SRS Contractor Rewards Employees Through New Innovative Application

AIKEN, S.C. – Engineers with EM’s liquid waste contractor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) have developed and implemented new technology to recognize and reward employees promptly for positive behaviors, actions, and attitudes.

Through the innovative application called RAVE (Recognizing Achievement of Values and Expectations), employees with Savannah River Remediation (SRR) can nominate peers who demonstrate specific behaviors and attitudes that reinforce SRR’s values of safety, integrity, continuous improvement, teamwork, and ownership. After a nomination is approved by management, the nominee picks up a gift card as a token of appreciation.

One of SRR’s expectations of teamwork is to recognize co-workers for exceptional performance, and RAVE is a simple and meaningful way to do that, according to SRR Chief Engineer Phil Breidenbach.

“Our RAVE winners don’t just remember the gift card — that is simply a perk,” Breidenbach said. “What makes the most impact is knowing that your co-worker or manager took the time to acknowledge your performance and hard work. That speaks volumes.”

Thanks to the automated system, the mean time from when a nomination is submitted to when the nominee receives the gift card is 41 minutes.

“One of the keys to effective positive reinforcement is timeliness,” Breidenbach said. “Positive reinforcement works best when it is immediate or as close to when the actual behavior occurred as possible. The quick turnaround time for employees to be recognized for their behavior helps make this new program a big success and improves the effectiveness of positive reinforcement.”

Since the app’s launching in June 2019, almost 200 nominations have been awarded through RAVE.