Zeta Spotlight | Design journey of rewards and recognition product
Authored by: Sneh Singh and Blog Illustrations by Kopai Banerjee
Spotlight is designed for building a culture of appreciation that is done comfortably by the employees of organizations of all levels.
Let’s imagine Karan, a diligent employee, who was handed a mammoth project by his manager. This task was not only difficult but would take more than a week to complete. Being a devoted employee, Karan worked relentlessly on this project over the next couple days and diligently finished the task, much before the deadline. Once the task was over, Karan’s manager came to his desk and said, “Good job on the project, I really appreciate it”. Listening to the kind words from his manager for his hard work, Karan felt good. Yet, that feeling lasted only for a few hours. Karan thought it would have been better if his teammates also got to know about his contribution. A month later, it was business as usual. His manager completely forgot about Karan’s contribution.
Does this situation sound familiar to you? If yes, then you are not alone. That’s how recognition programs are run in most companies. Often, most contributions go unrecognized or get recognized in an informal manner.
The problems with today’s recognition programs
Most companies have recognition programs in one or the other form. But, often they fail to achieve their purpose. A few gaps in such programs are listed below:
- Managers find reward programs time-consuming and end up not appreciating enough.
- Recognition is not done timely.
- Expressions of gratitude are offhanded gestures done in an informal setting and are generalized.
- Everyone receives the same appreciation irrespective of inputs or outputs.
- Appreciation is done only in a one-on-one setting, and no one else in the organization gets to know.
Introducing Spotlight
Acknowledging these loopholes in recognition programs, we at Zeta decided to venture into it. So, at the beginning of the year 2020, we started shaping the recognition product at Zeta and called it ‘Spotlight’.
Spotlight facilitates companies to bring in a genuine culture of appreciation and a sense of belongingness with recognition being done on a real-time basis and accessible. It’s multi-directional and can be used to recognize an employee, a colleague, or a boss. This, in turn, would help companies create a transparent and positive culture in the organisation.
Spotlight is a highly customizable product. It is for the reason that every company has its own set of values and principles which help them to form their own culture. So when companies choose Spotlight, they can customise the product according to their needs, with flexibility that results in meeting their core values and principles.
Architecting the ‘Spotlight’
Even though the intention of creating Spotlight was spot on, we’d say that we found it difficult to create targeted recognition programs i.e., forming the right reward system for the right audience. But we spent time formulating it and came up with four reward categories as described below.
- Kudos- Any employee can recognise any other employee in the company. It’s a day-to-day social recognition or a quick pat on the back. For instance, Kudos can be rewarded to an employee as a pat on the back for their help in a project.
- Spot awards- A manager can hand over an instant reward for quick wins — it is for both an individual and a team. For instance, Spot can be rewarded to an individual who took an initiative and made a remarkable impact on a project in 2–3 days.
- Above and beyond awards: A committee gets nominations from across the company and afterward selects people from those nominations. It’s a quarterly thing. For instance, above and beyond awards is given to a person who has taken ownership of a mammoth project and delivered business results with utmost quality and velocity.
- Crown- Similar to Above and beyond but more like the annual awards. It’s unique and worthy like a rare gem. For instance, Crown award is given to an individual who has worked the whole year to set the culture for the whole company and brings a sense of belongingness.
We found through our research that these rewards will satisfy every target audience, i.e., all employees in an organization that relates to their accomplishments.
To make it more personalized for Zeta, we created another classification which is Above and Beyond under which we have –Mountain Mover, Trailblazer, Shining Star, and Ultimate Team. These rewards echo Zeta’s values.
Designing the rewards and recognition experience
Recognition is all about triumph and glory! All it does is makes us feel really good about ourselves, etching some joyous moments forever in our memories. To convey the feeling more emphatically, Spotlight’s user experience bears the theme of jubilation and celebration, and has three creative within each reward:
- Badges
- Mascot
- Environment
All these three elements can be customized according to the needs of a company. When it came to customizing for Zeta, we wanted the recognition program to have a cheerful and inclusive vibe. Along with that, we also wanted the recognition program to represent all of us and bring the impression of remembrance.
