Employee recognition for cultural behavios is crucial for boosting retention and enhancing the overall employee experience. With an eNPS of just 6.9, we aim to improve this score by implementing a dedicated employee recognition tool.
The company’s six pillars and observable behaviors serves as a clear framework, guiding employees in their professional growth, skill development, and ultimately, their path to promotion within the organization.
So how can we ensure our employees understand these principles, and not only that, but also practice them and be recognized for them?
Enhancing Our Recognition Program
Two years ago, HR launched a recognition feature within MyPortal, allowing employees to acknowledge peers and supervisors for excellent work. However, the program is incomplete. To realize the full value of this tool and create a complete recognition cycle, we need to implement a point redemption system.
Additionally, we need to address current usability issues to ensure the tool genuinely promotes our Culture. Users are reporting several pain points:
- Difficulty navigating to the recognition section.
- Problems accessing the correct section directly from email notifications.
- Confusion about the tool’s purpose due to the incomplete recognition flow.
- MyPortal’s architecture hindering access to the recognition section.
Observando los datos de interacciones de colaboradores, se observa un notable incremento en dos períodos específicos: entre mayo y junio, y entre noviembre y diciembre. Este aumento indica un cambio significativo en el nivel de participación durante esos meses. Para comprender mejor este fenómeno, se puede investigar qué eventos o modificaciones en la organización coincidieron con estos períodos.
There’s considerable room for growth. Our analysis reveals two key user segments: those who initiate recognition and those who are recognized. As the data illustrates, the tool’s adoption still has substantial potential. Specifically, 1,024 of 6,500 employees are givers of recognition, compared to 1,380 of 6,500 who are recipients.
While the volume of «created» recognitions shows an upward trend, the rate of «approved» recognitions is significantly slower. This divergence indicates a growing number of pending recognitions, pointing to a persistent issue with oversight and proper follow-up.
How has our recognition program evolved since its launch?
Main Objetive: The objective of this study is to gain insight into employee utilization of the recognition tool, assess their comprehension of why recognition is given, and identify areas for improvement in both the recognition issuance and point redemption processes.
Metodology
| Type of research | Quantitative and qualitative |
| Technique | interview, Surveys, and desktop research. |
| Instruments | Stakeholder mappings, lean canvas, surveys, interview guide, User testing, |
| Target audience | Employees with and without subordinates |
| Sample | 6 interviews, 39 surveys |
Solution Design
How can we provide users with clear guidance on the recognition process and its purpose to eliminate confusion, uncertainty, and frustration in «Recognizing Pichincha Culture»?
Hypotheses
We believe that by implementing a point redemption feature, we will improve recognition adoption. We’ll consider this a success if we achieve a 10% increase in approved recognitions.
We also believe that by implementing a simpler, end-to-end recognition flow with clear information, we will improve recognition satisfaction. Success here means improving the Recognition INS (Internal Net Satisfaction) score to 35.
Finally, we believe that by improving communication about the recognition process with supervisors, we will reduce the number of recognitions stuck in the «created» status. We’ll consider this a success if we reduce the abandonment rate.
To validate these ideas, we created a prototype with some adjustments to the current flow.
Role
- UX Researcher
- UI Designer
Artifacts / Methods
- Research planning
- Interviews
- Lo-fi prototyping and testing
- High-fi prototyping
Tools
- Figjam
- Figma
- Google Docs
Length
- 2 months
Tags: Segments, Employee Experience
A section showing the status of sent recognitions was added.
And we’ve improved the recognition and point redemption forms.
Test conclusions
| Conclusions | Recommendations |
| Lack of clarity on points, redemptions, and recognitions: Many users expressed confusion about the purpose and process of earning points, as well as the reason behind the recognitions. | Homepage Copywriting and Layout: Review the homepage layout and copywriting to ensure key information is prominently highlighted and that there is a clear visual hierarchy to guide the user through the content. |
| User Interface and Design: Several users noted usability issues, including unclear buttons, navigation issues, and suggestions for improving the visual appearance. | Layout de Elementos: Evaluar el diseño de los elementos en todas las páginas y realizar ajustes para mejorar la coherencia y la usabilidad. |
| Recognition rejection: A lack of understanding about why recognitions might be rejected was a recurring theme. Users want to know the specific reasons and suggest a list of possible causes. | Improve the efficiency of rejection management: Implement two fields for recognition rejection: one closed with predefined options and one open for additional comments. This will allow for a more specific and detailed collection of rejection reasons, which in turn will facilitate decision-making and action to address those issues. |
Finally, with feedback from collaborators, we arrived at a high-fidelity prototype.
Conclusions
Recognition for practicing the principles of behavioral employee management has great potential, but it still needs to be taken further with a communication campaign for supervisory lines and employees to ensure the tool is adopted. One might think this would be a key feature for employees to improve or strengthen the bank’s pillars, since an issued recognition reaches directly to supervisory lines, making the work visible and allowing it to be analyzed for employee performance.
The reason field has been improved. Sometimes the comments issued by the recognizers are a bit brief compared to what is expected of a recognition award. The interface has better communicated how to enter a recognition so that it is not rejected by certain supervisory lines. However, the work of carefully reading the reason can still be somewhat…