Aging services organisation transforms company culture with employee recognition and reward

How we helped

In 2016, Otterbein partnered with Reward Gateway to launch its employee engagement platform, 'The Otterbein Experience.' Before rolling out the platform to partners, Lois wanted to ensure that it would be a true reflection of their culture.

The team held focus groups of 50 partners across different levels, shifts, locations and departments, or what the organisation calls 'ministries,' which led to the creation of five values and 21 behaviours to support them. After identifying these values and behaviours, Lois worked with Reward Gateway to bring them to life digitally on The Otterbein Experience with an identifiable brand identity as well as to train their people. 

For example, one of these values is 'Partnering in Our Success,' and there are four behaviours that support this, including:

• Appreciate and acknowledge the contributions of others.
• Help and support others within and across departments, locations, and services.
• Follow up to ensure requests are addressed in a timely manner.
• Be flexible and adapt to changes.

Linking people initiatives to business metrics

In addition to its ROAR initiative, Otterbein also has 'SOAR goals' – 100 metrics related to four key areas – partner engagement, elder & family satisfaction, quality and financials – that the team tracks quarterly. The Executive Team, which includes CEO Jill Wilson, the CFO and Operations VP, meets with the leader of each location to talk about metrics and an improvement plan. They choose a behaviour to track each year, measure it, then train stakeholders on instilling their values within the health and services ministry. 

“Buy-in has to start at the top,” Lois says. “When we launched our new values and behaviours, we trained everyone in the organisation starting with the Leadership Team. Everyone from housekeeping to managers to the CEO can and should do these behaviors on a daily basis. We start introducing people to The Otterbein Experience from day one – each new hire gets a copy of our values and behaviours at orientation so we can set them up for success in knowing how we work together to reach our goals.”

Now when partners log onto the platform, they’re greeted with a colourful, branded experience that showcases Otterbein’s values and behaviours, a note from Jill Wilson and a place to see top recognitions or, 'Spotlight Recognition,' which all help to bring them closer to one another and to the organisation. Alongside this, employees can send one another recognition and rewards, including greetings-based eCards like 'A Virtual High Five,' and values-based nominations such as 'Delivering a Personalised Experience.'

The team at Otterbein brings the digital recognition to life. For example, Jill Wilson kicks off each meeting with an 'Otterbein Minute,' which is an opportunity to share top recognitions with the entire team to get people talking. 

Jill is a firm believer in the power of public recognition. “As the CEO of Otterbein, it’s my job to ensure our mission and values are lived out in the work we do and received by those we serve,” Jill says. “The best way we can do this is by recognising those who live our values and behaviours with The Otterbein Experience platform. It’s unleashed our passion to care for one another through recognition and is an effective tool in helping guide our culture to produce an experience that is consistent with our mission and values. The platform makes people feel appreciated, knowing that their work has purpose and meaning and it increases the visibility of who sees it, which is especially important as we continue navigating the pandemic,” she adds.

The results

One of the mottos at Otterbein is 'no margin, no mission.' The organisation is metric-driven and this is especially true when it comes to looking at how The Otterbein Experience platform supports its ROAR and SOAR goals. As a member of the executive team, Lois works closely with leadership, but specifically partners with Jill Wilson to ensure they’re moving the needle on employee engagement.

Using Reward Gateway’s employee survey tools, Otterbein gains invaluable feedback from its partners. Lois and the team host bi-annual surveys and work with their dedicated Reward Gateway Client Success Manager to better explain the data to their partners. The team can track how they’re doing, what they can celebrate and what they can work on. The survey looks into:

• Participation
• Employee engagement 
• Key behaviours

All of these segments are then broken down by location and managers for a deeper look into the data to understand how the different ministries work together and recognise one another. 

In Otterbein’s February 2020 partner engagement survey, the team gained key insights about how they were improving their culture and engagement, including:

• 61% of partners rated themselves as 'highly motivated to go above and beyond.'
• 78% of partners rated themselves as either 'highly engaged' or 'moderately engaged.'

The reward and recognition tools have also been a big factor in building a culture of appreciation and retaining their partners. The training sessions, paired with the new recognition initiatives, has resulted in a 70% increase of managers recognising non-managers. And in the last 12 months, 99% of partners have received recognition through the platform. What’s more, there’s been a total of 13,566 recognitions sent in the last 12 months and this number continues to increase.

What’s next for Otterbein?

Otterbein’s employee engagement journey is entering its next phase, as the organisation has recently merged with a new organisation. The team will be bringing them up to speed with training and will be using The Otterbein Experience platform as a way to align them with their values straight from onboarding.

Remaining a top employer with a strong values-based culture is a high priority, as the organisation continues to attract and retain employees during a healthcare worker shortage.

Lois adds, “Reward Gateway has made it possible to use data to enhance our company culture. We can uncover what motivates our people in an industry that’s been hit hard by the pandemic – retention and improving our engagement scores remains our top priority. The values-based reward and recognition capabilities paired with the insightful analytics has helped us build upon our foundation and bring our culture to the next level, so we’re prepared for whatever the next wave of change brings.”