Therefore, all three creative elements were tailor-made for Zeta accordingly.
Badges
Badges reflect the notion of memento, belongingness, and honour.
To design the badge for Zeta, we started with developing a deeper understanding of each reward. Henceforth, we started looking at the definition of each award. Along with that, we also recognized creative components that would fit into Zeta’s Spotlight principle of inclusive, cheerful and remembrance.
For instance: ‘Kudos’ simply means praise or acclaim. In the case of Spotlight, the element for Kudos could either be an applause, a high five, a pat on the back, or a thumbs up from a colleague or a manager. Among the three, the applause seemed dramatic because it is also an expression of approval. On the other, high-five seemed very casual. As a result, rejecting the first two, we chose thumbs-up as the badge for Kudos.
Similarly, in the case of the ‘Spot award’, we used a medal to the badge, much like the military-badge. For the spot team, we added multiple medals to one badge.
For Above and Beyond awards, Zeta has four specially made categories, namely Mountain Mover, Trailblazer, Shining Star, and Ultimate Team. We made different badges for all the four awards as each has its own significance.
The Mountain Mover award is for a person who accomplishes something that is very complex or colossal in nature. Therefore, we used a mountain as a creative component for the Mountain mover badge to indicate large achievements.
Likewise, the Trailblazer award is intended for a person who is a torchbearer and embodies the spirit of creativity, demonstrating out of the box thinking. We used a torch for the Trailblazer badge.
The next one, the Shining Star, is for a person who takes high ownership of not only individual goals but also the team goals. We used a bright star for the shining star badge.
Lastly, for the Ultimate team award which is for a team that displays intense commitment and collaboration, creatively solves problems, and engages with other teams effectively, we created a badge of ‘a group of people icon with a big star’, indicating community spirit and efficiency.
The mascot and the environment
Resonating with Zeta’s spirit, the mascot for Zeta needed to be inclusive and cheerful. With this underlying guidance, we kick-started our search for Zeta’s Mascot.
First off, we started coming up with numerous mascots such as humans, mythical characters, birds, dogs, cats, and lions, and brainstorming designs for each one of them to decide. But none of them resonated well with Zeta’s spirit of inclusion, representation, cheerfulness, and remembrance.
Here’s a snapshot of our experimentation before landing on bears.
After a long discussion, we settled on the bears. They ticked all the boxes. Since bears are given as gifts in the form of stuffed toys to loved ones, they easily passed the test of cheerfulness. As bears can’t be gendered easily at a glance, they sailed through the inclusivity test as well. Moreover, a bear could stand on its two feet, which is similar to human anatomy. All the above factors made the bear our perfect mascot, which upheld Zeta’s spirit of inclusion, representation, cheerfulness, and remembrance.
While we designed our mascot as a bear, we contemplated the idea that the bear would appear as giving the awards to the employees. However, this was not fitting well with the notion of representation to us. On the other hand, the mascot having the award in its hand seemed helpful in representing and resonating with the bear as the employees themselves. Therefore, we put the award in the hands of this mascot.
Let’s deep dive into how we designed all awards with the mascot bear and the environment.
Starting with the Kudos award, a gold thumbs up trophy, similar to Kudos badge, was placed in the hands of the bear initially. But the large chunk of gold on the thumbs-up was making this award appear more prominent than the other awards.
For this reason, we replaced the golden thumbs-up trophy with thumbs-up shaped balloons. Balloons worked perfectly as they signified the delight which is similar to the sense of joy when a child receives balloons.
Also, Kudos is set in a fair or a carnival kind of scenario. The bear is seen standing on the table and holding balloons. The colour of the environment is yellow, which is light and depicts the theme of the gala.
Moving on to the Spot category, it includes the Spot award and the Spot Team award, both of which are used for recognizing quick wins of employees and teams respectively.
