“Thank It Forward” program drives a culture of recognition at Deloitte

Deloitte, the professional services firm, rolled out a new program in March 2019 designed to make it easier for everyone in the organization to express their gratitude. “Thank It Forward” was designed to help create and support the company’s recognition community; it has won top prize in the “Employee Engagement” category (Employee Experience division) of Ragan’s Employee Communications Awards.

The initiative’s goals included changing behaviors so employees would completely and consistently embrace recognition as part of the company’s culture, ensuring the Thank It Forward theme became part of the company vernacular and generating excitement about giving and receiving recognition.

The concept was rolled out as part of Deloitte’s annual Gratitude Campaign, followed by a phase during which employees were inspired to act by using new, user-friendly web and mobile apps, accessible anytime and anywhere, allowing them to share recognition whenever the inspiration struck.

The company is currently driving adoption by keeping the concept of recognition alive. In addition to the apps and web tools, collateral material has been employed to amplify the initiative, including posters and swag. The collateral also shares suggestions about the various ways employees could incorporate more gratitude into their work lives.

Since the campaign launched through late August, employees have sent 64,555 ShoutOuts and liked 18,000 ShoutOuts; engagement with the mobile and web apps skyrocketed as well.

Congratulations to the Deloitte team.