Anglian Water

Their challenge

Anglian Water is the largest water and water recycling company in England and Wales by geographic area, supplying water and water recycling services to almost seven million people in the East of England and Hartlepool, employing over 5,000 employees. Although the company has invested in a platform to recognise employees through its ‘GEMS’ scheme (Go the extra mile), changes to the scheme and inconsistent application of recognition practice had eroded employee participation levels over time. The HRD recognised that whilst a platform is useful to promote recognition, it needs to be underpinned by a recognition culture that is driven from the top. Keen to reinvigorate recognition as a key enabler of staff motivation and engagement, Innecto were brought on board to support internal team members, bringing external expertise and insights to revive recognition activity.

Our solution

Innecto began by conducting a review to understand in detail the state of current recognition activity. This assessed initiatives in place, analysis of employee perspectives and review of how recognition was used in practice across the organisation. We sought to understand what was stopping recognition from happening and what was required to galvanise energy behind it. As part of the initial review we ran a session with the Executive Team, aiming to demonstrate the power recognition can have by reflecting on personal stories and exploring what as a leadership team they needed to do differently to change the story and embed a culture where employees felt valued. Collating insights and bringing our own fresh external perspective, we developed a recognition roadmap, focusing on short term quick wins that were low or no cost to refresh the existing recognition activity as well as longer term plans. This was underpinned by a communication strategy – key to building a recognition culture.

The outcome

Within only a few months of the initial review, there has been a huge step change in recognition activity across the organisation, with a doubling of participation through the platform (from 757 nominations in January to over 1567 in October). Many of these have been non financial, acknowledging the power of a simple thank you. Recommendations to share management information with HRBP’s have been implemented, and myth busting sessions reminding staff what they are able to do were held as well as making recognition a regular feature at department meetings in order to celebrate success stories and promote activity within teams. Case studies are being written showcasing those who have gone above and beyond to celebrate them across the organisation, and push notifications have been employed through the platform to prompt staff to consider recognising others at key moments. Another key recommendation was to review the employee lifecycle to acknowledge key points on an employee journey where additional recognition should be leveraged – for example at joining, on promotion or celebration of anniversaries. This is now in train for implementation, supported by a dedicated recognition manager to ensure recognition activity is front and centre of the employee proposition.