Banking and finance company sync benefits, and recognition to transform culture and technology

What they needed

AXA wanted to transform the culture of its organisation by putting employees at the heart of the company. Key to this was using the best technology available to focus on employees as "customers," and provide a consumer-grade experience, adding huge value to their journey within the company. The organisation needed an employee engagement platform which delivered its HR strategy to take employees 'mobile', both within and outside of the workplace.

With many of AXA’s benefits, recognition products, company news, and HR applications spread across multiple locations, the team felt that this didn’t appeal to the current and potential employees who are natural users of technology. A fresh platform with new branding and a unique identity that would be a one-stop-shop for employees was decided upon, and named Mobile AXA – or MAX, for short.

How we helped

MAX was introduced to employees in October 2015 with a big emphasis put on the re-launch of AXA’s recognition programme. Through Reward Gateway’s in-house design resource, MAX provided the opportunity to refresh and reinvigorate the scheme, providing a simple and intuitive way in which employees could recognise the achievements of their colleagues. And through the responsive nature of Reward Gateway’s SmartHub® software, employees were able to go mobile with their recognition for the very first time.

AXA’s platform gave their employees the ability to send and receive a written thank you too, through a range of eCards. Managers could now enhance their recognition with InstantAwards™ and add a monetary award, making it extra special to receive. Feedback from employees was a key reason for the move to this new recognition strategy as they wished for a wide range of retailers to redeem their monetary award against. To keep their recognition strategy fresh and maintain engagement, seasonal or special occasion eCards are added to the platform for a limited period. Recent themes have included the "Love what you do" campaign for Valentine's Day and "You're Egg'cellent" eCard in recognition of Easter.

What they achieved

Overall engagement with MAX is fantastic, with 95% of AXA’s current workforce registered and signed up to the platform. The addition of recognition has proven to be very popular, too, with over 16,000 visits to the dedicated recognition pages. Managers lead by example to help maintain the new recognition culture at AXA as they have sent over 2,500 monetary awards – amounting to over £45k – which have been redeemed on the huge selection of retailers.

Peer-to-peer recognition has had an incredible impact on AXA’s culture as well. Over the last six months, a staggering 7,500 "Thank You" messages have been sent between colleagues. By evolving seasonal, limited edition eCards through email promotion, AXA also continues to keep their recognition culture fresh and relevant. This is reflected in a spike in the sending of eCards in February and March, when the Valentines and Easter promotions were held.

AXA was a Winner at the Engagement Excellence Awards 2016: Best recognition strategy