In 2020, amid a landscape of COVID-19 and remote working, IAG set about redesigning its employee recognition platform as part of its cultural transformation journey aimed at fostering greater cohesion between strategy and purpose, while embedding new values within the business.

Working with long-term recognition partner O.C. Tanner, the brief was to develop a recognition program which had the capability to build connection and engage employees across diverse locations and countries, with a people-centric approach.

Employee feedback was seen as critical to shaping the design of the program to ensure a positive change experience and organisation-wide adoption. A rigorous consultation process was undertaken, with employee input gained from all levels of the business.

Leveraging the brand strength of IAG’s existing recognition programs in Australia and New Zealand, ‘Spirit Shout Outs’ and ‘He Toa Takitini’ respectively, the two programs were centralised and renamed, ‘Shout Outs | He Toa Takitini’.

Visually, the program centres around a purple love heart, which is representative of IAG’s values and purpose ‘to make your world a safer place’. Employees can send ‘heartfelt’ thanks when wanting to recognise and show gratitude to their colleagues, or give an award nomination for exceptional efforts. Recipients of awards accrue ‘beats’ as credit , which can then be applied to an online store featuring gift cards, prizes and charities. 

People are encouraged to recognise and celebrate moments that are big and small, showing gratitude for even the little things that colleagues do across everyday activities. With the program easily accessible directly from Outlook’s email platform, and via IAG’s intranet, it takes just a moment to say a heartfelt thanks.

Involved in the program since its inception, IAG Executive General Manager Organisational Development & Leadership, Gillian Folkes is thrilled at the outcomes achieved.

“We wanted to develop a recognition program that would bring our values and purpose to life, while creating a culture of performance and appreciation. What we’ve achieved is beyond what we thought possible.

“Shout Outs | He Toa Takitini is a fully integrated and strongly relatable program which has seen incredible uptake. 100% of employees were recognised within the first 14 months, and nearly 400,000 recognition moments have been given to date.“

In September 2023, ‘Shout Outs | He Toa Takatini’ was globally recognised, with IAG winning OC Tanner’s 2023 Breakthrough Award for Cultural Transformation. For Folkes, who accepted the award in Snowbird, Utah in front of an audience of international HR leaders, it was a wonderful acknowledgment for the team who worked so tirelessly to bring the platform to fruition.

“It was an honour to receive the award on behalf of the business. In a way, it brought the team’s work full circle in having the program recognised itself. It’s been an incredibly rewarding journey seeing our people embrace the program with such enthusiasm.”