The Challenge
Irish Distillers, part of Pernod Ricard, is the leading producer of the world’s most well-known and successful Irish whiskeys. Led by Jameson, the world’s fastest-growing Irish whiskey, its brands are exported to 130+ markets.
With almost 1,000 employees across numerous functions and 6 locations in Ireland, Irish Distillers is both a diverse and geographically dispersed organisation.
One of the greatest strengths of the company is their passionate and committed employees and their unique culture driven by the company’s three core values – Real, Remarkable and Responsible. Given the rapid expansion in the business, and the diverse nature of staff (across, manufacturing, distribution, office, and tourism/hospitality), Irish Distillers wanted to ensure that employees across the entire organisation would continue to bring the company values to life every day.
Irish Distillers approached Amplify to design a programme that would –
- Develop a culture of recognition within the business driven by our Values.
- Embed the values and behaviours throughout all of Irish Distillers and make it easy for employees to spot when a colleague is being Real, Remarkable and Responsible.
- Put our People Managers in the driving seat for creating Recognition Moments.
The Programme
Amplify worked with Irish Distillers to develop and launch Barrelmen Rewards, a peer-to-peer recognition programme.
With Barrelmen Rewards, every manager and employee is given an annual budget of Nomination Credits to nominate colleagues when they see them living the company values.
To nominate, employees use Single Sign On (SSO) to log into their Barrelmen Rewards account on their desktop or mobile, and then use their credits to nominate colleagues when they see them living the company values.
For each nomination, the nominator selects a value & behaviour, enters a short explanation, and chooses from 4 Award Levels-
- Applause (10 credits / 10 Spirit Points)
- Bravo (30 credits / 30 Spirit Points)
- Ovation (50 credits / 50 Spirit Points)
- Simple Thanks (0 credits / 0 Spirit Points)
All nominations are validated independently. Once approved, the nominee receives their Spirit Points award into their account, and an email notification is sent to them and to their line manager. This creates a “recognition moment” i.e. an opportunity for the line manager to acknowledge their good work – something that is highly appreciated by staff.
Employees can build up their Spirit Points and redeem them online for an extensive online catalogue of retail gift cards and vouchers, technology and leisure equipment, hotel, travel & restaurant packages, lifestyle and experiential rewards.
The Result
Now in its 8 year of operation, Barrelmen Rewards continues to deliver impressive results=-
- More that 9 in every 10 employees nominate a colleague for a Barrelmen reward every year.
- 84% of employees say that Barrelmen Rewards helps to improve company culture.
- The satisfaction score for non-monetary recognition has been the single most improved metric in the annual employee survey.
According to Tamsin Trevarthen Irish Distillers HR Director, “The importance of this programme cannot be underestimated. It is a driving force for company culture in IDPR, influencing productivity through an improved organisational climate. It’s probably the most successful thing we’ve ever done”.
