The value of employee recognition schemes is well understood, but prior to February 2024 mining group Rio Tinto operated more than 30 different programmes across the 35 countries in which it operates leading to an inconsistent experience for its 60,000 plus employees.
RockStars is the company’s first global employee recognition scheme, which also recognises service milestones, and is designed to align with Rio Tinto’s new strategic direction and values of care, courage and curiosity. The new initiative is simple, inclusive and personalised.
Using a simple app, RockStars allows every employee to recognise colleagues across Rio Tinto’s global network for actions big or small that align with its values, or to congratulate them on achieving a service milestone, with every interaction shared on a live feed to inspire others to embody the mining group’s values.
Its name also plays into Rio Tinto’s mining heritage, while the tagline It’s what we’re made of that matters reinforces alignment with the new values.
Both the logo and tagline are also versatile, allowing them to be translated and used across various platforms and materials, including digital signs and merchandise.
The objectives of the RockStars programme were many. It sought to:
Deepen employees’ connection to and adoption of Rio’s new culture and values.
Celebrate workplace achievements on a daily basis
Accelerate cultural and behavioural change within the group
Be accessible across all sites, offices and countries
Improve employee engagement, productivity, retention and performance
The programme’s success was to be judged by participation rates both on the platform and at live events, how colleagues engaged with communications about RockStars and feedback from across the board.
In December 2023, Rio Tinto launched a teaser campaign that RockStars would launch on 14 February 2024 – Valentine’s Day.
More than 100 employees – known internally as the RockStars Army – were mobilised to facilitate the local roll out of the programme, ensuring it met local standards and traditions while retaining a consistent global narrative and branding.
Recognising the challenges faced by frontline and remote employees, which ranged from limited technology access to literacy, RockStars materials were created in more than eight languages and in a variety of visual formats. Working with human resources, an offline programme was also created that ensured inclusivity and broad reach.
Leaders across the organisation were also armed with toolkits and aids to help them motivate their teams to get involved.
On launch day, 47 events were held across 35 countries, including at some remote sites, with a custom RockStars Spotify playlist to add atmosphere. The launch event in India also included a RockStars values-based game to reinforce them while Rio Tinto’s commercial team launched RockStars with a mascot to be awarded on a weekly basis to a RockStar.
The global launched reached 42,600 employees, while 25,906 downloaded the RockStars app, 19,600 of whom recognised a colleague within the first week, generating 24,671 recognition moments. The programme’s branding and launch videos, featuring the voices of employees, were displayed on 45,000 lock screens and 462 digital screens.
Within six months, RockStars had facilitated 130,000 recognition moments and celebrated 8,868 service milestones.