How Academic Partnerships Uses Nectar To Create A Customizable Employee Recognition System

Creating an employee recognition system that feels like an extension of your company culture can be challenging. After viewing 5+ recognition systems, Zoë Marmot, Senior Communications Manager at Academic Partnerships, ran across Nectar and realized that we aligned with the company values of their business.

In a period of six months, Academic Partnerships saw:

• 1,451 shoutouts sent to employees
• 913 comments on shoutouts
• 602 challenge redemptions

Read on to see how this company was able to create a customizable recognition system that continues to create employee engagement.

Challenge: Formalizing The Recognition Process

Before Nectar, Academic Partnerships had done a lot to create a fantastic employee experience. From creating employee committees where team members could share their thoughts to establishing well-loved core values, the company did all the right things:

“AP has always had a great company culture. We have employees who have been with us since the very beginning. Our low attrition rate, our employee tenure, and employees' belief in the mission all contribute to a positive culture.”

When connecting with Academic Partnership’s diverse workforce, it became clear to Zoë that they needed to put some work into establishing a formal recognition and rewards system. After chatting with internal stakeholders, Zoë set out to find a solution to their recognition challenge. 

Solution: Utilizing Nectar’s Employee Recognition And Rewards Platform

After getting the go-ahead to look for a recognition system, Zoë set out to find the system that worked for her and the Academic Partnerships team. She looked at 5+ recognition and rewards platforms before finding Nectar. 

“I love that every time an employee gives that recognition, they have to pick or tag a company value associated with that recognition,” shared Zoë, “And it's just something that really resonated with me as a big differentiator between Nectar and the competition.”

Academic Partnerships' core values mean a lot to them as they are “something that's ingrained in you in the very beginning.”

After the Academic Partnerships team signed on with Nectar, they were transferred to our customer success team for a successful implementation. The entire process took about three weeks to get AP up and running.

On top of support from customer success, Zoë was given several helpful documents and videos to help create a smooth implementation process. Our customer success team continues to be helpful well after AP implemented our product, our in-product chatbot is a wonderful feature:

“I have to say the support chatbot within the feature as well is fantastic…replying within seconds, or it's a minute later that you're getting a response.”

Success: Increased Engagement Throughout The Organization With A Customized Employee Recognition System

As a result of implementing Nectar, Zoë and the Academic Partnerships team created a successful employee recognition program.

“Nectar has had such a positive impact on my role and the organization. Personally, I love looking at the feed to see how many and who is giving out recognition. It’s great to see people I know and also employees I don’t know being recognized. We’ve seen increased engagement with employees completing challenges and awarding colleagues with points.”

One well-loved Nectar feature Academic Partnerships has taken advantage of is our challenges feature. Challenges increase engagement and enable companies to incentivize actions that might not otherwise be taken. From committee participation to steps challenges to annual eye exams, Academic Partnerships can reward positive employee actions.

Academic Partnerships also plans employee engagement challenges based on themes. Recently, employees earned points by participating in Black History Month and Women’s History Month activities.

“We've got different themes happening each month. So we try and make sure that the challenges are updated to correlate to those themes,” adds Zoë, “And just seeing the huge number of people that are interacting with Nectar on a daily basis is just wonderful to see.”

Second, Academic Partnerships uses our badges or company-approved images feature. Recently, Zoë created a fun Valentine’s Day-themed badge that employees could add to their shoutouts to share the love with their coworkers.

Lastly, our swag shop has provided another opportunity for engagement.

“We've got the swag shop as well. So when people have been reaching out to me about buying different swag items, and one of my colleagues is like "Zoë, Do you know if I can get this in a different color?" And I'm like, "Let me ask!"”

These fun customizations have led to a positive experience for Zoë and the rest of the Academic Partnerships team.

When asked what she would say to a company on the fence about Nectar, Zoë shares:

“Don't even think twice about it. We've just had such a wonderful experience. We've had amazing engagement among our employees. I'm happy that we've integrated Nectar into our culture. I can't praise the system enough. It's been wonderful.”

About Academic Partnerships

Academic Partnerships deploys the technologies and tools to help universities grow their capacity to offer non-traditional online learners access to top-quality, affordable and workforce relevant degree programs that serve career pathways. They are a leader in online program management, focused on facilitating the goal of scalable online program growth for their university partners while supporting the success of their university partners’ students—from the dream of a degree to bold reality.

• Size: 750 employees
• Industry: E-Learning Provider
• Location: Dallas, Texas

Do you want to see results from your recognition program like Academic Partnerships? Request a demo to see how Nectar can help.