The Barrelmen Rewards
Reward & Recognition, Peer-to-Peer Recognition, Employee Engagement, Company Vales & Behaviours
The Challenge
Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard is the leading producer of the world’s most well-known and successful Irish whiskeys. Led by Jameson, the world’s fastest-growing Irish whiskey, its brands are exported to 130+ markets.
With 600+ employees across numerous functions and 6 locations in Ireland, Irish Distillers is both a diverse and geographically dispersed organisation.
One of the greatest strengths of the company is their passionate and committed employees and their unique culture driven by the company’s three core values – Real, Remarkable and Responsible. Given the rapid expansion in the business, and the diverse nature of staff (across manufacturing, office, and tourism/hospitality), Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard wanted to ensure that employees across the entire organisation would continue to bring the company values to life every day.
Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard approached Allgo to design a platform to support a new peer to peer Reward & Recognition programme that would –
- Develop a culture of recognition within the business
- Embed the values and associated behaviours throughout Irish Distillers and make it easy for employees to recognise a colleague for being Real, Remarkable or Responsible
- Empower every employee in the business to recognise and reward their colleagues
- Put People Managers in the driving seat for creating Recognition Moments
The Programme
This peer to peer recognition programme was called The Barrelmen Rewards.
Using the Allgo Reward Hub platform, Barrelmen Rewards enables employees throughout the organisation to nominate colleagues for a reward for displaying one of the behaviours associated with the company Values. Nominated employees are rewarded in Spirit Points – the currency of the programme, which they can redeem against a reward of their choice.
Every employee is given an annual budget of Spirit Nomination Points to nominate colleagues when they see them living the company values.
Being mindful of the fact that not everyone sits at a desk all day, employees have 3 ways they can nominate-
- Online using The Barrelmen Rewards dedicated portal
- Completing a nomination form and posting this back to Allgo
- Or, for those who prefer to speak to a real, live person by calling the Barrelmen Hotline
Whichever way someone chooses to nominate, the information required is the same: Who you want to nominate, which Value and Behaviour you have seen and a description of the situation or circumstances.
The information and activity hub for the platform is barrelmenrewards.com. Here employees can nominate colleagues, find help and support, check their points balance and of course, redeem their Spirit Points for a reward of their choice.
The platform is fully mobile compatible, making it as easy to nominate on the move as it is from your desk. This is to encourage timely recognition which is considerably more impactful.
All nominations are validated independently. Once approved, the nominator, the nominee and the nominee’s line manager all receive an email advising that the nomination has been approved. Allgo then sends a Barrelmen Reward Card to the manager of the nominee. The manager will then present the card to the nominee, creating an invaluable “recognition moment” for their team.
Employees can choose to redeem their Spirit Points against an extensive online catalogue of retail gift cards and vouchers, technology and leisure equipment, hotel, travel & restaurant packages, lifestyle and experiential rewards.
The programme was launched company-wide in April 2016, with a high profile internal communication programme that included – launch events at each location, people manager presentations, branded Barrelmen goodie packs for all employees, printed and electronic Barrelmen branding in canteens, intranet and email comms, and a bonus point promotion for all nominations made in the first month.
Allgo manages the programme using its Reward Hub platform, and provides a branded eZine for all employees, and quarterly management reports for IDPR leadership.
The Result
During the first 12 months of the programme:
- 82% of employees made at least one nomination of a co-worker
- 91% of employees received at least one Barrelmen Reward
- 96% of people managers participated in a Recognition Moment for a member of their team.
According to Irish Distillers HR Director, “The importance of this programme cannot be underestimated. It is a driving force for company culture in IDPR, influencing productivity through an improved organisational climate”.
The Barrelmen Rewards won the award for Most Effective Employee Recognition programme at the prestigious European Incentive & Motivation Awards in 2016. And in the Irish Distillers 2017 employee survey, carried out by Willis Towers Watson, the score for recognition was the single most improved metric of all 90 questions included in the survey.
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