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Company: OppenheimerFunds, Englewood, CO
Company Description: OppenheimerFunds, founded in 1960, with $186.42 Billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2012, is a financial services company that provides mutual fund products to help our shareholders reach their investment and retirement goals. We couple these fund products with our world-class customer service, creating a desirable and enjoyable customer experience.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Incentive Management Solution – New Version

Nomination Title:  Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere

Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 500 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and sales to date:

At OppenheimerFunds, we strive to continually recognize our employees. However, past recognition programs have not proven sustainable. This was validated when we received results from our 2011 Annual Employee Survey.

Common issues of past programs were:

•Statistics based
•Same associates awarded
•No personalization
•Delayed recognition
•Lack of excitement/engagement
•Leadership driven

As a result, a committee was created to research, develop, and implement a successful recognition program. The committee was comprised of leadership and frontline associates who collaborated across business areas to ensure sustainability for a formalized program. We realized our current culture needed to be shifted from a process focused solely on statistics, to a culture where desired behaviors are recognized and incentivized. The committee’s mission was to create an environment to encourage employees to connect with our company’s strategies and culture and to reward behavior that exemplifies our dedication to customer service.

The committee branded a new program titled “Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere” which included five key guiding principles:

1. Behavior Based

a. Support our company culture.
b. Recognize individual customer interactions which include behaviors that enhance the customer experience internally and externally (i.e., Excellence, Leadership, Teamwork and Collaboration).
c. Promote sustainability to ensure a long-term impact.
d. Focused behaviors are promoted and rewarded quarterly.

2. Instantaneous

a. The sooner a behavior is recognized, the more likely the recipient will be able to recall the situation and repeat the behavior.
b. Allows for online submission via a virtual form within our Intranet. Once the form is submitted, a system-generated email is sent to the supervisor, recipient and submitter.
c. The process is simple and quick.

3. Communication and Participation Across All Levels

a. Captures more interactions that were previously unrecognized.
b. A forum of frontline associates review submissions monthly to identify monetary rewards.
c. Program allows for employees to be recognized across all levels.

4. Sustainable

a. All levels are accountable to ensure the program is being utilized on a consistent basis and given proper priority in planning.
b. Monthly report card is communicated to the leadership team and has an internal community page that can be accessed by Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere in the company.

5. Personalized

a. Personalized submissions based off behaviors with customer interactions by explaining the story, showing the customer impact, and demonstrating the end result.
b. Associates complete a virtual form to indicate their interests, making associated monetary rewards personalized to the recipient.

The success of the program has achieved the following:

•Emphasis no longer focused solely on statistics
•Timely recognitions has increased employee satisfaction
•Over 50% of employees are participating in the program
•62% of recognitions submitted are peer to peer
•Over 700 recognitions have been submitted
•370 associates received monetary rewards (rewards range from $25 to $1000)
•Over $30,000 has been paid through the reward program

Recognizing Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere, we learned rewarding positive behavior begets exceptional customer service encouraging employees to do what’s right, because it’s right!

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that developed this nominated product or service:

Lori Taylor began working with OppenheimerFunds 14 years ago and currently acts as VP of Client Relations at our Denver Campus. Her leadership philosophy is to be transparent and approachable. She believes a leader should be able to take risks, and be willing to encourage a healthy environment of celebrating attempts to make a difference. In addition to her leadership strides within OppenheimerFunds, Lori has served as Co-Chair of the National Investment Company Service Association (NICSA) Midwest Committee and the Chair of the College Savings Plan Network (CSPN) Operations Sub-Committee.