Web-Based Employee Recognition Program

ScotiaApplause was designed by the Carlson Marketing Group to be a platform that would support a customer-centric employee recognition program for 20,000 branch employees of Scotiabank, Canada’s third largest bank. The purpose of the Applause program was to promote, recognize, and reward certain customer-centric behaviors defined by the bank. To focus and articulate the brand vision, a statement of the bank’s core valves was developed. The core purpose was considered critical in sustaining the bank’s position as a leading international Canadian bank.

The core purpose statement was

To be the best at helping customers become financially better off by finding relevant solutions to their unique needs.

Carlson and Scotia management designed ScotiaApplause to encourage employee behaviors that demonstrated the desired core values. The Applause Principles for employees were identified as

• Respectful

• Straightforward

• Insightful

• Spirited

Background of the Program

Historically, employee incentive programs at Scotiabank had been used sporadically and had had a strong emphasis on driving volumes. Many of these programs encountered difficulties ranging from lack of implementation to inequitable competitive groupings. Most of them lacked a strong reinforcement for building customer relationships. The worst characteristics of these programs were the following:

• They were strictly sales incentives.

• The areas where the bank’s budget was biggest, rather than customers’ needs, got most of the attention.

• They offered few benefits for the sales and support staff.

• They did not benefit most employees, and as a result they did not lead to discernible changes in employee behavior.

• They lacked consistency in the communications delivering recognition or rewards.

• They did not address the primary employee behavioral problems.

From a review of past programs, Carlson concluded that a program designed around recognizing and rewarding leading indicators of performance activities and behaviors, as opposed to lagging indicators or results, was required.

Strategy and Design

Many Scotiabank branch employees had been with the bank for 15 to 25 years. Securing their buy-in for a new incentive initiative was not easy. The core idea of the program was that establishing a recognition system that rewarded employees for adhering to the identified core values would lead to an increase in customer service, resulting in customer retention and growth while minimizing attrition.

ScotiaApplause was designed to be completely Web-based, with employees accessing the Web site from work or from home. By means of emails and intranet connectivity, employees could electronically submit both online recognition and personalized certificates. Certificate nominees and recipients were eligible for monthly reward draws for Applause points, which were redeemable for reward merchandise.

ScotiaApplause gave the bank

• An ability to offer district vice presidents and branch managers a motivational program

• A recognition program that was integrated among the various channels—call centers, the branch network, and management

• Flexibility by recognizing both team goals and individual achievement

• Success with online training

• Real-time reporting for management and staff

Results after 6 Months

The initial goal was to get employees to register for the program. The target was to get 75 percent to register by the end of the fiscal year. Six months ahead of schedule, the program had achieved 91 percent registration, with about 70 percent of those who had registered being active in the program. The goal for certificate issuance was 660 per week. In fact, the program actually achieved 2844 per week.

• More than 100,000 recognition certificates were issued.

• More than 7000 rewards were ordered.

• Desired activities and behaviors were rewarded, and the result was an increase in these activities and behaviors.

• There was consistency in communication channels and messages.

The program received significant recognition throughout the bank. It rapidly became the bank standard for employee recognition and rewards. The success of the program contributed to the bank’s being rated the number one bank in Canada in overall quality of customer service by the Customer Service Index (CSI) survey, published by Market Facts, a leading U.S.-based market research firm.