Using reward & recognition to strengthen company culture

At Pick Everard, we’ve been considering our culture and challenging ourselves to take a different perspective of culture than companies traditionally would. We don’t perceive that culture needs to be the random amalgamation of the different values, beliefs and choices of our people. It should not be something that just occurs and certainly not something that remains static. Instead, we’re proactively looking to shape and strengthen ours as we continue to the next stage of our strategic plan, Plan 25.

As a group of leaders, we’re considering expected cultural norms of Pick Everard and how we guide the behaviours of everyone working alongside us, setting clear expectations and providing a platform for high performance. Our culture is the embodiment of our values and purpose, neither of which we left to chance. It's seen in what we experience together every day, the decisions we make and our clear call to action as we strive to 'deliver better together.' There's a need to define, shape and nurture our culture, and ensure our people understand their important role in strengthening that culture, the very beating heart of our business. Its role is crucial as we continue to evolve, grow and welcome new talent from diverse organisations across the industry.

Our people practices must also support the strengthening of our culture.

Over the last couple of years, we've been implementing new approaches to reward and recognition. We've introduced new routes to flexibility, multiple performance & behaviour recognition schemes, a range of wellbeing benefits that drive a health-first culture and a suite of policy changes that better suit the lifestyle and needs of our people. We're using our rewards to to move us further on our cultural journey in the following ways:

Purpose and community

Our Being Pick Everard awards recognise our people for upholding our core values. The awards are a peer recognition scheme, recognising those who uphold key behaviours that underpin the values. The sense of ‘do it, spot it, celebrate it’ that these awards provide, reinforce what’s important in our interactions with our clients and each other.

Appreciation from the top

We implemented a three-tiered spot rewards programme two years ago, enabling our leaders to provide timely recognition in the form of vouchers and cash bonuses to staff for great work and demonstrably collaborative behaviours.

Critical thinking, innovation and courage

Innovation is so important to Pick Everard, that it forms one of our strategic pillars in Plan 25. Last year we launched our ideas and innovation scheme - Lightbulb Moments – to encourage our people to raise questions about how we do things and share ideas on what we can do better. We award the best ideas with cash bonuses to encourage our people’s involvement in innovation and continuous improvement.

Driving a health-first culture

A health first culture starts with individuals. We know that only under the highest levels of health & safety can our people thrive. From our own home-grown wellbeing hub to our enhanced cycle to work scheme and new healthcare cash plan and gym discount schemes, we’re enabling our people to access multiple routes of health & wellbeing support so they can be their best selves.

Right work, right location

Our agile working policy has been developed on the basis of ‘right work, right place,’ with team collaboration and connection happening regularly to share and exchange ideas. We’ve also enhanced our family leave policies and implemented a childcare scheme so our people can make choices over the right work-life blend.

What’s been most important culturally, is the engagement of our people throughout, as we’ve developed our rewards offering, providing routes for employee voice, ideas, opinions and a strong sense of involvement. We’re shaping something that’s taking our culture in the right direction, influences our every day behaviours together and authentically meets our needs as a business. Our reward schemes reinforce the sense of mutual purpose and unity we have and enable us to embrace a true employee value proposition.