Religare Health Insurance has automated its rewards and recognition (R&R) process by introducing the ‘I appreciate you’ programme. It has installed an appreciation-based recognition platform, which employees can use to nominate each other for their good work.
The Company has replaced the traditional system of target-based rewards for its sales team, with a new web-based interface.
Employees can now nominate other employees on the web-based interface and various other portals. The employee with the highest number of nominations at the end of every quarter, from each department, gets a reward.
But there are some rules that have to be followed.
The employees are not permitted to appreciate their own managers or nominate a person more than once in a quarter.
Generally, employees appreciate each other on softer aspects, such as leadership or for a good idea which helped the business grow. Using this platform, it is possible for a person from the sales team to appreciate someone from the support team too. This fosters interdepartmental interaction and bonding.
The employees with the highest nominations are presented with trophies, certificates and an opportunity to dine with the management team.
“Since its inception, employees have been really enjoying using the appreciation-based platform,” says Sanjeev Meghani, head of human resources, Religare Health Insurance.
The sales team makes up about 70 to 80 per cent of the workforce at Religare. In the traditional reward system, employees were recognised for achieving their targets and milestones. But through this new programme, employees are being recognised for their softer aspects, such as leadership, teamwork, commitment and honesty.
The appreciation-based platform allows the Company to assess the employees on even broader aspects at the end of the year. Also, it helps the organisation to see how cross-functional teams align with each other.
Sanjeev Meghani
“Since its inception, employees have been really enjoying using the appreciation-based platform”
Along with its rewards and recognition process, Religare Health Insurance has also automated its learning and development (L&D) system with the introduction of the ‘Advantage’ programme. Under this initiative, it offers an e-learning platform to employees, which supports the onboarding process as well.
The platform provides four modules to the employees, and only after they pass the first can they move on to the next one.
It also includes some mandatory modules that employees have to go through.
During the onboarding process, the first module acquaints the employees with the Company, its HR policies, as well as the healthcare insurance sector in general.
The second module provides a clear understanding of the products of the Company, comparing them with the competitors’ offerings.
The platform provides static content, videos and pictorial presentations.
“The bite-sized learning offered to the employees covers topics, such as how to pitch a product to a client,” shares Meghani
“The e-learning platform helps the employees to become great healthcare professionals and the Company to become a healthcare specialist,” shares Meghani.
If employees wish to know anything about the policies of the Company or information on the products on the go, they can access the same on the Web and mobile phone apps.
The e-learning platform is linked to the HRIS system of the Company and the dashboard provides analytics linked to performance. “We have seen that people who go through the L&D modules are more productive than the ones who do not,” adds Meghani.
While the platform appears to cater only to the sales team in the organisation, it actually provides information about the Company and its range of offerings too. Therefore, it is of great use to the support team working in the claims department. They are the ones who face the clients and need to be equipped with maximum information to be able to answer the queries of the clients. Clearly, the platform caters to the entire organisation.
The appreciation-based platform is pretty unique in the healthcare insurance sector. It has successfully managed to create a better bond between the employees. In addition, the e-learning platform is making learning easy and possible on the go.
A mass communication graduate Kartikay is a quick learner. A fresh bake, yet a prolific writer, he is always keen to learn and discover new things. He is an easy going gallivanted and just likes to chill out when he is not chasing news. He loves watching movies as well.
