The High Flyer programme has transformed recognition from a reactive gesture into a proactive part of my leadership approach. Recognition is now structured, inclusive, and aligned with our organisational values.

We've given our employees something they never had before: the power to choose their own rewards. And if that wasn't enough, we save money because the products aren't marked up! Awardco truly brought our recognition programmes into the 21st century.

Our turnover definitely went down after implementing Awardco, especially compared to the previous year. We've noticed that recognition, along with rewards like Amazon items and prepaid Visa cards, has had a big impact on retention without being a huge cost to the company.

When I pitched Awardco to our leadership team, I shared the risk of losing connection as we grow. I framed it as a strategic need. Their response? ‘Stop talking. Just do it.'

One year into having sunshine, our recognition, feeling like we're recognised went up ten percent. I think that's just a true testament of how much it means to us. We do have those hard days. And again, the Sunshine Recognition Hub empowers our nurses and team members. It's given us a platform to recognise, those moments of of excellence.

We recently pulled an in-platform report to cheque on usage, and then we reached out to people individually to improve adoption—especially managers. Since then, engagement has been significantly higher, and our culture of recognition is growing—even our executives are recognising.

Within AOCC, we’ve built peer nominations into the process. The more recognitions a team member receives, the more points they earn toward winning a High Flyer award. This has fostered real cohesion, inclusivity, and teamwork across the department.

Since implementing Awardco, we’ve saved at least 30 hours a month that used to be spent manually tracking, purchasing, and mailing gifts. Now it’s all automated—and more empowering for our associates.