Case Study: University of Texas - Arlington improves culture and cross-department communication with Bucketlist

Improving Culture & Communication through Employee Recognition

The University of Texas - Arlington Office of Information Technology faced persistent culture challenges: staff working in silos, limited cross‑department communication, and a lack of employee recognition identified in their Denison Culture Surveys. To address this, they partnered with Bucketlist and adopted Bucketlist’s employee recognition tool to boost peer and manager recognition, celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries, and improve organizational communication.

Bucketlist customized its recognition software to meet UTA’s government regulations—replacing points with a monthly leaderboard of the top eight recognition “givers” and “getters,” a custom reward store, and built‑in birthday/anniversary shout‑outs—and supported rollout activities like Lunch & Learns before the November 1, 2019 launch. The result was strong staff uptake and overwhelmingly positive feedback, measurable program mechanics (monthly top‑8 recognition), and clear improvements in cross‑team visibility, celebration culture, and communication—outcomes UTA attributes directly to Bucketlist.

University of Texas - Arlington

Tom George

Project Management Office Business Analyst