Overview

About Lockton

Lockton Companies is the world’s largest privately held insurance brokerage firm, offering customized solutions in risk management, insurance, and employee benefits consulting. Founded in 1966 and headquartered in Kansas City, it serves customers in over 125 countries with a client-first philosophy driven by its private ownership. Lockton specializes in areas like property and casualty insurance, global benefits, and industry-specific risk strategies, and is known for its high-touch service, deep expertise, and award-winning workplace culture.

The Challenge

A manual, low-impact recognition process that couldn’t globally scale

Lockton faced a growing challenge: recognizing and celebrating its global employees in a consistent, meaningful, and scalable way. With nearly a third of its workforce operating remotely across 36 states—and continued expansion to its over 130 global offices on the horizon—Lockton needed more than ad hoc shoutouts and manually managed awards.

“Prior to Awardco, the recognition process was manual and time-consuming. Everything was done through emails and spreadsheets, with physical delivery of plaques and gifts. Important milestones were sometimes missed, despite our best intentions.”
Mallory Pence, Marketing Manager

Lockton’s recognition efforts, though well-intentioned, were time consuming and inconsistent. The assistant VP spent many hours a month managing a physical email inbox and walking to people’s desks to deliver awards. Leaders lacked visibility into who was being recognized and why, and admins faced challenges with reward tracking and tax-compliance. The lack of centralized data also made it difficult to use recognition to inform talent decisions.

The Solution

One unified and automated platform, tailored to Lockton’s needs

Lockton selected Awardco after a rigorous evaluation process, which included input from a cross-functional focus group. The team was drawn to its user-friendly interface, native integrations, and powerful automation capabilities.

“When I joined Lockton, we didn’t have a recognition platform. It was the first thing I pushed for—because I’ve seen firsthand how important it is. People want to feel seen and validated.”
Selia Wood, AVP, Talent & Engagement

“We selected Awardco after a focus group review. It was hands down unanimous. Everyone loved how clean, easy, and intuitive Awardco was, especially the ‘Who do you want to recognize?’ prompt right when you log in.”
Selia Wood, AVP, Talent & Engagement

By integrating with Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Lockton’s HRIS and Mobile App, Awardco now delivers seamless recognition touchpoints across the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, anniversaries, and cultural events.

Lockton has 30+ programs, 18 of which are automated and 25 of which are non-monetary. They use the platform to:

• Enable leadership to recognize dispersed talent publicly, equitably, and frequently
• Power their “WOW Awards” spot recognition program where peers and managers can shout out one another with monetary points
• Recognize employees in accordance with their core values, which actively keeps those top of mind 
• Automate birthday and service anniversary messages and rewards, powered by their HRIS integration
• Send customized onboarding communications from the CEO and leadership, which includes a 3 month recognition and a 6 month monetary reward
• Create scalable recognition programs such as “Celebrating Culture” to highlight those who proudly engage in Lockton’s culture,” Community Impact” for community service activities, and “High-Speed Bingo” for team bonding
• Empower recipients to choose their own rewards, replacing restrictive and hard-to-manage gift cards
• Reward people for participating in events such as costume contests via physical AwardCodes™
• Stay tax complaint and manage risk via the platform’s tracking system
• Power their annual State of the Companies award event, allowing individuals to nominate colleagues for various high-impact and performance awards and rewarding those we give and receive the most accolades in the platform
• Create physical award trophies

“AwardCodes are like handing out cash—they’re quick, powerful, and remove all the admin work. I call it the Oprah moment: ‘You get AwardCodes! And you get AwardCodes!’”
Tisa Penny, Engagement & Events Lead, 2025 Recognition Rockstar Winner

“Awardco is not just a recognition tool—it’s a risk mitigation solution. Our tax and payroll teams love that we can now accurately track and report gifting, with proper IRS compliance.”
Selia Wood, AVP, Talent & Engagement

“With the rollout of Awardco last fall, Lockton has made recognizing others easier, more meaningful, and way more fun. I am HONORED (and blown away!) to be named one of the top recognition recipients since we launched the platform! This isn’t just an award — it’s a reflection of the incredible people I get to work with every day. I'm so grateful to be surrounded by teammates and leaders who consistently take the time to recognize the good in others.”
Tisa Penny, Engagement & Events Lead, 2025 Recognition Rockstar Winner

“From a business perspective, we use Awardco data to publicly highlight our people across internal platforms and LinkedIn. Most importantly, we accept nominations year-round for our big State of the Companies meeting, ensuring no standout moment goes unnoticed.”
Mallory Pence, Marketing Manager

The Results

Culture activation, talent visibility and scalable impact

Lockton has transformed employee recognition from a manual chore into a strategic business driver.

“Associates love it. We've had over 95% user adoption in the first six months. It's been a huge success.”
Selia Wood, AVP, Talent & Engagement

Increased talent visibility

• Awardco data now supports talent mapping, performance calibration, and promotion decisions. It also helps identify discrepancies. For example, a person could have "performance" issues per their manager, but may receive many peer recognitions for that perceived weakness. Awardco helps identify disconnects and correct for them.
• Managers can see peer-recognized contributions that would otherwise go unnoticed—surfacing high-potential employees and even identifying flight risks. Awardco acts as another data set.

“A quiet employee might never self-promote, but Awardco gives us the visibility to see their impact. We’ve literally had leaders say, ‘I had no idea!’ when reviewing this data.”
Melissa York, Head of People & Culture

Operational efficiency

• Lockton now saves 30+ hours per month by automating recognition workflows and gift distribution.
• AwardCodes in place of physical gift cards has replaced physical gift card tracking and delivery, as well as expanded employee reward choice.
• With a previous provider, IRS audits took over 2 weeks. With Awardco, gifting designation is automatic, compliant, and all around easier.

Improved engagement across a remote and hybrid workforce

• Recognition has become a daily experience, even for remote employees, thanks to the mobile app, Teams, and Outlook integrations.
• Awardco social feeds bring recognition into daily digital environments, boosting morale and inclusion.
• The flexibility of reward choice has significantly driven engagement. With the “Purchase Points” feature, users can use their personal funds to buy items if they are short on points.
• AwardCodes are used to drive participation for in-office events like lunch and learns, fun activities like a Bingo Brain Break, or challenges like the Halloween costume contest or “Football Pick’ems”. These remain inclusive toward remote employees, as digital codes can be sent easily to those who can’t participate in-person. This has boosted remote participation in cultural activities and overall belonging among their dispersed workforce.

“Almost a third of our associates are remote. So while we don't get to see them every day, Awardco has provided a platform where they are very visible.”
Tisa Penny, Engagement & Events Lead, 2025 Recognition Rockstar Winner

Scalability and strategic expansion

• Lockton achieved a remarkable 95%+ adoption rate in the first 6 months
• The team is currently scaling support from 800 users to 7,000+ globally
• The platform is gaining interest across departments, including Tax, for further expansion with regard to how gifting is manager

“Awardco is humanizing our culture at scale. It helps us see people—their birthdays, their efforts, their stories—even when we’re spread across 36 states.”
Melissa York, SVP, People & Culture

Get a demo today to see how recognition can transform your own organization.