3 Ways WSPS Transformed SharePoint with Employee Recognition

Written by Elysha Ames | February 1, 2016

When Barb Burns, VP Organizational Excellence & Development at WSPS, planned the rollout of their recognition program within SharePoint, she knew a strong communications effort would be essential. Since WSPS was established out of a merger of three organizations with different cultures, establishing recognition as a program to bring employees together was the key to success.

Branding and launching recognition

Burns and her team, headed up by Stephany Babson, Manager of Strategic Business Communications, prepared for the deployment of TemboSocial Recognition as if they were launching an in-house brand. The idea was to use Recognition as an Activity Stream on the SharePoint home page. Recognition was branded as “Applause” and recognition notices were called “Ovations.”

The team led off with a teaser campaign that let employees know something was coming but didn’t reveal too much about the new service. In the week before the launch, employees were treated with special notices and “Ovation” chocolates.

At the same time the organization’s management was instructed to “seed” the site with five Ovations each. A countdown clock was put in place where the Applause program would eventually go “live”, encouraging employees to check in regularly.

“The response was amazing,” Burns said about the moment when the clock ticked zero. “Employees logged in and started looking for their own names.”

After the initial check-in, workers at WSPS quickly started using the Applause tool to congratulate and recognize the contributions of their fellow employees.

Transforming SharePoint with recognition

Burns and her team expected TemboSocial Recognition to drive up engagement numbers in the short term. They were surprised by the ongoing adoption of SharePoint as well as by the new ways that employees and managers continue to use the system.

“Everyone found Applause extremely intuitive to use,” Burns said.

Daily engagement rates - Within the first month of launch, WSPS employees sent and received over 375 Ovations, and engagement with the program is still strong with over 1,000 interactions per month.
Turning non-users into users - Several groups of employees had not fully taken advantage of the WSPS SharePoint Intranet. After the launch of Applause many of these absent employees not only started logging in first thing every morning, but they are now using other services built into the intranet.
Dynamic user generated content - TemboSocial Recognition is a source of dynamic user-generated news about the organization that doesn’t require an editorial calendar or reminders from the Comms team.

Tying recognition to the business

Within weeks of the launch, employees began making the connection between recognition and core business initiatives. Without prompting from management, employees began linking their project plans and initiatives, sales targets, and project milestones to Applause. As a result, employees not only get immediate news about who is doing outstanding work inside the organization, they also have excellent visibility about how the organization is moving forward.

WSPS had tremendous success with their rollout of TemboSocial Recognition. Almost immediately it brought together dispersed employees with those in the central office for a highly engaged team effort. The reception inside WSPS has been so positive that the team is looking for new ways to use the tools, particularly how departments can use TemboSocial Recognition to focus their Activity Streams on results.

Dsicover how to leverage SharePoint or Office365 to boost employee performance with non-monetary peer recognition.

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