Fueling Recognition Through Effective Implementation and Automation

Pilot Travel Centers LLC has spread recognition to their corporate, field, and transportation team members, all while saving hours of time through automation.

At A Glance

24X more recognitions than legacy recognition platform
Over 250,000 recognitions in just 9 months
96% of employees have been recognized

About Pilot Travel Centers LLC

Pilot Travel Centers LLC has been connecting people and places through the largest network of travel centres in North America for 65 years. With their Pilot, Flying J, and One9 locations, they rely on their team of 30,000 people to innovate and improve the

The Challenge

How do you effectively spread recognition to corporate, retail, and transportation team members across the country to build a culture of engagement?

Pilot Travel Centers LLC (Pilot Company) wanted to upgrade their recognition system for all their team members, whether they run retail stores, drive trucks, or work in corporate offices. However, while they wanted to enhance their recognition capabilities, they didn’t want to increase administrative burden across the business.

“We appreciate the user-friendly interface and the ample functionality of the platform, which has enabled us to better recognize team members as well as better support end users.”

Sica Simon
HR Analyst

The Solution

Implementing Customized Recognition

Pilot Company was determined to implement Awardco on the right foot. To accomplish this, they first handed out points to every single team member to get people excited. After that appetizer, they continued to drive adoption by:

  • Creating a Capture the Moment program, which gave every leader a point budget to reward their employees for stellar work and desired behaviours
  • Running a Team Member Appreciation Week program that rewarded team members for logging onto and using the platform
  • Implementing custom wellness programs to incentivise, celebrate, and reward healthy behaviours
  • Running other programs, such as contests, to drive and reinforce behaviours the company wanted to see
  • Utilizing their weekly company newsletter to remind everyone to recognize

Through their implementation efforts, Pilot Company has seen exponential growth in their recognition program, going from 7,500 total recognitions in 2022 to 79,500 in just the five months since implementing Awardco (that’s a 960% increase!). Retail, corporate, and transportation team members are all getting involved in Pilot Company’s enhanced culture of recognition.

The Solution

Automating Rewards to Save Time

Pilot Company has taken advantage of Awardco’s automation and reporting features, which has made it easier than ever to create new programs, give out and redeem points, and fulfil rewards. 

With their previous holiday program, Pilot Company had to manually select and send over 20,000 gift cards to team members (and many people never even received them or used them!)

But now, Pilot Company uses Awardco to reward their team members for the holidays, automatically sending out rewards and cutting out manual work almost entirely. Plus, team members actually get to choose rewards that matter to them, so it’s a win-win for everybody.

“It has been exciting to see the increased engagement around recognition, and how the platform has encouraged team members to support each other in new ways."

Deanna Dennis
Sr. Manager, Team Member Experience

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