Western Union

Western
Union

Celebrating Game Changers that are leading the way forward

Primary Roles:
Creative Director
Lead Visual Designer

Western Union is a multinational financial services company whose core business is facilitating domestic and international transfers for individuals. Other services include bill payments, money orders, prepaid services and digital financial tools. Western Union has over 9,000 employees globally and operates in 200+ countries and territories.

The Problem

Western Union sought a partner to rebuild its employee recognition and rewards strategy. Although they had an existing platform, it lacked flexibility and alignment with company goals.

Key challenges included:

Point budgets were allocated solely by headcount, creating a sense of unfairness among managers.
Budgets expired each quarter instead of rolling over.
Awards were limited to fixed point values with no customization options.
Business units couldn’t launch their own tailored programs.
Recognition submissions lacked depth and alignment with Western Union’s core behaviors.
Poor communication led to inconsistent platform use and budget non-compliance.

Our Strategy

Leveraging our RewardStation® platform and 25 years of recognition expertise, we designed a program that:

Enabled budget management by appropriate hierarchy levels, with flexibility by team size and scope.
Allowed unused budgets to roll over quarterly.
Redirected point allocations toward behaviors with measurable customer impact.
Supported quick creation of targeted, business-unit-specific recognition programs.
Gave managers real-time visibility into engagement and compliance through dashboards and reporting.
Encouraged public storytelling of high-impact recognition through a social feed, Hall of Fame page, and live events.
Rebranded the program to reflect Western Union’s goals and values.
Delivered clear employee education and communication to drive proper platform usage.