News and Articles – Employee Engagement

Associates Get Invested in their Careers

By Leslie Vryenhoek
June 2011

Published in ROP Magazine - Gold Star Article

Scottrade is a name trusted by investors looking to grow their self-directed portfolios, but the 31-year-old online investment firm also works hard to nurture investment within its ranks. Its flourishing incentive program, called “Get Invested,” is helping drive the firm’s family culture of respect and appreciation.

The comprehensive incentive program features individual, team and discretionary awards given to associates who “do the right thing.” The rewards system is designed to foster the company’s core values. These are focused both outwardly—on customer service, trust and integrity—and internally, on teamwork, independent development and open sharing of ideas, opinions and information across all levels. Awards can carry a varying amount of points for the associate to redeem.

Originally called “Above & Beyond,” the program was rebranded in 2009 to jibe with Scottrade’s corporate tagline, Get Invested.

“What I’ve noticed is that this really drives employees’ engagement in their careers; in the company; and with each other,” says Jane Wulf,  Scottrade’s chief administrative officer with responsibility for human resources. “We want our associates to get fully invested.”

When Wulf joined the company 25 years ago, it was a four-employee operation called Scottsdale Securities.  Today, the online investing firm spans over 500 branch offices, and the number of associates has doubled in the past three years to approximately 3,500.

According to Wulf, Scottrade partnered with Anderson Performance Improvement to develop a program that models the free-flowing kind of sharing that is one of the burgeoning company’s strengths. At Scottrade, communication flows in all directions, and so do the rewards. The Get Invested program allows everyone to recognize and to be recognized at all levels, from intern to executive. Wulf says peer-to-peer and manager-to-peer recognition are encouraged, and that from time to time an associate fires a reward up to an executive.

While individual and team awards require supervisory or executive committee endorsement, there are also immediate ways for Scottrade employees to confer recognition. Associates can send up to three e-cards per month that contain point values, and a limitless number of e-cards that do not include a point value to say “thanks” and “I value what you do.” As well, each manager receives 10 scratch-off cards per quarter, which they are encouraged to use during the course of day-to-day activity; again, no approval is needed for this on-the-spot recognition. These speedy, easy ways to say thank you allow for timely recognition that is crucial to any incentive program.

To generate excitement, the program was launched in 2007 with a big, national “I Scream -You Scream” ice cream social. CEO Rodger Riney and other executives scooped sundaes at the St. Louis headquarters office, while branch managers across the nation received a party box to host their own events. According to Wulf, this executive-level involvement is ongoing, and continues to help make the program a success.

In 2010, 2,821 Scottrade employees received recognition – and 2,155 received more than one form of recognition. That same year, almost 20,000 e-cards made the rounds.  The employee engagement reward program is likely one factor in why Scottrade has been named to Fortune‘s 100 Best Companies to Work For list for four consecutive years (in 2011, the company ranked 12th).

“I’m a firm believer that getting on a top employer list has more to do with how the people who work together treat each other than with benefits and perks,” Wulf asserts. “If our associates didn’t like the people they work with, or the supervisors didn’t appreciate them and let them know it, they wouldn’t like working here.”

Significantly, the program starts engaging associates from their first days on the job. The training department keeps scratch cards on hand to reward new hires for good performance during the onboarding program. And from there, it doesn’t take long for those who shine to reap the rewards.

Robert Haire III is a case in point. The corporate paralegal thinks the program is progressive and keeps Scottrade’s corporate culture at the forefront of every associate’s mind. “Scottrade’s culture is about doing the right thing,” he explains. “Our Get Invested program is an extension of that culture and reinforces my own personal values of recognizing others.”

At Scottrade, Haire was able to turn his personal values into a tropical vacation. He joined the firm’s St. Louis headquarters in 2008, and was able to accumulate over 200,000 points in 18 months. In June 2010, he redeemed those points for roundtrip airfare to the Dominican Republic.

Despite its growth, Scottrade works hard to make sure it maintains a family-like culture where associates feel respected and appreciated by their peers as well as by management.

Most significantly, says Wulf, “The program has helped to encourage our people to always do the right thing,” And whether that “right thing” is focused on a customer or a colleague, Scottrade associates can bet their best efforts won’t go unrecognized.