BBD connects a country-wide company with a modern intranet
Benefits by Design, Inc. (BBD) helps provide group insurance and workplace solutions that focus on keeping people in good health. They’re a Canadian company, with 90 employees working from three offices in Toronto, Kingston, and Vancouver.
With the Jostle® platform, they’ve optimized their company-wide connectivity and exemplified the importance of leadership when implementing new technology. They’re currently achieving 99% employee engagement monthly! These outstanding successes saw them clinch the Jostle Ambassador of the Year award in this year’s Jostle Awards.
The challenge
BBD didn’t so much have a problem, as a potential that wasn’t being realized. With offices spread across Canada, their company-wide communication was not as efficient or effective as it could be.
“With a growing, distributed team we were finding it difficult to be on the same page and to share news in a timely fashion.”
Jessica Bredschneider
Director of Marketing
The solution
BBD launched their Jostle intranet in December 2015, moving away from the Google communities tool they had been using. They’ve found tremendous success so far in overcoming their collaboration and communication issues.
“The Jostle intranet has fast become a regular dimension of how work and collaboration occurs at BBD, and it’s hard to imagine our culture without it.”
Jessica Bredschneider
Director of Marketing
BBD’s vibrant NEWS
How BBD are using the Jostle intranet
BBD is maximizing the benefits of the Jostle intranet by making good use of the wide set of features. Here’s a snapshot of how they’re using three key features:
Leadership communication
Leadership uses NEWS Articles to communicate with all employees. “Various operational areas post regular monthly updates where the header image is a reflection of their “vibe” which reinforces their unique strength,” shared Jessica.
Employee wellness
BBD uses the live-feed Activity stream to promote employee health and wellness. For example: “Our Managing Partner shared a dad joke a day for an entire month, as part of a mental health in the workplace initiative,” shared Jessica.
BBD’s Wellness Program NEWS Article
Recognition and reward
Empowered BBD employees are recognizing and rewarding one another for good work with the Shout-Out feature (a short, personalizable thank-you message that appears on the live-feed). It’s even creating new connections between staff members. “People who have never met in person share accomplishments and recognition in real time,” Jessica told us.
“It lets people connect with information and each other in a way that feels fresh and energized. The look and feel of it as a platform fits a professional environment, but it allows ample room for individual expression and creativity.”
Jessica Bredschneider
Director of Marketing
Shout-Outs for recognition and reward
The implementation
One powerful part of BBD’s story is the role of their leadership team. Not only are they leading by example by investing time on the Jostle platform, they’re enabling and supporting others to lead within the platform.
BBD’s key Jostle ambassador—Jessica Bredschneider—has been encouraged to take initiative with the Jostle platform and the results have been extraordinary. Not only was Jessica key to setting up and launching the Jostle platform at BBD, but “she breathes life into BBD’s Jostle platform in many different ways on many, many days.”
BBD’s LIBRARY and DISCUSSIONS
It’s amazing to hear how just one person can influence an entire organization’s uptake of the Jostle intranet. Here are some of the amazing things Jessica has done with the Jostle platform:
- Encouraged more BBD employees to act as external ambassadors for the BBD brand by encouraging Jostle contributors to take over the company’s Instagram presence.
- Furthered the reach of BBD’s brand by externally publishing Jostle intranet content on Medium and building the #BBDWorkplace hashtag.
- Increased engagement levels and leadership roles by recruiting new Jostle Ambassadors in each office across Canada—10% of employees either nominated themselves or were put forward.
- Improved the organization of marketing materials by moving them to the Jostle platform, freeing up internal server space and improving a previously ineffective system.
Results
Due to the refreshing leadership approach, encouraging work from individuals like Jessica, and the organic uptake of the platform, BBD is seeing great results from the Jostle platform. At the end of their first year with the Jostle intranet, BBD conducted an employee satisfaction survey about the platform and its features. Overwhelmingly, they found that employees have come to rely on the Jostle intranet for news, entertainment, and reinforcement of role and company purpose.
“We were engaged before, but with three offices across Canada it was hard to feel on the same page at times. The Jostle platform lets us share our story and celebrate our accomplishments together which is a key performance metric of our company.”
Jessica Bredschneider
Director of marketing
About Jostle Corporation
Jostle’s People Engagement® platform is helping organizations around the world become extraordinary. It creates connected and vibrant workplaces by connecting employees, enabling communication, and driving workplace culture. We make it easy for companies to engage their employees. This allows our customers to achieve employee participation rates of over 85% — that’s over 5X industry norms. For more information contact info@jostle.me or visit us online at www.jostle.me.