Manufacturer Modernizes HR & Staff Engagement

Director of HR Rachael Sobon was tasked with solving the communication challenges the company faced. “You know what, we can do better than this,” Rachael stated. Her starting point was Paylocity, knowing she had a host of modern solutions at her disposal to engage her employees in new and better ways. Rachael rolled out Community, Paylocity’s integrated, mobile-friendly social collaboration tool, to the organization. Community centralizes accurate and timely information and boosts engagement using the platform employees already know and love. Community gives employees more of the connected experience they are used to outside the office, where they get instant gratification from information at their fingertips.

“We had a goal to improve communication and engagement across the business since many of our employees don't work at computers all day,” Rachael said. “It’s amazing to have modern tools built into our HRIS platform so we aren’t asking people to go to different platforms for different reasons. Community, Impressions, and Surveys have helped us achieve that communication and engagement goal.”

Community gave CRP the ability to notify employees with a unified message via notifications, reaching employees at their computers and on their smartphones. Having a centralized social platform helped CRP pass along important news and updates in an efficient and timely manner, but it also helped them increase employee connection, engagement, and productivity across the entire company.

“Community is a powerful tool for us to communicate and engage with our employees in a variety of ways,” Rachel said. "It helps us reduce the amount of email we send since we know our employees will get the notifications on their mobile phone." Our CEO posts messages on Community, either with quick written posts or video messages. We leverage Surveys to support our wellness initiatives across the business. I love how it's all in one spot, and so do our employees.”

Part of driving great culture and communication is paving the way for relationships that go beyond just the work. CRP used Community to break down many of the barriers that kept employees from engaging with the company and with each other, like location, time zone, and position. They created exercise groups, crafting groups, business groups, and other interest groups to help employees connect in new ways. Executive leadership even jumped on board to connect, making it the go-to place for employees to find the latest information. CRP uses Impressions – tabbed High Five Awards – to drive recognition across the company as well.

Recruiting and retaining employees can be challenging in manufacturing, so engagement and culture can differentiate one company from the next. As part of the Executive Leadership team, Rachael understands CRP needs to stay competitive and work hard to keep employees engaged and motivated. She and her team use data to help drive HR decisions.

“The Modern Workforce Index helps us benchmark against other companies while also digging deeper into our data,” Rachael said. “I love the Utilization scores and the Organizational Health as we can see how we're doing over specific time periods. We call Impressions High Five awards and those have increased as we've been in this uncertain environment. Our MWI score is 12 points above our industry benchmark, which is great to see. The Utilization score is an area we can improve, as our score is only 4 points above our benchmark.”

Taking action on improving is made easier with the Modern Workforce Index as it provides recommendations on what can be done. Rachael plans to leverage recommended actions for Community and driving more engagement. She hopes to get more employees engaged on Community instead of simply reading or viewing posts. This will help improve the Utilization score but more importantly encourage more employee engagement.