Travelex

Background
Over the past 40 years Travelex has grown to become a leading independent foreign exchange business. But following a significant and challenging restructuring operation to make it more agile in today’s fast-moving financial services sector, it was experiencing a dip in morale and motivation. Younger employees had different ideas about how they wanted to be engaged, recognised and incentivised. And it was failing to engage staff, particularly at the frontline.

Approach
Travelex tackled these challenges head on with the launch of a unique gamification IP, the RPM League. The league started in the UK with 24 teams and has proved so effective it has been rolled out globally across the business.

"A customer-centric discipline where hard KPIs are fun to achieve"

Teams compete through gamified competitions with the ultimate goal to be celebrated as ‘best of the best’ and to receive the Championship trophy at the end of the season. There are now 221 teams in 13 leagues helping to drive performance increases across the business. During League season, metrics across the business have improved, some examples include delivering +32% growth in US retail sales as well as a +10.3% increase in sale profit per transactions, to double digit increases in employee engagement survey participation and speed to hire, as well as a 68% reduction in customer complaint resolution errors. Similar impressive results are seen when a dedicated gamification initiative or sprint is run.

Outcome
By focusing on and encouraging team spirit through inter-store and inter-country competition, Travelex has driven a customer centric discipline as well as pride within the competing teams. The initiative has made “hard KPIs fun to achieve”. Gamification principles are now being adopted by Travelex’s non-retail support and enabling function teams in the UK and has now replicated the League’s success within its parent company, setting up a new league called CHASE - Customer Happiness and Service Excellence.