RPI Honors Lonnie Ross with Pamela Sabin Recognition Champion Award

2020's recipient — Lonnie Ross, Engagement Manager, CI Strategy Group — was nominated for her outstanding work at DTE Energy in Detroit, Michigan.

Lonnie created a system to collect examples of how employees make DTE Energy better for our customers, make their work easier and safer to do, and display strong collaboration with teammates. She writes articles where dozens of employee efforts are highlighted and shares them in an e-newsletter, Leaning In.

Lonnie identified the best channels to communicate and recognize employees. She chose an expo, a newsletter and an award. Each of these was accompanied by a large communications launch where existing internal communication channels such as the company internal website, leader-targeted emails, digital displays, table tents, fliers, etc., were leveraged.

She developed and actively manages the BEST Award (Better, Easier, Safer, Together), which has been used by DTE Energy leadership to recognize over 500 team members since its inception in 2018. The BEST Award is a quarterly award for which any employee can nominate a fellow employee. Awards are usually won by teams of 4-12 people and each person receives a sculpture hand-crafted by a local Michigan ironwork artist/college professor. These awards are delivered by their leaders in various ways across the company. Some have huge events, others have pizza lunches — however each leader sees fit. Employees who have won an award highly value the sculpture; many display them on their personal trophy walls and have special areas designated to showcase them!

Fortunately, Lonnie has the backing of a DTE Energy leadership team that cares deeply about employee engagement. The leaders have shaped a culture where recognition is important to everyone. This has contributed to DTE Energy winning its 7th straight Gallup Great Workplace award, and they are now in the 97th percentile of companies in the world in employee engagement.