I vividly remember a period of time
in Atrion’s history when we routinely—
and quite excitedly I might add!—tossed
around stuffed Gumby dolls (jog your
memory here). We bought these dolls so
that if an Atrionite did something particularly noteworthy, another colleague could
write him or her a thank-you note, attach
the note to Gumby and give Gumby—and
the note—to that individual. The recipient
was then asked to pay it forward and to
find someone else deserving of Gumby.
With a challenge like this extended,
you can bet that Gumby made his
way around the office FAST!
We’ve always believed in the importance
of employee recognition and emphasizing
peer-to-peer employee acknowledgement. The Gumby form of recognition was
great because it empowered anyone within Atrion—from the C-suite to interns—to
celebrate the work of others. By entrusting
our employees with this recognition
program, we were able to continue to craft
an AWESOME corporate culture. Also, the
Gumby peer-to-peer recognition created
a tremendously high level of employee
engagement and participation that most
organizations typically reserve for
members in leadership.
As our company grew and we started
to employ a number of remote workers,
we had to create a peer-to-peer system
that allowed these remote workers to
participate and using technology was
our only option.
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