EXCLUSIVE: Bwin.Party introduces international recognition programme

Bwin.Party is introducing a global recognition programme for its 2,700 employees working across three continents.

The programme, provided by Corporate Rewards, enables the company’s employees to recognise their colleagues with a ‘thank you’ and points to spend in an online reward shop.

However, the structure of the online gaming organisation’s business has posed challenges because it has a variety of brands spread across eight countries, including Bwin, Foxy Bingo and PartyPoker.

Phil Hutchinson, reward consultant at Bwin.Party, said:”The complexity is because ours is a vertical business, so we have different business areas that span different countries. There could be a manager in one country who is recognising an employee in another. So that has its challenges.”

The recognition programme is linked to the organisation’s new global benefits programme, which was first introduced in April, to help harmonise acquired companies into the business.

“The number one thing was to create a stable base to acquire new companies and grow,” said Hutchinson. “The recognition piece was to recognise andcelebrate performance. It is to allow employees to differentiate themselves.

“Basic pay does not account for the fact that someone who may not have a direct impact on sales came in and worked on a Saturday. They may not get any extra money for that, but we thought it would be really nice for someone to say ‘thank you, here are some points to spend in the online reward shop’.”

The scheme has been rolled out in Austria, Bulgaria, Gibraltar, India and the UK, and will be introduced in three other European countries later this year.

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