RELX brings legacy awards into a global, employee recognition experience

RELX unified global recognition without losing the awards employees valued most. By bringing legacy team awards into its Achievers-powered Spotlight program, recognition became visible, inclusive, and scalable. The result: higher participation, less admin, and a modern recognition experience that still honoured what mattered.

Get a demo

80%

of employees recognised

88%

in awards nominations submitted

90%

of employees enroled in program

Topics Covered:

Culture and Consistent Recognition

RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers, needed to build a modern and inclusive approach to employee recognition — without losing the ability to continue valued, targeted team awards.

By establishing a global recognition foundation with its Achievers-powered, inclusive recognition program, Spotlight, and then bringing its valued and targeted team awards into the platform, RELX created a scalable recognition experience that increased participation, visibility, and efficiency, while preserving what mattered most.

A global organisation poised to unify and enhance its employee recognition experiences

RELX operates at significant global scale, with employees distributed across regions, functions, and business units. While recognition and appreciation were important to the organisation, the experience was inconsistent and some of its most respected programs were constrained by manual processes.

As one of four operating divisions within RELX, Elsevier faced a familiar challenge. Recognition existed across the business, but not in a unified way. Teams ran their own programs independently, many of them managed manually through emails, spreadsheets, or standalone tools.

As a result, employees experienced recognition differently depending on where they worked and great work wasn’t readily shared beyond teams.

Beyond that inconsistency, RELX recognised a broader limitation. Recognition was not social. There was no simple way for colleagues across the organisation to see, celebrate, and engage with one another’s contributions.

What the organisation needed was a single, global recognition platform that could:

Create a consistent employee experience across divisions and locations
Enable peer‑to‑peer recognition at scale
Increase visibility and celebration of great work across the organisation
Reduce manual effort and administrative complexity

Establishing a global recognition foundation

RELX launched Spotlight as its enterprise recognition platform. This was the first time employees across the organisation shared a single, global recognition experience.

From the outset, Spotlight was positioned as a recognition‑first platform, not a rewards program.

The launch was supported by a centrally led communications strategy, including senior leader briefings, a multi‑week internal campaign, employee‑wide announcements, and clear FAQs and toolkits to support adoption.

The response was immediate. Employees across RELX began using Spotlight to recognise everyday wins, collaboration, and behaviours aligned to company values — strengthening connection across teams and geographies.

A valued awards program, constrained by manual processes

With Spotlight established as the foundation for recognition, Elsevier turned its attention to another challenge: modernising the OPERA Awards.

OPERA was an established and highly valued awards program within Elsevier Global Operations, recognising exceptional individual and team performance across categories including Culture, Content, Data and Innovation, Trusted Partner, Customer and Efficiency.

Operationally, however, OPERA no longer reflected the recognition experience employees had come to expect.

The program was run offline, with:

- Nominations submitted and reviewed via spreadsheets
- Limited visibility beyond final winners
- One‑time cash awards processed through global payroll

While OPERA remained meaningful, its manual administration and limited visibility stood in contrast to the simplicity, reach, and inclusivity of Spotlight — creating a clear opportunity to evolve.

Bringing OPERA into the Spotlight

Later, Elsevier brought the OPERA Awards into their Achievers recognition program, Spotlight, making it the first awards initiative embedded directly within the platform.

The shift transformed the end‑to‑end experience:

Nominations became centralised and easier to submit
Employee data was populated automatically
Nominees were recognised socially, not just winners
Rewards moved from cash to Spotlight points, simplifying compliance and administration
Points give employee choice in how and when they want to be recognised – points can be redeemed immediately for digital gift cards or locally sourced products, or they can be saved or donated

Importantly, recognition expanded beyond award recipients. Nominees were celebrated publicly, helping to surface meaningful project work and side‑of‑desk contributions that may previously have gone unseen.

Measurable gains in participation, visibility, and efficiency

The impact of bringing OPERA into Spotlight was immediate and measurable.

When OPERA was run offline:

213 nominations were submitted
72 winners were recognised

With OPERA embedded in Spotlight:

400+ nominations were submitted (an 88% increase)
135 winners were recognised

At the same time, Spotlight adoption across RELX remained strong:

90%+ employee enrolment
More than 75,000 recognitions received in the first year

From an administrative perspective, the move eliminated spreadsheet management, streamlined processes, improved reporting accuracy, and removed the need for complex global payroll coordination — while delivering a more engaging and visible recognition experience for employees.

From recognition foundation to a scalable awards strategy

By launching Spotlight as a global recognition platform and then layering additional targeted award programs like OPERA into it, RELX established a scalable, future‑ready approach to recognition and awards.

OPERA served as a pilot, demonstrating how legacy programs could be modernised without losing their meaning. Since then, RELX has transitioned additional awards programs into Spotlight, with more in development.

Together, these efforts are helping RELX build a culture where recognition is timely, visible, and shared — and where awards feel like a natural extension of everyday appreciation.

“We didn’t have a global recognition programme in place across RELX. We had lots of different, business‑owned programmes, most of them manually administered. People’s experience of recognition varied depending on where they sat in the organisation.”

Kate Skae

Head of Rewards, Elsevier

“We’ve been very deliberate not to position it as a rewards programme. It’s about timely recognition, strengthening connections, and building community— allowing anybody to recognise anybody else across RELX at any time.”

Kate Skae

Head of Rewards, Elsevier

“Previously, OPERA awards were paid as one‑time cash payments through payroll. Global payroll processing for these awards was very challenging.”

Kate Skae

Head of Rewards, Elsevier

“It’s much, much better now. It’s all in one platform, and using points instead of cash is far better and tax compliant.”

Kate Skae

Head of Rewards, Elsevier

RELX needed a single, global recognition platform

88% increase in nominations submitted

Nearly 80% of employees recognised

Business size