Case Study Assessment

Case Study Assessment 1 Brief (Due date: Sunday, 29^th of March)

Please read the following case study carefully and answer the questions. Students’ answers which demonstrate a deeper engagement with the subject theory and literature will be awarded higher marks. A reference list and intext referencing throughout your document are required to pass this assessment.

Strategic communications leads to 75% employee engagement in digital services industry

Summary

As a leader in the digital services industry, Atos employs 9,600 employees spread over 238 locations in the UK and Ireland. Peer-to-peer recognition has seen incredible take up with 2,860 eCards being sent last year, enabling Atos to build a strong, positive culture of saying thank you.

The challenge

In October 2013, Atos ran a company-wide Great Place to Work survey which showed that Atos employees wanted management to show more appreciation for good work and extra effort. But it was important to the Atos team that everyone would have the opportunity to receive special recognition.

A key challenge that Atos faced was ensuring that all employees could be recognised despite the diversity of their demographics. With 9,600 employees in the UK & Ireland and based across numerous locations, Atos’ employee recognition program needed to be inclusive and robust.

Atos already offered a number of competitive recognition initiatives in which 5,254 people were eligible for a bonus and all employees were eligible for a celebratory lunch to recognise their loyalty and long service. But the company wanted to introduce programs that were unique whilst still making every employee feel engaged – regardless of their service-line, location, status or role within the organisation.

The approach

The organisation identified three key elements to making a successful recognition program. It needed to align with the company’s vision and values, it had to align with the objectives set by each business area, and it must give every employee an opportunity to shine. To make all of this happen, Atos decided to use a number of unique reward and recognition ideas that catered to both its online and offline employees.

Through its employee benefits platform, Prosper, Atos launched scheduled eCards. These are automatically sent on each employee’s birthday and anniversary to thank staff for their loyalty. Accolades were launched too, designed to publicly recognise achievements and behaviours that reflect Atos’ values. Peer-to-peer recognition is encouraged by allowing colleagues to nominate each other and then winners are published weekly in company bulletins. They are also publicly congratulated by the SVPs on monthly service line calls.

The results

Recognition Month was launched and it became pivotal in Atos’ recognition strategy. Throughout the month, weekly themes and incentives were promoted to employees. In the first week, peer-to-peer eCards were implemented so staff could instantly recognise and thank their colleagues. In week two, a custom made order form for a floral business was hosted on Prosper, encouraging employees to send a bunch of flowers to a colleague up to the value of the equivalent of $60 AUD.

Week three and Atos opened The Accolade Hall of Fame on Prosper to recognise its Gold and Platinum award winners. It was also launched at 15 different locations to include offline employees. During week four, Atos Star was opened and ran for two months. It was promoted as its most prestigious award to publicly recognise one outstanding employee who has consistently displayed teamwork, innovation and community spirit. The winner received the equivalent of more than $8,500 AUD, which was personally presented by the CEO, and eight runners up were all credited about $400 AUD into their Prosper accounts.

Atos’ reward and recognition launch was a success and revealed the following results: Peer-to-peer recognition has seen an incredible take up with 2,860 eCards being sent in the first year alone. This has enabled Atos to build a strong, positive culture of saying thank you. Recognition Month saw an amazing 640 additional people register on the Prosper platform, a 6% increase in engagement. A total of 828 votes were also cast in the Atos Star competition, and in total during Recognition Month employees sent 628 eCards to their peers.

Case Study Questions:

1. Has Atos considered the four key elements of strategic alignment when focusing on meeting their strategic objectives? Why and how?
2. Do you believe that Atos has considered whether its structure and culture are aligned with their strategy?
3. What limitations or issues could Atos face in the future with their competitive reward strategy? What modifications could they make from the current one?

*Please include a reference list at the end of the document and include all relevant in text references to support your answers