Bayer is committed to a culture where innovation and great work thrive. With an employer brand that focuses on making a difference for its people and the world—this results driven environment seeks excellence at all levels.

But in an increasingly competitive market, how does Bayer inspire employees to create and make them feel valued for both individual and team achievements?

The challenge: Design a flexible, branded recognition solution to drive innovation and create a culture of positive feedback. Align the recognition to support Bayer’s guiding values of Leadership, Integrity, Flexibility, and Efficiency (LIFE). Ensure the recognition experience is meaningful, interactive, and celebratory. Provide administrators and leaders with centralized reporting and budgetary capabilities.

In March 2014, Bayer Canada’s “You Make Life Better” program was launched—consistently aligning recognition to its LIFE values. In one place, employees access several branded programs: (1) Applause (on-the-spot awards), (2) Ovation Awards (highest achievement awards), (3) Life Milestones (career achievement), (4) Ambassador (retirement), and (5) eCards/eButtons (shout outs of thanks).

The key to Bayer’s success: investing time, effort, and resources to ensure the messaging, imagery, and awards reflected the unique needs of the Canadian organization and its employees.

Email teasers, communications, user guides and a presentation to employees and managers took place to launch the new program, which generated a lot of excitement and fun. Now as peers and managers recognize each other with awards and certificates, meaningful celebrations are occurring and recognition is making a visible impact.

From the onset, recognition at Bayer received complete executive buy-in and support. Managers were encouraged to fully utilize their recognition budgets and really view it as an important part of ongoing development efforts. This was a message well received as every manager—in every department—used their full allocations.

Results delivered for Bayer Canada

Recognition has been transformed from a transaction, (in the past only cash was given), to an interactive, engaging experience.

Since March 2014, 1,000 appreciation moments have been experienced.

Key lessons

• Creating a flexible program delivers more meaning—you need to find ways to recognize people with something they will value.

• Gathering feedback helps continually refresh and enhance the program. We ask ourselves, ‘What can be streamlined?’ ‘How do we make it easy for peers and managers to drive utilization?’

• Leveraging best practices from repeat-recognizers helps ensure greater involvement.

• Onboarding different business units via a stepped implementation process provides the opportunity to dedicate resources more fully.

• Using reporting tools ensures managers understand the reward budget.

• Utilizing a bill-on-redemption model better aligns business goals and ensures charges only occur after great recognition experiences are fulfilled.

Read more about this case study published by O.C. Tanner.