SCM's Ashby Helps Berkeley Launch New Service Awards Program

Laurina Ashby

Service and retirement awards have long been a tradition at University of California campuses. These gifts have ranged from simple pins to elaborate glass pieces to the less-sublime, but more practical crockpot.

Looking to recognize faculty and staff in a way that reflected their loyalty and service as well as the greatness of the institution, UC Berkeley’s Jeannine Raymond, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Human Resources (HR), began two years ago an effort to revamp the campus awards program. Raymond had a concept and, early in the process, her office reached out to Supply Chain Management, Laurina Ashby, for guidance in finding and working with a supplier that would be willing to create a custom design within Berkeley’s budget.

“UC Berkeley used to provide service awards and retirement gifts through another company offered a predetermined set of gifts from a catalog.  The gifts weren’t that personal and we wanted to change that experience for the employees,” said Ashby, Procurement Supervisor and Senior Buyer. “We wanted something unique, that hadn’t been done before.”

Launched in January, the program features a service award that is a highly polished, clear glass disc engraved with the recipient’s years of service (starting at 10 years and with a new, slightly smaller disc for every five years of service) and the UC Berkeley seal. The award was designed to stand alone as a recognition gift and can be collected and stacked to create a tower. The new retirement award is a deep blue, polished glass disc engraved with the recipient's total years of service at retirement and the Berkeley seal. It is the largest disc, forming the base of the tower, or it can be a stand-alone gift.

The service awards stack on top of the retirement award.

Not only beautiful, the new program will save Berkeley almost $59,000 annually and $176,550 over three years. The packaging and distribution, previously handled by UC Berkeley employees, is now handled by the supplier, saving a little over 300 HR staff hours each year. Berkeley HR now provides a list of monthly recipients and the supplier handles the rest.

Getting from Raymond’s initial idea to the finished product required more than your average

request for proposal (RFP) and contract award. The contract was really just the beginning of Ashby’s involvement. Realizing that there was still a lot of management needed for the project to succeed, she started holding weekly meetings that included members from HR, the supplier and the manufacturer.

“We met on a weekly basis to review all the open agenda items that we needed to accomplish from the beginning of the process through shipment to the recipient which included; what paper should be used, how to manage wrong addresses, how the packing should look when opening the lid, defining ownership throughout the process, and testing the process. We wanted to ensure that the launch of these awards didn’t have any issues that would affect how the recipient felt about the gift.  It needed to be a flawless process,” said Ashby. “We also discovered from reviewing the process details that the old program had a lot of hands-on by UC employees.”

The awards come with an embossed letter.

Ashby and the HR team also continued to collaborate with the manufacturer to refine the award’s design. Ashby’s previous experience with glass manufacturers proved invaluable in this process.

“Laurina was an absolute wonder,” said Dan Hrabosky, HR Project Manager. “She was patient, professional and fun to work with. She went out of her way to get it done correctly. Her personal insight helped contribute to the overall success of the program.”

Ashby cited the supplier, Engage2Excel, for their commitment to the overall project and customer service. The Berkeley group originally had planned to have the recipient letter on embossed paper, but if there were changes within the organization then all of the letters would have to be scrapped. Engage2Excel suggested an embossed card, with an acknowledgement letter that is attached with a light tack. The company went as far as buying the special printer to create the embossed card on their own dime.

“They bought the printer, valued at $40,000, before we even issued the purchase order,” said Ashby. “They were really committed to making this happen and investing in the process and tools. The glass discs will be cut to size at the beginning of the year and personalized before shipment.  We were trying to think of ways where we could save money and reduce our scrap costs.”

And to ensure that the that the awards were delivered timely and successfully, the Berkeley team worked with Engage2Excel to refine samples and test the process by sending samples directly to UC project team homes.

“The awards need to be pristine. They have to be on time,” Ashby said. “They are shipped in a double box so that the inside gift box isn’t damaged.  Once they proved that they could do it, we were able to roll it out in January.”

Reflecting on the project, Ashby said she especially enjoyed going through the entire process and actually seeing it come to fruition. “Sometimes these ideas are really great,” she said, “but they don’t actually go through. This project had everyone’s committment.”

“We’re a renowned University and now our service awards are renowned.”