Case Study: Taking Employee Engagement Strategy to the Next Level
We’ve all heard that employees are any business’s most valuable resource. It’s more than an adage, it’s an absolute truth. Read on to hear how the Kinetic team assisted our long-time partners, Interstate Companies, improve retention, recruitment and employee satisfaction through the development and implementation of a comprehensive employee engagement strategy.
Opportunity
Interstate Companies, Inc. (Interstate), headquartered in Minnesota with over 30 locations nationwide, sought the assistance of our team to help them understand how to increase the effectiveness of its internal communications. They were, at that time, experience a ‘Great Resignation’ and high-turnover bleeding employees to their biggest competitor, Caterpillar. They wanted to know why.
With a geographically diverse workforce, Interstate needed to enhance employee engagement to ensure that their staff understood and felt connected with the Interstate corporate mission and culture.
Actions
The Kinetic team conducted one-on-one interviews with staff members and department leads to learn about individuals’ goals and whether they felt supported in their aspirations, or if not, where they felt the obstacles lay.
We learned the key challenges faced by Interstate employees were a lack of clarity in position expectations, understanding any clear path for career growth, an ambiguous onboarding process and no real emotional connection to the company’s mission. We also learned that many employees were leaving because there was a pervasive misperception that Caterpillar (their biggest competition) offered far better benefits, packages, when in fact, the opposite was true.
Kinetic crafted a comprehensive employee engagement strategy that clearly communicated the company’s Employee Value Position (EVP): implementing a regular company newsletter, developing a detailed benefits guide, providing HR videos to new hires, integrating an employee intranet, and disseminating an annual employee engagement survey. We also developed the ‘We are Interstate’ campaign, emphasizing the value of the employees as the company’s greatest resource.
Finally, we worked closely with leadership and their internal marketing department to create and implement a robust employee outreach campaign to clearly communicate each aspect of the generous benefit packages offered to employees.
Results
Implemented in 2017, this employee engagement effort has been incredibly successful. Interstate has seen dramatic increases in retention, recruitment and levels of employee satisfaction each year over the last five years. Usage of the employee intranet increased exponentially.
We know how to do the research and connect with employees in meaningful ways. Download a PDF of this case study here.
