Going for groundbreaking cultural transformation [Supervielle Group case study]

Following several acquisitions and IPOs on the New York and Argentine stock markets, Grupo Supervielle—one of the fastest- growing financial companies in Argentina—found itself experiencing a drastic transformation. 

“Our evolution is occurring at an incredibly fast pace and our ability to transform our culture at the same speed is critical to our survival,” explains the bank’s HR leader,  Santiago Batlle. For him, the greatest challenge in this process is to find the best way to bring  all the bank’s employees together under the same set of core values and make them feel excited about taking part in something big and innovative.

As Batlle and other leaders were looking for the best way to unify their culture, the bank’s controlling shareholder Patricio Supervielle met with Martín Migoya, Globant’s CEO and co-founder. He told them about Globant’s experience using StarMeUp to build a strong and unique culture that would go hand in hand with their rapid corporate growth.

Not only did Globant and Supervielle share similar rapid growth experiences, they also shared a passion for culture. The bank had previously implemented a simple recognition program but its impact had been limited due to its low visibility within the organization.

When Batlle and the Supervielle leadership team saw StarMeUp, they quickly saw the great benefits of  real-time data and insights. “Knowing that we could access real-time metrics from each area of our company just blew our minds,” says Batlle. They decided to immediately adopt the platform throughout the organization to speed up their transformation journey.

Take it from the top

StarMeUp was positively welcomed  by employees from the start, and based on their initial success, Supervielle saw the potential chance  to make a  greater impact on their culture. The Communications and HR teams worked together to think of an action plan consisting of a series of actions to merge together the company’s values, communication strategies, and the power of the platform.

The plan’s objective was twofold: 

“As a leader, when I acknowledge the efforts of those around me in a public and transparent platform like StarMeUp, not only am I recognizing people,, but also setting the example for everyone in the company,” emphasizes Mariano Muñiz, Chief of Internal Communications.

Patricio Supervielle is also one of the most enthusiastic StarMeUp users within the bank, and he found a way to combine the platform’s employee recognition feature with his first passion: customer experience. “He is known for his ability to reach out individual customers and care about their experience with the bank. Now,  with StarMeUp, he transmits those insights he gets from one-on-one conversations with clients in the form of stars and recognition for those employees who represent our core values. And, if our shareholder finds the time to give recognition, we can all find it too,” emphasizes Batlle.

The teams also meet once a month to visualize and analyze the least recognized values, and think of ideas on how to spread them more efficiently and get more employees involved with the organization.

They also analyze insights from key audiences: “HR visits the branches with the list of most recognized employees in each region, and reviews them with the regional managers,” says Soledad García, Supervielle’s Talent and Culture Manager.

After six months of planned actions based on the defined road map, the number of stars increased by 75%.

Achieving success: The Table of Stars

One of the key initiatives that generated a peak in the number of stars sent over the platform was the Table of Stars, an event that celebrates the individuals with the highest number of stars in the bank’s six core values over the past year. 

HR and communications invited everyone in the organization to check out the profiles of those peers who had received the highest number of stars in the company’s six core values, and to vote for the individuals who would be recognized at the Table of Stars. Then, they organized a breakfast with the winners, the CEO, and their leaders. The result? An unforgettable emotive experience for everyone involved.

One of the attendees  was an employee from one of the branches in a small town outside Buenos Aires called Pergamino. She had been an employee for 15 years and without the platform she may have never been identified as a leader. “It was super rewarding. The use of stars is already 30% higher compared to last year.  Being able to quantify what we thought was happening motivates us to continue working even more to drive recognition,” says Muñiz.

The future: the path paved from best practices

The bank was so thrilled with its initial success that they are already planning the second edition of the Table of Stars. “By bringing together those individuals who have received the highest number of recognitions from every corner of the organization, we can show how recognition allows everyone to gain visibility. We want to highlight that,” explains García.

The StarMeUp team continues to work closely with Supervielle to generate new ideas to further drive their innovative culture. Recently, our team participated in the bank’s benchmark event “Communicating the Transformation.” They reflected with industry and HR leaders upon the impact of digital transformation on communication and how technology can humanize organizations.

“Recognition sets a path, gives you information, puts names to individual  actions . It gives people visibility within the organization. StarMeUp makes it easy because it is agile, simple and user- friendly, ” says Batlle. By allowing everyone to become visible within the organization, all employees feel passionate about Supervielle’s culture: something Batlle is putting his hopes on.