Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER NOVEMBER 2019 18 FEATURES RECOGNITION Writing the book on people engagement Personalized yearbooks create buzz among employees at Klick By Sue Easby A t Klick, the emphasis is al- ways on the "how" when it comes to acknowledg- ing team members for their help in making customers happy and growing the company — how we connect with people, how we show our appreciation in ways that are memorable and meaningful to them and how we align all of this with our cultural behaviours. This is nothing new. Several years ago, beyond building career paths and development opportu- nities, we created the Klick Ex- perience team (KLIX) to further support a people-first philosophy. Mandated to proactively cre- ate meaningful connections through shared experiences, and to amplify culture and engage- ment across the organization, the team's primary role is to make each Klickster's experience a pos- itive one. ey orchestrate an array of events that employees can opt into, including weekly team lunches, monthly do-it-yourself workshops (pickle making is so popular, it's become an annual tradition), wellness and fitness classes in the onsite gym and per- sonal interest-based clubs, such as Spanish language, arts and crafts and rock climbing. To boot, they run biweekly on- boarding sessions together with our people practices team and produce an entertaining monthly culture video. While KLIX plays an important role in how we thank and recog- nize employees, it's not the only way. And its success encourages us to continue looking down new and exciting avenues. Memorable keepsakes Just last fall, as we neared the end of another year of double- digit growth, we felt it important to ask: How else can we thank and recognize employees for their accomplishments and contributions to our culture and evolution as a company? For us, the answer became very personal. We had recently explored the idea of creating per- sonalized annual reports for each of our 700 employees on their individual "workversaries." We loved the concept, but the logis- tics involved in publishing unique books on what could become a daily basis could be challenging and unrealistic for any organiza- tion, especially one that's not in the publishing business. In keeping with our commit- ment to the "relentless pursuit of awesome" — a mantra that inoculates us against the status quo and ensures we continue to experiment and innovate —we expanded our thinking and en- visioned the amalgamation of an annual report with a high-school yearbook. We agreed that it would still need to be personalized. It would need to serve as a tangible, mem- orable keepsake of people's ac- complishments. It would require a ton of content to effectively capture a year in the life of our company. And it would need to be produced and printed in less than two months in order to be unveiled at our annual town hall in early December. Leading the charge, our brand experience team moved quickly. Team members collaborated with team leads from across the company who contributed content and ensured all internal stakeholders were represented in the book. Leveraging technology ey also worked very closely with the development team of the Genome operating system that we built more than a decade ago to drive every aspect of the business, including project man- agement, resource management, travel management and social interaction. Thanks to that system, they could almost instantly pull into the book more than 1,000 data points on things such as our monthly social responsibility con- tributions, learning and develop- ment programs, on-site fitness and wellness program participa- tion, technology usage and travel statistics. By leveraging advanced tech- nology, we also customized the hardcover book with personal- ized photo spreads of each Klick- ster and their closest colleagues. First, we used artificial intelli- gence to tag hundreds of photos from company events. en, we built complex algorithms (using calendar, org-chart information and other work data) to surface the right photos in the right Klick- ster's yearbook. Finally, we added a "Class of 2018" section (with symbols de- noting new hires and promotions) and pages for signatures, printed each person's name on the spine and front cover of each book and called the 130-page compilation A Year of Klick. My colleague Jay Goldman, who heads up Sensei Labs, sums the book up best: "is book is all about people. It's about the different teams that we have. It's about the events that we've run, and it speaks to the level of engagement that we have with our teams and all the individual Klicksters who make them up. It's a way of us saying, 'ank you for all of the very hard work that went into making 2018 a huge success for Klick.'" Launch well received We anticipated the yearbook would be well received based on the early reaction to the concept from team leaders who helped with the content, but we didn't re- alize the extent to which it would be embraced until our co-founder and CEO, Leerom Segal, unveiled the book on stage at the town hall. There was a noticeable gasp from the more than 700 Klick- sters in the audience. But the next morning, when we distributed the books in the office, that's when the true engagement began as team members started taking their books to meetings and colleagues' desks to get their signatures. After receiving her personal- ized yearbook, one Klickster on the technology team said: "It's really neat to have a tangible me- mento of the past year. I don't think I've ever worked at an or- ganization that gave a yearbook. It helps me feel more connected to (my peers) and I'm excited. I'm excited to write nice messages in other people's books and see what they have to say about me." A year later, it's evident the book has served as an amplifier and natural extension of our cul- ture, according to Dave Holmes, director of employee experience and engagement. "e yearbook has created a huge buzz in the office. It's cre- ated a commonality and connec- tion point that has increased en- gagement between Klicksters and captures an important moment in our company's history." Sue Easby is the Toronto-based vice- president of people and organization- al effectiveness at Klick, a health mar- keting agency. For more information on the yearbook, visit www.youtube. com/watch?v=E5j5TyxD5NM. "It's really neat to have a tangible memento of the past year. I'm excited to write messages in the other books." Credit: Klick HR News at Your Fingertips Sign up for the Canadian HR Newswire today for free and enjoy great content from the publishers of Canadian HR Reporter. THE LATEST NEWS Stay on top of essential late-breaking HR news and developments. THE BEST COMMENTARY Access trusted analysis and opinion on the cases and changes that are shaping the HR landscape. DELIVERED WEEKLY Your profession can change quickly, which is why you need the freshest, most recent information. FOR READING ON ANY DEVICE Get the news and opinions you need on any device. Whether you read at work, or on the go, the newswire adapts to your screen. Visit www.hrreporter.com/canadian-hr-newswire

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