Home-page visibility for peer-to-peer recognition drives employees to praise each other

A growing number of organizations are finding big-time success giving employees the tools to recognize each other. Demonstrating that execution is as important as concept, Health Care Service Corporation’s peer-to-peer recognition tool has won first place in the “Employee Recognition” category of Ragan’s 2017 Intranet Awards.

Whenever an employee recognizes another, it appears on the intranet’s home page with a link to view previous recipients of thanks from their colleagues. Few employees followed the link, however, and not many were inspired to take advantage of the opportunity. 

To improve the program, the communications team moved recognition to a dedicated “Shout Outs” Yammer group. It was easy to create a feed of posts on the newly redesigned home page and add a “Post a Shout Out!” button. 

It worked. More than 1,800 Shout Outs were shared by 1,000 employees across the organization. That number is a testament to the effectiveness of the home-page submission button since only half that number have joined the actual Yammer group. 

For finding the right approach to get employees sharing and setting a tone for additional uses of Yammer, congratulations to Health Care Service Corporation.