Haverkamp Properties, a multifamily property management company under the larger Haverkamp Group, was looking to enhance employee recognition, particularly for their hard-working maintenance technicians who handle after-hours emergency calls.
Challenge: recognizing their hard-working non-desk employees
Prior to implementing Bonusly, Haverkamp Properties lacked a consistent way to reward and recognize their employees, particularly their maintenance technicians who were often on-call during nights, weekends, and emergencies. The company needed a program that would:
- Offer meaningful rewards for extra efforts
- Be easy to manage and scale
- Increase overall employee engagement across teams
Their goal was to find a recognition system that not only appreciated their maintenance workers for going above and beyond but could also be adapted for other employees in the organization.
Solution: Bonusly’s recognition platform that grows with teams
Haverkamp Properties piloted Bonusly with their maintenance technicians to test its impact. The program allowed employees to accumulate points, which could be redeemed for gift cards and other rewards. The technicians appreciated the extra acknowledgment, with one technician using his points to purchase duck hunting gear. For him, Bonusly provided a fun and rewarding way to recognize extra work without impacting his paycheck.
After the successful pilot year with just top-down recognition, Haverkamp Properties expanded Bonusly across the entire organization, incorporating peer-to-peer recognition. The results were overwhelmingly positive.
Haverkamp Properties saw early success with Bonusly, including:
- Maintenance technicians’ engagement: Initially, the focus was on maintenance staff, and the success of this pilot led to broader adoption.
- Employee feedback: During a company survey, employees repeatedly mentioned how much they valued Bonusly as part of their benefits and perks, citing the system as one of their favorite aspects of working at Haverkamp.
- Streamlined celebrations: Before Bonusly, birthday celebrations were inconsistent, causing occasional awkwardness when employees were forgotten. Bonusly standardized birthday recognition, making the process seamless.
Key Bonusly features that Haverkamp Properties team members love:
- Custom rewards: Haverkamp Properties created unique rewards tailored to their company culture. The “Let Your SHARI Shine” award (based on their core values acronym - Service, Hard Work, Accountability, Results-Driven, Integrity) became a popular way for managers to recognize employees who embodied the company’s values.
- New employee welcome: On a new employee’s first day, they are greeted with a warm “Bonusly Love” post, helping them feel instantly welcomed and integrated into the team.
- Bonusly post of the month: To encourage consistent use of Bonusly, the company introduced a “Bonusly Post of the Month” award, highlighting employees who use the platform to its fullest potential, by recognizing their colleagues and highlighting core values in action.
Real results that drive ongoing impact:
- Increased employee engagement: Peer-to-peer recognition across the organization has significantly boosted employee morale and engagement. When polled on company surveys, employees regularly express appreciation for the recognition they receive through Bonusly.
- Successful pilot turned full-scale implementation: The pilot with maintenance technicians proved so successful that Bonusly was expanded to the entire organization. It is now a core part of their employee engagement strategy.
- Standardized recognition: Bonusly streamlined birthday celebrations and made it easier to recognize employees for their work, improving workplace culture and reducing the chance of employees feeling left out.
Todd’s Perspective on Bonusly:
“My favorite Bonusly feature is the ability to create our own rewards and name them. We have something called the ‘Let Your SHARI Shine’ award to promote our core values, and it’s fun to see managers recognize their teams. Bonusly has helped us standardize recognition in areas we struggled with before, like birthdays, and has made the whole process seamless. The Bonusly team really met us where we were—we didn’t have to start with peer-to-peer recognition and could customize the system to suit our needs. We’ve even introduced the ‘Bonusly Post of the Month’ to encourage usage and highlight great posts.”
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