In the Spot award, the bear holds a trophy in one hand, pointing towards it from the other. This hand gesture towards the trophy is intended to flaunt the reward.
In the Spot Team award, we showcased a team by adding two more characters with the bear. The three-characters huddle together hugging each other, expressing the spirit of togetherness and collaboration. The trophy is placed in front of all the characters rather than being handed to one character so that it demonstrates team spirit with the focus on the team. Also, all the characters in the Spot Team award wear a medal too.
In the case of the environment for the Spot category, it is a stage with a podium and frills. The background is pink in colour.
Next is the Above and beyond category which includes Mountain Movers, Trailblazer, Shining Star, and Ultimate Team awards. The Above and beyond category is more prestigious than Kudos and Spot. Therefore, all the Above and Beyond awards have mythical fantasy and superstar decor associated with them. To display these aspects, the bear sports a cape, crown, and badge in all the four awards while the environment for the Above and Beyond category is dark and rugged with the bear standing on a golden podium.
A dark background focuses more on the character on the golden podium.
The Mountain Mover signifies a colossal achievement, something which is achieved by moving a large chunk of work to completion. Hence, the mascot stands on the top of a mountain as if it has triumphed over it. The bear also holds a wizardry staff in its hand to indicate a feeling of victory.
Trailblazer award is intended to be given to a person who always comes up with new ideas and pushes the envelope. We used the element ‘torch’ to signify this person as a trailblazer who creates and leaves a path for others to fulfill a valued goal.
To represent the Shining Star award, we wanted to showcase a shooting star going over the head of the bear. But it was not operationally feasible at this point, and also, the bear would not have anything in the hand. Hence, we kept it simple but effective by handing a shining star trophy in the hands of the bear.
The last award in the Above and beyond category is the Ultimate Team. To signify the aspect of the team, we used two characters along with the bear who are hugging each other to showcase collaboration, similar to Spot Team awards. Also, all characters sport a cape, a crown, and a badge. A trophy superlative to the shining star trophy is placed in front of them.
Putting it all together
The user experience of the Spotlight app has two main workflows, i.e. the profile and the team.
In the profile workflow, the employees can see all the rewards that they have gotten and can give rewards to their colleagues with a CTA button of ‘Give rewards’. The employee has to first select the reward and then select the person to whom he wishes to give the rewards. Before giving out any reward, the employee has to write a note to the receiver, which makes the appreciation specific and genuine.
To finally give the reward, we have incorporated a ‘Swipe to Reward’ feature, to make it feel like a confirmation gesture. We felt gestures are more sophisticated than buttons. The rewarder can tag his or her team members to share the rewards.
In the team workflow, all the employees and the manager can see who in their team has got the awards. This provides an insight into who in the team is doing good work and spreads the culture of appreciation throughout the organization, also motivating others to win the awards.
The impact
Since Spotlight’s adoption at Zeta, our custom version has helped in bringing a sense of belongingness and in forging close ties with one another. Since its inception, we have granted 384 Kudos, 50 Spot awards, and 47 ‘Above and Beyond’ awards which include 14 Mountain Movers, 16 Shining Stars, 4 Trailblazers and 13 for Ultimate Team.
At the end of the day, Spotlight hopes to build a culture of appreciation which comes down mostly to a lot of small, kind practices. It enables individuals to say thank you in a personal and sincere way and companies to demonstrate that they genuinely care about their employees’ growth.
So, start by expressing more gratitude to those around you and see the miracle of trust and happiness spread around. You might be surprised at the big differences the little things can bring about.
If you want to experience the culture of care and appreciation for yourselves, we hope you could nudge your organization to take the product for a spin. More details on the website. https://www.zeta.tech/zeta-spotlight-product/
People involved in the project
Foundational flows designed by Saumitra Pandey, Mustafa Quilon and Muthu Nathan (MuNa)
Zeta Spotlight by Rahul Menon and Ramakrishna Venkatesan
Thanks to Preethi Shreeya, PMs, Engineers, HR :)
