Recognise This! –  IHG’s Bravo programme encourages employees all over the world to live and practice its Winning Ways.

The number one factor that makes me a more effective strategist and consultant for employee recognition and engagement is our clients. The partnership we develop together drives our own success at Globoforce as much as theirs. That’s why I’m thrilled when I can share their success with you. And now I’m able to share the success of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), better known for their brands including Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and more.

IHG’s global recognition programme, Bravo,  enables IHG to reinforce and encourage employee behaviour that reflects the company’s values and, ultimately, drive engagement.

IHG has more than 350,000 employees across its owned, managed, and franchised hotels in nearly 100 countries and territories; however, its previous formal recognition programme was limited to the USA and Canada. The hotelier wanted to be able to motivate employees by recognising behaviour that exemplified its five Winning Ways – Do the right thing; Aim higher; Show we care; Celebrate difference and Work better together. IHG partnered with Globoforce to deploy a unified global solution that could help employees go further in creating ‘great hotels guests love’ by creating a culture of recognition.

As an organisation that values feedback from both guests and employees, IHG was particularly interested in thecrowdsourced recognition data that the Globoforce solution can gather. By collating the opinions of a diverse group of employees, IHG is now able to arrive at a better-rounded picture of employee performance and can use this information to shape wider talent and culture management initiatives.

“We want to make sure we value our employees and they feel recognised, because we know this drives engagement and delivers a greater guest experience in our hotels,” said Lori Gaytan, SVP, human resources at IHG. “Globoforce has provided us with a global solution that enables us to recognise our employees for their efforts immediately and consistently. At a single glance you can see our employees around the world making great contributions and embodying our culture. This is driving our employment brand and business performance.”

Since the global programme’s implementation, IHG employees have nominated each other for more than 33,000 Bravo awards around the world. The large quantity of crowdsourced data gathered from these recognition moments has given the company valuable and actionable insight into its culture. With a Bravo given by an IHG employee somewhere in the world approximately every six minutes, IHG can see its Winning Ways  being lived through the social recognition moments logged every day. This impact is being seen within the organisation, as 86 percent of IHG employees say they are proud to work for a company that recognises them.

“The results IHG has seen in such a short space of time show the effect a strategically implemented recognition programme can have,” said Eric Mosley, CEO of Globoforce. “For a multinational company, the real differences among countries and national cultures can be celebrated with a global language of recognition. These programmes can also serve as key communication drivers of a company’s values and culture.”

Global employee recognition works – when done right.