Changing the Culture

Learn how we moved the culture of Ombudsman Services to one of appreciation and #sharingthelove.

Summary

Ombudsman Services is the place consumers go when they need help to resolve an issue. In addition to skilfully handling highly emotional calls, the guys at Ombudsman Services also work with businesses in the long term, to influence their policies and practices.

Working collaboratively with consumers and businesses is at the heart of what they do.

Our Results

Quality Scores increased from 88% - 94%
Attrition reduced from 6.7% - 3.2%
Absence reduced from 12.3% - 8.9%.
Collaboration increased by 22%
Senior Leader Visibility increased by 11%
77% of colleagues say they have seen more recognition
53% have increased their understanding of company values

The Challenge

As part of their journey to shift their culture, Ombudsman Services were on a mission to bring their colleagues closer together. They were undergoing a period of huge transformation with structural changes, news faces and new ways of working. They had developed new values, relocated everyone into the same building and required a new way to engage their diverse workforce.

OS connected with Fanclub as they wanted a vehicle to:

create a collaborative working environment
bring colleagues closer together
embed their company values
recognise the great work that was done every day for their customers

They also loved our style, straight talking and no-corporate nonsense.

Insights

We got Under the Bonnet

Our initial ‘Under the Bonnet’ diagnostic showed that whilst some recognition was taking place, by way of Employee of the Month, involvement was very low at 4 nominations per month out of 600 staff. Colleagues didn’t get to see or hear about the great work happening outside of their department and there was a disconnect between the frontline and the Senior Leaders in the business. Colleagues had lots of opportunity during the customer journey to spot great work or great service however didn’t have an easy way to provide that feedback. Colleagues also struggled to give examples of behaviours linked to the Values as they had no visibility of recognitions or nominations.

We got Leadership Buy-in

It was critical to get buy-in right from the top to ensure Senior Leaders were comfortable not only using the platform but spotting great work when they saw it. So we invited the Senior Leadership & Directors to our “Ready to Recognise” workshop. The Workshop removed barriers to recognition, uncovering the importance recognition plays in colleague engagement and demonstrating what great recognition looks and feels like. This ensured the leaders of the business were fully bought-in and ready and confident to #sharethelove.

We Communicated

Next, we worked with the Internal Communication team to develop a Teaser and Launch Campaign to get everyone intrigued and thinking about great colleagues they work with. This was followed with a lively and interactive launch event, with Videos, iPad demos and Photo Booth, where we officially started The Ombudsman Services Fanclub.

We kept it fresh and insightful

Our FanWatch service makes it easy for Senior Execs, who spend quite a bit of time away from the office, to see and recognise great work. And our Monthly Communication Campaigns keep recognition fresh and fun, and keeps colleagues engaged.

Solution

We delivered a Social Recognition Platform that could be used across all devices. The Platform was bundled with Monthly Communications Support and Insight Reports allowing us to target communications at different groups dependant on their usage.

Find out which solution is right for you

Results

Good vibes spread like wildfire right from the outset….

In 2 days alone, there were 474 messages of recognition sent with 321 (53%) of colleagues registered.
Within 3 months over 90% of colleagues were registered and actively using Fanclub
To date (9 months in), 8,771 messages of appreciation have been sent

Fanclub is well and truly embedded in the business with individual departments like Quality using recognition strategically to improve relationships and highlight great work to balance constructive feedback.

We’re extremely proud of the results we have achieved with Ombudsman Services and our shortlist for Best UK Recognition Programme demonstrates these results have not gone unnoticed.

Find out how we can put solutions like these to work for you.