Founded by Anthony Amiel in 2017, Amiel Group brings together three companies —Distinctive, Corbeil Électroménagers and Termonas — under one umbrella. Together, they leverage their synergy to define, evolve, and energize the home appliance sector.
With over 400 employees spread across Quebec in a network of stores, Amiel Group faces the challenge of maintaining a cohesive corporate culture and fostering peer recognition despite geographical distances.
Until 2021, Amiel Group fostered recognition through a traditional approach: a wall of physical post-it notes located at the head office. While well received locally, this method no longer met the company’s needs in the era of hybrid work prompted by the pandemic. Faced with these new challenges, Amiel sought to evolve its practice by transitioning the recognition wall into a virtual environment, aiming to preserve the spirit of gratitude despite remote work and changed work patterns.
Amiel Group selected Altrum’s peer recognition and rewards points platform for several strategic reasons. The platform enabled the creation of a genuine social recognition wall transcending geographical boundaries. Additionally, it integrated a points and gift card system, adding a tangible, motivating element to peer recognition.
Amiel Group enrolled 350 users on Altrum’s platform, which they named “Univers,” encouraging store staff to actively recognize one another. This comprehensive approach includes several strategic features, building a complete recognition ecosystem:
Peer recognition wall: A social space allowing employees to recognize colleagues across the store network
Stars and gift cards system: A rewards program where points can be redeemed for gift cards from various brands, including Quebec ones
Badge system: Encourages active participation and fosters an ongoing culture of recognition by awarding badges that celebrate positive behaviours. For example, an employee can earn a badge after recognizing 25 colleagues or supporting peers who have been recognized
Values program: Managers recognize employees by referencing one of the company’s four core values — collaboration, professionalism, modernity, and respect — in their appreciation messages
Internal contests: Contests designed to promote specific behaviours and outcomes while boosting engagement.
The deployment of Univers generated highly positive results, with daily engagement by 66% of store-based users. The platform has become a key lever for highlighting individual performance, encouraging team collaboration, and emphasizing positive customer feedback. Recognition messages flow not only between colleagues within the same branch but also between employees across different stores, fostering a broader team spirit and a culture of recognition throughout the group.
‘’The platform has also enabled recognition of previously overlooked employees’’, creating a more inclusive recognition dynamic, noted Mélissa Falardeau, CHRP for Amiel Group.
The points and gift cards system has been especially well received, adding a concrete and motivating dimension to recognition. This approach centralized recognition efforts while respecting each branch’s autonomy.
The Altrum platform allowed us to digitize our recognition approach. We went from a local post-it wall to a recognition network that unites our store teams scattered across Quebec. The points and gift cards system is really fun — it’s a beautiful concept. Our next step is to extend this positive culture throughout the entire group to maximize employee engagement.”
— Mélissa Falardeau, CHRP, Amiel Group
Amiel Group plans to extend recognition adoption beyond store staff to the entire organization.
The HR team is working to enhance the corporate values program to maximize recognition’s impact aligned with organizational culture.
Additionally, a manager training program is under consideration to improve the quality and frequency of recognition.
Efforts are also underway to boost engagement on the Univers platform, including exploring integration with Microsoft Teams.
The ultimate goal: to establish a coherent, engaging recognition ecosystem across all of Amiel Group.
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