LGE Community Credit Union is a not-for-profit, member-owned, full-service financial institution with branches across metro Atlanta and northwest Georgia. With over 70 years of history and a deep commitment to community outreach, LGE is focused on being people-first, and that starts with their 350 employees.

Joanna Sullivan, Talent Attraction Strategist, and Tiffany Thompson, Total Rewards Specialist, recently chatted with Cooleaf live at the SOAHR 2024 conference in Atlanta to share their story of team recognition and motivation.

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Choosing Cooleaf for Employee Engagement

In 2022,  LGE conducted an internal employee survey to gauge the type of recognition employees preferred. The resounding feedback emphasized the desire for recognition and incentives. 

“From that survey, we were able to understand that employees wanted to be monetized for awards. We wanted something automated and on-the-spot, and Cooleaf was perfect for what we needed, because the platform was so easy to use,” said Tiffany.

Launching the Engagement Program

With Cooleaf’s support, LGE devised a straightforward strategy to acknowledge employees and incentivize positive behaviors. This included:

• Celebrating employee birthdays
• Recognizing years of service
• Core value awards
• Peer recognition and manager recognition
• Virtual challenges and events focused on wellbeing, team-building, and professional development
• Main feed challenges

Getting their employees onboarded was simple with Cooleaf’s straightforward onboarding process, and integration with platforms like Microsoft Teams facilitated seamless adoption.

“The platform was incredibly user-friendly. Employees had no trouble jumping in, getting engaged, and understanding the system,” said Tiffany. “We run at least three challenges per month, along with incorporating our events and activities to keep everyone coming back to the platform.”

_{Gaining Leadership Buy-In and Empowering Managers}

The survey data made it clear that employees wanted to be recognized for their achievements by managers. To Joanna and Tiffany, this emphasized the importance of leadership buy-in. 

“Getting your leaders to really get behind it makes it a lot easier, said Joanna. “Our entire company was ready for it, but having the leaders be so supportive really helped us.”

“Once they saw the survey data, they were all on board,” Tiffany added.

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Keeping managers and leadership focused on the platform’s data is also a priority for LGE’s people team. In the future, they hope to integrate more of their business KPIs in the platform. Joanna noted, “There’s a ton of segmentation within the reports, so you can see engagement and recognition rates by team or location. That kind of data is really important for understanding ROI.”

An Unexpected Benefit: A More Cohesive Culture

“Everyone loves the birthday and work anniversary announcements within Cooleaf,” Tiffany said. “Interestingly, public recognition was rated the lowest on our survey in terms of what people wanted. But once we rolled out Cooleaf and they saw it happening, they couldn’t get enough.”

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In 2023, LGE achieved a 99% annual adoption rate within Cooleaf, with 84% of managers issuing awards. The team also received Cooleaf’s “Love Your People” badge, meaning that every team member issued more than four recognitions to their co-workers each month.

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Keeping recognition front-and-center had other benefits too. “It’s also just helpful for staying connected,” Joanna said. “We also see people using the platform to share updates like birth announcements, or even baby showers – and someone might say, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t even know so-and-so was having a baby!’ These little things really help to bring us all together.”

Tiffany also noted that they also loved the prompts in Cooleaf’s main social feed to help spark conversation. “The Watercooler Wednesdays and Motivational Mondays keep people engaged and consistently coming back to the tool.”

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Cooleaf Challenge: The “Get to Know You” Train

Getting employees engaged from their first day is critical, but keeping seasoned employees connected over time is just as important. Cooleaf’s platform sparks conversation across teams and departments with engaging challenges and events, such as The Get to Know You Train, a challenge open to all employees when they first join the Cooleaf platform.

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This initiative not only strengthens bonds within teams but also serves as a recruitment tool, showcasing LGE's commitment to employee recognition and integration. The challenge asks employees to answer fun questions about themselves and helps them to get to know the platform. For example, one of the questions prompts them to name their #1 wishlist item from the Cooleaf Rewards Catalog.

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“This challenge is super fun,” said Joanna. “People can answer their favorite music, sports team, books, and things like that. So it’s really encouraging people to share more about their personal lives so they can connect and say, ‘I love this author too!’ I always bring this challenge up during orientation, too, and let people know that it’s a great way to get to know their team.”

By leveraging Cooleaf to support their people, LGE Community Credit Union demonstrates how a community-driven approach fosters a culture of appreciation, connectivity, and continuous growth.