QLD Not-for-profit Raising the Roof with Team Member Recognition

“Being able to trust in the value for money aspect when engaging consultants is important and significant. Agencies like ours are always running on limited resources. When we find a trusted consultant, like Telos, we will be likely to return when opportunities arise.” - CEO

Client Context

• Queensland not-for-profit;

• Well-established independent community-based organisation;

• Offers free support and advisory services to Queenslanders in need;

• Telos engaged by the CEO.

Presenting issue

As is the case for many not-for-profit organisations, the demand for support from the community often outweighs resourcing available on the ground. Working with people in crisis can take its toll on team members. Sustained resilience, engagement, and commitment to the cause is critical to ensure customer service standards are maintained for our client to deliver on their strategic plan, fulfill their purpose, and achieve their vision. Telos was engaged to design an Employee Recognition Framework that would recognise the incredible work team members did on a daily basis, and improve organisational connection, belonging, and engagement.

Our Approach:

It was of utmost importance to our client that this piece of work was approached with transparency, and in a way that authentically reflected the organisation’s values. This neatly aligned with Telos’ ethos of radical collaboration and our fervent opposition to delivering generic, ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions. To that end, the below process was carried out:

A Recognition Framework Committee (RFC) was created with endorsement of the Senior Leadership Team. The Committee comprised of leaders from various arms of the organisation to ensure this initiative was business owned and leader led to maximise engagement.

It was determined that business feedback would be critical to the success of this initiative. Telos developed a Recognition Framework questionnaire to be utilised in Focus Groups held across the organisation with the purpose of understanding what genuine and valuable employee recognition mean to people on the ground, thus ensuring the relevance and impact of the program for end-users.

Trust was of high importance to team members, as was remaining true to the organisation’s grass-root beginnings in favour of succumbing to corporate culture. For this reason, we opted to delegate the role of Focus Group Facilitators to the RFC. To ensure they were set up for success, we led ‘Train-the-Trainer’ sessions with this group which resulted in an uplift to their confidence and capability for future business change initiatives. We collated Focus Group output and facilitated further discussions with the RFC and members of the Senior Leadership Team to theme and refine the core recognition structure and principles. Telos then took these principles away to develop a Recognition Framework and policy to review by the CEO and Sponsor of this work. Telos took these core principles and priorities away to build a Recognition Framework that reflected the voice of the organisation. We worked closely with the CEO and Sponsor of this initiative to further refine the Framework to its optimal state of desirability and feasibility. We also led the development of a company Recognition Program Policy, and liaison with other key departments to bring to life the client’s vision through various program materials and promotional collateral.

The Senior Leadership Team and RFC then launched the finalised Recognition Framework and Program via an organisationally-relevant communications strategy.

Outcome

Our client reported immediate positive impact from Telos’s approach to their Recognition Program, as demonstrated by the below indicators of success:

• Team member uptake and participation in the Program was immediate;

• Involving team members from each arm of the organisation in the RFC boosted organisation-wide credibility of and engagement with the Program from the outset;

• RFC members were up-skilled in group facilitation and appreciated being empowered to lead positive change in the organisation;

• Our client subsequently engaged Telos for future pieces of work following the high level of satisfaction and success our approach engendered throughout the organisation.