Studies show it's cheaper to keep an existing employee than it is to find, hire, and train a new one. So in an industry like healthcare where turnover and burnout are rampant (even before the chaos of a global pandemic), it's vitally important to make team members feel valued and recognized. The Strategic Initiatives team conceptualized a range of options for the organization and leadership to use in order to connect with individual team members.

One aspect of recognition we explored was milestones — recurring events like anniversaries or one-off occurrences which hold significance to the individual team member. I designed an enamel pin system that "gamifies" employment by presenting team members with small physical badges to collect in the form of enamel pins.

Upon beginning employment, the team member would receive an introductory pin with their onboarding materials. This introduces the milestone pin system and reinforces that more pins will be earned or given in the future. Pins are encouraged to be worn on lapels or ID badges but upon the team member's first work anniversary, we would also supply them with a small wooden display box where the collected pins not being worn could be kept and displayed.

Anniversaries, particularly major ones in five- or ten-year increments, are obvious milestones to award with pins, but this system also allows for participation in special occasions or unforeseen events to be recognized with a pin. Even events with an overall negative impression, such as working in a clinical setting during an emerging global pandemic, can have a small positive memory attached to them by recognizing that person's efforts with a pin to mark the milestone.

Another aspect we chose to focus on for retention and recognition efforts was the feeling of camaraderie that comes with being part of a team working toward a common goal. The obvious analog of this is sports teams, which opened up a wide avenue of possible branded touchpoints playing off sports branding, memorabilia, and imagery.

Utilizing an existing hashtag already in use within the organization, "#TeamAubergine," Aubergine being the name of our primary (purple) brand color, we created a range of sports-themed materials drawing on that name for the program. Team members would each receive a vintage-style felt pennant with "Team Aubergine" emblazoned on it to hang in their work spaces (at the time, the corporate team was still entirely remote and working from home), new team members could be recognized on social media by appearing in baseball card-like imagery, and direct mail to team members could be diecut into the shape of a basketball jersey with the recipient's name printed as variable data in the expected spot on the back, incorporated into the messaging.