Start-up create reward and recognition culture to align with fast-paced growth

What they needed

As a start-up, STYLE.COM work in a competitive and fast-paced environment that is ever changing – innovation and adaptability are key. Their aim was to create a culture that recognises and rewards their employees in order to motivate them and retain their talent. They saw their fun, young vibe as the opportunity to combine with the tech side of their business, and create a central benefits platform that could also be used as a social space. It was important that this central platform would allow peer to peer recognition, greater team interaction, and embed STYLE.COM’s values into their culture.

Due to the rapid expansion of STYLE.COM, around 100 employees were recruited within one year. This meant it was difficult for people to get to know each other as teams and individuals didn’t have the time to interact. There’s also a rich mix of individual cultures within the business that needed to be taken into account, and a previous lack of emphasis on recognition meant positive behaviours were not encouraged when they were displayed.

How we helped

STYLE.COM started by focussing on eCards and chose a variety of messages which could be sent on any occasion but still be suitable for all. In addition to these, four more were created in line with the company values of passion, innovation, excellence and respect. Each image chosen for the eCards was representative of all cultures and genders, and a leader board was added to the home page of their platform. This encouraged employees to send eCards and helped to build a culture of recognition much more rapidly.

Reward Gateway’s InstantAwards™ product was then used to give each Head of Department a pot of money to distribute each quarter to employees who demonstrate a high standard of work. These are called the STYLE Star awards internally and consisted of Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. A corresponding prize money value was given to each one which can be redeemed with any retailer on the employee discounts offering. Blogs were also used by STYLE.COM to create a place which houses information and pictures of all their team building and social initiatives for both new starters and long-standing employees to gain more of a social insight.

What they achieved

Within only one month, STYLE.COM saw 100% engagement with their mySTYLE platform. On top of that, a company-wide engagement survey showed that reward and recognition was rated highly by their people at 4.5 out of 5. The new platform helped with attraction and retention, too, as the launch gained interest both within and outside the business, leading to a feature in two benefit publications.

STYLE.COM were able to share this with their rapidly growing network of followers on LinkedIn, resulting in more awareness of their brand identity and attracted more talent. Positive feedback was given from candidates at interview stage, referencing these benefits as a reason that they were attracted to apply.