Boosting Employee Engagement to Deliver High-Quality Care to Children with Autism
Learn how a social services organization is helping their employees stay engaged and feel recognized for their dedication in a rewarding and sometimes challenging job.
An organization whose primary mission is to provide the highest-quality care for and support of autistic children and their families can't afford to be at anything but its best. To that end, GoalPoint Behavior Group LLC, based in Columbus, Georgia (with two satellite offices in the state), offers effective applied behavioral analysis for clients diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. GoalPoint strives to reach positive outcomes by creating programs customized for each family and their child's needs.
That drive for high-quality, individualized care and service echoes throughout the organization. And to build an even stronger connection between successful client outcomes and employee dedication, GoalPoint took recent steps to boost its internal focus on staff engagement by purchasing and implementing Assembly, an employee recognition and rewards platform.
According to Sara Ohlsson, GoalPoint's HR coordinator, the original need for this type of solution was sparked by the company's supervisor monthly check-ins. Employees commented that they believed their hard work and dedication in a stressful job was not always recognized as fully as it could be.
With that employee feedback as a key driver, William Walton-Dean, GoalPoint's CEO, connected with the organization's ADP® contact, Stephanie, for ideas on enhancing rewards and recognition. She made him aware of Assembly.
"We connected with Assembly via ADP Marketplace and began discussing the possibilities," Ohlsson says. "We decided it would be a good idea and could address those employee concerns."
GoalPoint, which uses ADP Comprehensive Services, ADP's business process outsourcing solution, purchased Assembly through ADP Marketplace in early 2021.
Focusing on recognition, appreciation
Assembly's platform helps employees feel appreciated and acknowledged for their hard work. For example, it offers automated recognition for employee milestones, such as birthdays or work anniversaries. Employers can also offer charity rewards or choose from a fully customizable "culture rewards" catalog that includes experiences like access to mentorships, continuing education, company swag and team building events. At GoalPoint, employees can choose among culture rewards including a chance to "shadow" someone from a different department for a day, take a day off to volunteer, or enroll in an employer-paid e-course. One culture reward even includes earning "goal points" to have lunch with Walton-Dean.
"Since we launched Assembly, I've enjoyed watching our employees supporting each other and having fun doing it," Walton-Dean says.
The platform fits seamlessly into GoalPoint's ADP ecosystem, too. The integration automatically sends basic employee information from ADP to Assembly, so the HR team doesn't need to spend time on manual data entry.
By taking advantage of peer-to-peer recognition, GoalPoint employees can help surface "not just the big wins, but the little wins that historically could go unnoticed," Ohlsson says, noting that managers may inadvertently miss what an employee has achieved in a client case, yet a co-worker will often know the details. "Assembly encourages employees to celebrate wins together."
Ohlsson says the Assembly team delivered much of the initial implementation and training for employees, and ADP was there to provide added support as needed.
"It wasn't work for us; it's been very smooth on our end," Ohlsson says.
Nearly the whole company is active on Assembly, indicating its meaningful impact: Every single one of GoalPoint's 60 employees are receiving recognition every month, and 73% are giving it.
In the end, while the rewards and recognition are truly appreciated, Ohlsson says Assembly also serves as a great platform for employees to just have fun and engage with one another.
"Working with Autistic children is very rewarding, although sometimes challenging" she says. "Apart from recognition, Assembly serves as a fantastic stress reliever for our employees, and that's a gift in and of itself."
About Assembly
Assembly's mission is to enable every organization on the planet to empower their employees with the resources, authority, opportunity, and motivation to do their work and achieve more. Assembly helps customers nurture and grow awesome workplace culture.
About ADP Marketplace
ADP Marketplace is a digital HR storefront that enables you to connect and share data across all your HR solutions. Simplify your HR processes, reduce data errors and drive your business forward with easy-to-use apps that connect with your core ADP platform. Easily discover, try, buy and implement ADP and third-party solutions, all with the simplicity of single sign-on, single data input and single billing. Learn more at apps.adp.com.
Build and manage a better workforce with integrated HR solutions from ADP Marketplace partners like Assembly.
