About American Express Services Europe Limited

Leaders focus on delivering business results through engaging their employees. This approach is embedded within the whole culture and there are a number of different activities which drive improvements in this field. According to their internal employee engagement survey (called The Pulse), they have seen favourable responses increase year on year, along with the number of employees choosing to participate in the survey. The entire organisation is guided by Blue Box Values. These reflect who they are and what they stand for and clearly state commitment to customers, quality, people, integrity, teamwork and good citizenship. Examples of senior management commitment to their Blue Box values include a culture of ‘skip level meetings’ where employees have the opportunity to meet with senior leaders and ‘townhalls’ Where employees are updated with key organisational information. They can also be seen in the senior sponsorship of their Employee Networks. These bring together people with shared backgrounds and interest to engage with and learn from each other outside of their daily work lives. They give participants the opportunity to broaden their networks as well as their knowledge of the business, and in many cases, give back to the local community. A final example is the strong relationship with Albion in the Community, the charitable arm of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club. This provides volunteering opportunities for employees as well as work experiences and programmes for key groups in the local community.

On 5 February 2015, the company led a major employee engagement initiative in support of Time to Change’s ‘Time to Talk’ Day. They have set up a mental health steering committee to support this activity with representatives from across the business. UK American Express employees were encouraged to support the campaign by taking 5 minutes to have a conversation about mental health, either in one-to-ones, or in team meetings. Email calls to action to all employees were distributed, printed materials were provided in the communal areas, plus a one minute video was provided as a conversation starter. At the same time, they promoted their ‘Healthy Minds’ employee assistance programme as a go-to resource for emotional wellbeing, so that employees could share information about the resources available. Employees were asked to bank their conversations via a data collection tool. The aim for the public campaign was 24 hours of conversations across the country. The day at the company started with the HR leadership team focusing on the topic at its leadership day programme. A road show event in key operation locations saw hundreds of meaningful interactions, and the Occupational Health team dedicated the day to mental wellbeing activities. Employees across American Express UK took up the challenge, banking a total of 26 hours and 45 minutes’ worth of conversations about mental health, exceeding the target set by the campaign. As a result the company has sought to normalise the conversation around mental health.

The Reward Blue programme enables all employees to recognise colleagues no matter which business unit they work in, grade or location. Employees can praise effort, reward results and celebrate loyalty. Employees can be nominated for Reward Blue points that can be redeemed through the Reward Blue catalogue to buy gifts and high street shopping vouchers. Every year March is ‘Employee Appreciation Month’. Senior Leaders encourage their employees to consider how they can celebrate everyday accomplishments at work. In addition Blue Looks Good on You was held on March 18, and employees were asked to wear their best blue clothes to show their support for recognition. Pinnacle Reward programs are uniquely designed by business unit Senior Leaders to recognise outstanding achievements and the extraordinary people who made them happen. Chairman’s Award for Innovation program honours teams worldwide who have developed new or improved products, processes or services that have had a measurable impact on business results. It is the premier program for recognising employees around the world who exemplify the innovative spirit that is a core element of the heritage Customer Service Award which recognises two categories of excellence: employees who provided a single act of outstanding service over the past year and employees who demonstrate consistent excellence over five years or more. The Working Parents and Care Givers programme has been set up for employees to nominate a colleague who manages to make their career and family fit into their life and inspires them. Ten winners are chosen to receive 10,000 reward blue points.