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Sharing Stories

July 08, 2009


We receive stories from readers all the time. Some are of great, touching recognition moments and others are, well, let’s just say they’re not so touching. Brian Dickinson, UK Strategic Project Facilitator with Piramal Healthcare in England sent in a great story. We really liked how his company leadership found a really cost-effective but high-impact way to recognize their people when there was a really tight timeline for a really big project. Says Brian,

“Piramal Healthcare manufactures, packages and distributes our products to over 100 markets worldwide. We had a quality issue with a recent batch of packaged tablets that were required to go to a customer within a couple of weeks of detecting the issue. As a result we needed to perform a 100% inspection on the batch, meaning every strip needed to be removed from it’s carton, checked for accuracy and then returned to their carton.

In order to hit the deadline, we asked staff from all areas of site to volunteer for the inspection. We didn’t have the budget to pay overtime so everyone who helped did this on their own time, without any payment. The batch size we were inspecting was approximately 80,000 tablets. With our staff’s help, we hit the deadline and got the batch to the customer as promised.

As reward for their efforts, everybody who gave up some time to take part was entered into a drawing. First prize was a £50 voucher at a restaurant of the winner’s choice. Second prize was a bottle of bubbly. The drawing took place in the cafeteria over lunch where most people were available to watch. The winners were delighted and the mood of the staff was great.

Next time something similar comes along, there’ll be staff rushing to volunteer, as the motivational effect was very high for such a small cost.“

I love the creativity and was impressed to hear how well this worked. Obviously, Brian works with a great team to begin with and I’m sure that’s in large part to how they feel about their employer and managers. Great story. If you have anything you’d like to share, send me an . I’d love to feature it.




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