Problem Statement
This company faced a triple challenge:
- Strengthening cohesion within local teams.
- Bringing geographically distant teams together to develop a true sense of belonging to the company.
- Developing their employer brand to become more attractive in a highly competitive recruitment market.
Context
The client, a division of 550 employees spread across 4 countries and 15 sites, belonging to a large international company, wanted to go beyond purely professional interactions to build deeper human connections.
This organization faced several challenges:
- A high turnover rate caused by a demanding work environment and competitive opportunities.
- A rapid integration of new employees, leading to a lack of connection among them.
- Growing pressure to retain employees without relying solely on salary increases, which were deemed unsustainable in the long term.
Key Figures
- 550 employees involved
- 85% active engagement rate
- Over 500 collective actions completed
- Several thousand total actions
- Measurable impact more than 6 months after the competition
Provided Solution
FeelGoodFellows deployed the DNA experience, designed to bring employees closer together through collaborative and fun challenges. The experience took place over several weeks, with teams formed by site (20 to 40 people per team) to strengthen ties within locations while stimulating interactions and cohesion.
Highlights of the experience included:
- Creation of a unique team symbol set to develop the collective identity of each group.
- Collaborative challenges on various themes, distanced from strictly professional settings, fostering the emergence of new relationships and affinities.
- Points and ranking system that stimulated healthy competition and maintained participant engagement.
- Collective actions, allowing for stronger connections between colleagues and improving the work environment.
- Relevant rewards that the company decided to offer participants, such as restaurant dinners, budgets to improve workspaces, and highlights in internal communications.
Results
The experience had a significant impact:
- 85% of employees participated actively throughout the competition.
- More than 500 collective actions contributed to creating strong bonds among employees.
- The initiatives not only strengthened cohesion: they also promoted the establishment of positive routines, still followed more than 6 months after the end of the experience.
- The participants reported discovering their colleagues from a new angle, developing a strengthened sense of belonging, both to their local team and to the company as a whole.
Furthermore, due to the success of this first edition, the company plans to transform the experience into an annual emblematic event. Each year, teams would keep their created symbols, thereby strengthening their collective identity while launching new activities on these solid foundations.
Key Lessons
- Strengthened local cohesion: Collective activities forged strong ties within local teams, improving their daily collaboration.
- Bringing together beyond borders: Collaborative challenges allowed geographically distant teams to come together around common goals.
- Durable impact: The routines and best practices introduced by the competition are still being followed several months after the end of the experience.
- Relevant rewards: Offering prizes aligned with the company’s values strengthened participant satisfaction and engagement.
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