Amgen: A Culture of Recognition in Record Time
August 07, 2008
By Leo Jakobson
A $14.8 billion biotechnology firm with a strong research and manufacturing continued capability, 28-year-old Amgen needs an engaged workforce more than many other companies do. After all, a huge part of its business is based on employees inventing something new—drugs to battle cancer, kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis and other serious illnesses—and then manufacturing it flawlessly. Additionally, the company's marketing and distribution employees work in an exceptionally regulated field, and one in which regulations can vary widely from country to country.
Headquartered in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Amgen employs 17,000, scattered throughout North America, Europe, Asia and South Asia, Australia and the Middle East. Yet until it launched the Bravo! global recognition program in April 2007, each part of the company had (or did not have) its own recognition program. There was no consistency in terms of the behaviors incentivized or the awards given.
That was less than ideal in a company in which employees frequently team up with people from different areas for specific projects, says Mary Kennett, Amgen's senior manager of human resources and the Bravo! program leader. "Amgen had a culture of recognition, but did not have the tools to recognize people on a global basis," she says. "We needed a tool to keep the staff engaged [and provide recognition] in a timely manner, so that the recognition occurs close to the accomplishment and reinforces that accomplishment and behavior."
In fact, after an extraordinarily successful first year, 44 percent of the Bravo! awards handed out—via both peer- and management-nomination—are for work in cross-functional teams, says Kennett. "A few years ago, that is something we would have had trouble with," she adds. "Consistency was also a huge factor," in the decision to launch the Bravo! program.
The Bravo! program has five tiers, ranging from an e-mail-based "thank you" message any employee can issue to any other, to an award with substantial value, with winners selected by senior executives. The program was heavily promoted at the launch, and communication continues in methods like the company newsletter. To assist nominators in choosing the most appropriate of the five award tiers (see sidebar, page 18), there are examples of recognition-worthy behavior on the Bravo! Web site, which is currently available in seven languages, with more being brought online.
Before creating the program, Amgen thought hard about the behaviors it wanted Bravo! to reinforce. Basically, Kennett says, it is designed to "create business outcomes that impact our company and improve people's lives. [Winners] really have to be living the Amgen values."
Defining your goals is critical, Globoforce's Mosley says. "Amgen was able to put a program in place and change a culture in a very short period of time," he adds. "I find in virtually all employee recognition programs, the initial program managers are from human resources. The difference between a successful and unsuccessful program is that [executives] outside HR have a crystal-clear image in their heads of how this will work." Benchmarking and regular reporting are vital, he adds.
So far, the results have been excellent, says Kennett. Fully 85 percent of Amgen's employees have either nominated a coworker for a Bravo! Award, sent an award or have received one themselves, resulting in 45,000 awards in the first full year of operation. Amgen reached its goal—to have between 5 and 8 percent of its employees nominated for an award on a weekly basis—faster than any client ever has, Mosley says.
According to research conducted by Globoforce and Intuit in conjunction with the Stanford Graduate School of Business, that 5 to 8 percent of the workforce per week being recognized or nominated for recognition is "the tipping point between a forgettable recognition program and one that becomes strategic and part of the fabric of the company," says Derek Irvine, the vice president of global strategy at Globoforce. "Consistently across the board, successful programs were showing five to eight percent nomination on a weekly basis. That is the point at which it became a day-to-day activity that nine out of ten employees know about. It has become a benchmark for us.
The Five Tiers of Amgen's Bravo! Program
• Tier I (Appreciation): An e-mail-based thank-you any employee can send to recognize colleagues for a great job through the Web-based Bravo! program.
• Tier II (Applause): A peer-to-peer recognition award given for an accomplishment above and beyond expectations. Message is accompanied by a $40 electronic gift card issued through Globoforce (a local standard of living index varies the actual award amount in different countries). No managerial approval is required.
• Tier III (Acclaim): Anyone can nominate an employee or team for this award level for above-and-beyond behavior that impacts a large group. The value ranges from $100 to $500, and an award wizard helps determine the appropriate value. A business leader must approve it.
• Tier IV (Accolade): This award tier uses a larger cash award for actions that have a functional impact on all company operations. It is being transitioned onto the Globoforce award platform. Executive-level approval is required.
• Tier V (Apex): Usually given to an individual rather than a team, this award comes with a substantially larger cash award (again, it is being transitioned to the Globoforce platform), for actions with the highest material impact on company performance. High-level nomination is required, and winners are selected by executive management and approved by the CEO.
Continue to "Avnet: Building Ground-up Support for Recognition."
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