Innovating Employee Engagement Through Analog-First Experience Design
Milk Drops Recognition
Context
Lactalis, a global dairy company with 3,000+ U.S. employees across 18 distributed sites, needed an employee recognition program that was inclusive, culturally aligned, and scalable.
The majority of the workforce - manufacturing employees - didn’t work behind a desk or have regular digital access, which made traditional SaaS-based recognition platforms irrelevant to them.
Leadership wanted a solution that would improve morale, reinforce company values, and unify corporate and frontline teams through shared culture, without relying on yet another underused digital tool.
Challenge
Most recognition platforms on the market were expensive and designed exclusively for corporate settings. Implementing one would have been easier, BUT:
Excluded 85% of employees from participation
Increased costs without ensuring meaningful engagement
Failed to align with the company’s culture or brand identity
Additionally, internal surveys and past initiatives showed skepticism toward top-down “HR programs” and a lack of consistent peer-to-peer appreciation - especially in manufacturing sites.
Below: Slides to introduce the initiative and share with partners
Approach
Instead of defaulting to a tech-first solution, I designed an analog, human-centered program tailored to real-world employee experience:
Concept Development: Sketched the full program from scratch, designing for accessibility, simplicity, and cultural fit
Brand & Design: Created custom booklets called Milk Drops, with 24 tear-away peer recognition cards branded around company values like Simplicity, Ambition, and Safety
Behavioral Strategy: Incorporated principles of reciprocity, gamification, and simplicity to encourage meaningful participation
Pilot & Rollout: Tested the program at corporate HQ, then scaled it to all 18 sites—with employees posting Milk Drops on boards, using them in off-sites, and organically celebrating their teams.
Incentives: Tied the program to an unprecedented year-end reward—a paid vacation for employees who gave or received a full booklet, enabled by saving over $180,000 on software costs.
Full Ownership: Led the entire project, from vendor and executive alignment to rollout, training, communications, ongoing assessments through a range of adoption metrics: prize redemption, digital sharing, on site displays (offices and lockers)
Result
100% participation across the national sites: corporate and manufacturing
$180K+ in cost savings compared to leading SaaS tools
Cultural resonance across departments - employees proudly displayed Milk Drops, used them in team events, and embedded the program in daily work
Global interest: presented at the international leadership conference, with subsidiaries in Italy and Australia exploring adoption
Proof of concept that analog-first, emotionally intelligent design can outperform digital defaults, when done with careful research and customer insights.
Takeaway
Engagement starts with people, not platforms.
Analog solutions can scale when grounded in behavior, brand, and belonging.
When you give employees something simple, meaningful, and personal - they actually use it.
Below: Team off-sites and conferences integrated this new cultural ritual bringing positive connection, accountability and a refreshing lens of peer to peer recognition.
Recommendation:
Have you ever worked with someone who had the innovative mind and positive attitude that could turn any task, any hurdle, and any challenge into a fun one that would teach you more than you thought you would get out of it?
Someone who can look at a problem that needs solving, and not only suggest a solution but work with you every step of the way to implement it? That is Ambra.
A true communications and entrepreneurial genius!
-Emily Rowsell, Photographer and Designer