this second award initiative is highlighting individual actions every month, helping people understand how they can best live the corporate values. It also generates pride and a sense of accomplishment.

 

 

 

XV       Communication tools summary

 

 

 

 

Firstly, all communication should be clearly branded with the program’s name. Consistency is key. Secondly, all communication tools should also comply with any internal brand guidelines, so that the company brand is heightened rather than diffused. Lastly, employees do not necessarily expect flashy or expensive communication. In fact, in some cases this can disengage and anger employees as it is perceived as a waste of money. Be careful when creating communication tools to keep these types of factors in mind. Below is a table that shows some of the tools used by ABN AMRO Australia and New Zealand over the last five years.

 

 

 

 

 

TIPS:

 

(23) When considering what communication tool to use, weigh the amount of time required to completed these communication activities versus the benefit they will have:  what will have maximum impact with minimal effort (and budget)?

 

 

(24) If printing, remember that there are print deadlines you will need to meet and that the content may not last much beyond 6 – 12 months due to inevitable changes. However, printed communication is stylish and can be very effective if used sparingly.

 

 

 

 

 

Purpose	Electronic	Paper	Face-to-face
Raise awareness	·          Screen saver/wall paper with key dates   ·          ‘Crawling’ message on the intranet homepage with reminders   ·          Customised email signature for everyone in the Communications team during nomination period	·          Competition desk drop (in-house)   ·          Postcard desk drop (designer)   ·          Posters in lift wells/ kitchens (in-house)	·          Staff Update to ‘inform the troops’
Create understanding	·          Dedicated intranet with Rules and Conditions, Nomination Form (PDF version), FAQ, overview of the awards process and key milestones, copy of the brochure (PDF version) etc   ·          Branded Lotus Notes email address to receive nominations, take questions, send nomination receipts and make key announcements/ reminders	·          Brochure, acting as a ‘one stop shop’ containing all the information needed to feel inspired to nominate with pointers to more sources. The content was written to ensure a long shelf life (designer)	·          Team meetings – ask Business Managers to mention the awards and provide updates
Encourage acceptance	·          Nomination Form   ·          Share winning stories on the dedicated intranet site	·          Nomination Forms could be downloaded form the intranet and completed in hard copy too (in-house)
Generate excitement	·          Company-wide email informing everyone of who has been nominated for an award (once all team sizes/names have been double checked)   ·          Update intranet with all names	·          Letter sent to each individual informing them that they have been nominated (or email); a copy of this letter could be sent to the line manager and BU Head (in-house)   ·          Individual certificates given to all Winners and Highly Commended	·          Judging outcome: winners not announced until the Half Year Staff Update to encourage attendance and facilitate peer recognition   ·          All winners’ names appear on a Triple A Award board, strategically located in each office

 

 

 

 

 

 

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