Refocusing an Employee Engagement Organization to Improve Participation, Member Benefits, and Impact - 19036
- Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC (United States)
Washington River Protection Solutions, LLC (WRPS) provides its employees with programs and opportunities to develop professional skills and to network. Among these is an employee engagement organization called 'WRPSpeed'. WRPSpeed was founded in 2009 initially to support new employees, specifically early-career employees and those new to the Columbia Basin area surrounding the Hanford Site. It was, and remains today, an opt-in program, meaning that in order to join, employees must request to become a member; the only requirement to join is to be a WRPS employee. WRPSpeed has historically offered presentations on professional development topics along with various events and activities supporting professional networking, such as after-work-hours events and community sports teams. Since its creation, WRPSpeed has experienced an ebb and flow of interest, participation, and success. Beginning in early 2017, existing members of the WRPSpeed board examined the stagnant growth trend of the organization and determined change was needed in order to truly accomplish the mission and goals visualized by the board and by WRPS management. These changes culminated in the establishment of a new board position, Marketing and Branding, which allowed WRPSpeed to refocus their messaging and image expressed to the WRPS employee base at large. The primary objectives of the new Marketing and Branding board position were 1) to communicate the identity of WRPSpeed, 2) to communicate the benefits of participation to the WRPS employee base, and 3) to grow WRPSpeed's presence as an active community steward. During the previous years of operation, its brand had developed two main audience perception problems: a perception of exclusivity, which limited membership growth; and a lack of recognition and awareness. Though initially founded as a group for new and early-career employees, the board recognized the benefits of offering all employees the opportunity to participate. This allows more people to engage in the organization and experience the benefits, and also offers the membership and program a more robust network of professional and personal experiences and connections. Concurrent with the launch of Marketing and Branding, the WRPSpeed board reviewed their current functions and activities to determine opportunities for improvement and scale-up. The goal of this internal review was to ensure the benefits offered and advertised by WRPSpeed were high quality, valuable, and engaging. It was up to Marketing and Branding to develop strategies for the success of these efforts and reach all parties in the expanded membership. A marketing communications strategy was developed to establish a revitalized WRPSpeed image and clearly project that new image to a wider audience. The first step was to rewrite the mission statement for the organization, which established, in writing, its primary pillars: community stewardship, professional networking, and professional development. With a new mission statement and the WRPSpeed board in concurrence with - and coached on - the new image, the Marketing and Branding team launched its rebranding campaign. The campaign included a refreshed logo and theme, a new monthly newsletter for existing membership, increased and consistently stylized communications about events, a revitalized organization web page, and a ramp-up schedule for large-scale, multimedia communications to the entire company. From July 2017, when they began, to June 2018, the Marketing and Branding efforts have garnered a 20% increase in membership overall. Additionally, members surveyed in May 2018 showed 49% of respondents had been participating in WRPSpeed between 0 and 12 months; 13% responded '1-2 years'; and 38% responded '2+ years'. These results confirm an upward trend in membership, and attendance records show an increase in new people attending events. Also, parallel increases in number and quality of activities and increases in networking with employee groups from other local companies such as Bechtel National, Inc. and AECOM have improved member satisfaction and positive word of mouth among the employee population. As with any organization, employee engagement-and-retention groups like WRPSpeed face the challenges of staying relevant and beneficial to existing members while continuing to grow their program and impact. However, employee engagement organizations also have the unique opportunity to connect employees across the company and to provide them opportunities otherwise unavailable via other programs. Often these groups also have the flexibility to tailor the offerings, events, and activities to suit the specific needs and aspirations of the employees. With this exceptional position, it is important to continue to strive to offer high quality, significant, and useful benefits to the employees and, thus, the company. The strategies and campaigns employed to revitalize WRPSpeed have proven exceptionally effective in-house and are useful to other employee groups as templates for their own improvement and as opportunities for benchmarking. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 23002872
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-21-WM-19036; TRN: US21V0987043205
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2019: 45. Annual Waste Management Conference, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 3-7 Mar 2019; Other Information: Country of input: France; 8 refs.; available online at: https://www.xcdsystem.com/wmsym/2019/index.html
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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