Spreading Recognition to a Global Manufacturing Workforce

With employees in nearly every continent in the world, Ultradent needed a platform that they could customize for different locations. With Awardco, they’ve been able to build custom websites and experiences for their different locations while keeping everything simple and straightforward for admins. Plus, they can offer rewards that are meaningful for everyone, no matter where they live.

Global reach wasn’t the only hurdle—as a dental manufacturer, Ultradent also has a mix of online and offline employees. They wanted recognition that would reach those in front of a computer and those on the manufacturing floor equally.

By putting up posters with QR codes employees can scan, erecting booths at each location with aides who help employees put Awardco on their phones, and training managers to recognize frequently, they’ve seen a big impact for everyone.

The success they've seen in all their teams is due in large part the leadership buy-in they've had—everyone, from executives down, believes in the power of recognition and the impact it has on the bottom line, which has made it easy to build such an appreciative culture.

Ultradent’s previous recognition solution was very top-down, and it wasn’t as effective as they would have liked. After the switch to Awardco, they built out a robust peer-to-peer program that allows everyone to recognize anyone at any time. Plus, because they’ve been able to save so much, they even give each employee a small budget each quarter to reward each other with!

On top of that, they’ve been able to tie their recognition programs into their core values, driving desired behaviors and reinforcing their culture more than ever. These two programs have created a strong culture of appreciation that benefits their existing employees and even makes their recruiting efforts more effective.

David Alsop, Ultradent’s Chief Human Resource Officer, said, “The one thing I love most about Awardco is that it helps people recognize the core values that we want our people to develop, which reinforces our culture more than we’ve ever been able to reinforce it before.”