How Nucleus kept recognition personal while quadrupling in size

When a company doubles in size, the little personal touches can sometimes be the first to go. Hand-wrapped presents, hand-written notes - all of that. Double again, on the back of four acquisitions and “just send them a little something” suddenly turns into a huge project. Especially when you’re dealing with inherited systems that don’t talk to each other, most fast-growing businesses treat that as the price of scaling.

Nucleus didn’t.

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The customer

• Fast-growing financial services investment platform
• Four acquisitions completed
• Headcount grew by 4x over 4 years

Nucleus is a retirement investment platform, working with financial advisers to manage their clients’ wealth and ultimately help make their retirement more rewarding. After a period of seriously impressive growth, the focus turned inward: making sure the people experience grew with the company. Making sure Nucleus was a place where people felt valued, recognised and supported.

“Our whole thing is about working really well for our customers, delivering great outcomes, and making sure that people absolutely love working with us.”

Katie Queen, Nucleus

The challenge: keeping recognition personal through rapid growth

• Four very different companies scattered across the UK, brought together
• Recognition was valued, but inconsistent and difficult to track
• Less than 10% of the recognition budget was actually being used
• People leaders needed a simpler way to say “thanks!”

Over four years, Nucleus essentially quadrupled its headcount. Not too shabby! But as the business scaled, recognition got harder to manage - which isn’t surprising. There was no simple process, and a lack of systems and legacy approaches clashed with each other. Without a clean, clear, central way to ‘do recognition’, managers kept turning to the People team for help.

The budget was there. It just wasn’t reaching anyone. Before Huggg, under 10% of the recognition budget was getting used - because the only route to recognising someone was to go and buy the thing yourself, put it on your own card and claim it back later. So people leaders either took on the admin, or didn’t get to it at all.

“We were constantly getting questions from people leaders: ‘These people have gone above and beyond, can we send them a gift? I just don’t know how to support them.’”

Katie Queen, Nucleus

The solution: no addresses, no admin

• No personal data needed to send a gift
• Recognition sent straight to someone’s inbox
• Options for small thank-yous and bigger moments

Nucleus chose Huggg because it took the friction out of recognising great work. Managers send a gift straight to someone’s inbox, with no addresses to collect and no admin to manage. The person then chooses the option that works best for them.

Micro gifts like an iced coffee on a hot day, or something flaky and delicious from Greggs. Showstoppers like hampers, Virgin Experiences, big name tech, and luxury skincare for those “wow, you’ve smashed it” moments.

“We don’t even have to think about it. We just log in and immediately send something.”

Katie Queen, Nucleus

Finance in the room from day one

• Finance was one of only two teams in the first month’s trial
• No personal cards, no receipts, no expense claims
• A reconciliation process built together, from scratch

Recognition spend usually reaches finance last, once someone’s already bought something and wants their money back. Nucleus turned that around. Finance was one of the first two teams to trial Huggg, so the people who actually reconcile the spend had a say before anything went company-wide.

Reconciliation was the one real unknown at the start. Our process is built to keep every bit of spend in one place, so reporting on it is straightforward. Nobody’s chasing a receipt for a £1.20 sausage roll.

“It’s really taken the burden of admin off the people team, our finance teams, and our people leaders.”

Katie Queen, Nucleus

Their programme: every kind of thank you

• Everyday gestures, like a coffee or a £1.20 Greggs sausage roll
• Bigger moments, like flowers or a box of chocolates

How do you scale the personal touch? By offering choice. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach - just gifts that employees have hand-chosen in minutes. And that means a small everyday gesture lands because it shows someone’s paying attention. It also means a bigger gift marks a bigger moment, in a way that they’ll be bragging to their friends and family about.

“Vouchers can be effective, but sometimes you want to give somebody something really special. You want to send them a physical gift that’s meaningful to them. And vouchers don’t always give you that kind of sentimental recognition.”

Katie Queen, Nucleus

The results: recognition people actually use

• Around 3,000 gifts sent in just over six months
• 75% of people leaders actively using it within the first 6 months
• 100% satisfaction from people using Huggg
• Recognition gifts sent in minutes

Huggg quickly became part of how Nucleus celebrates great work - and we’re chuffed to be part of their journey. In a little over six months, around 3,000 gifts went out. Three quarters of their people leaders are using it, and a recognition budget that used to sit almost untouched is finally doing the job it was set aside for.

Now, people leaders recognise someone in minutes - without the barriers that used to slow them down, without the admin overload for the people who hold the pursestrings.

“Everybody absolutely loves it. It’s definitely exceeded my expectations.”

Katie Queen, Nucleus

Our takeaway

When companies grow quickly, recognition gets harder to keep consistent. But that’s when you need to protect employee experience the most. Nucleus knew that, and they already had leaders who wanted to celebrate their teams. They just needed a way to make those moments easier.

It was simple, really:

• Remove the blockers that stopped recognition from happening
• Bring finance in early, so the spend side works from day one
• Give people genuine choice, so it feels personal at scale
• Make it easy enough that appreciation becomes a habit

“We have a great partnership with Huggg.”

Katie Queen, Nucleus

Want recognition that scales with you, without losing the personal touch? See how gifting with choice works, or book a demo.