Award-winning employee engagement with GEFCO
The brief_
The Covid-19 crisis meant that GEFCO UK’s workforce was split into those working from home, those who were furloughed and those who were on-site. As a people-first business, GEFCO decided to shift marketing focus and budget to prioritise internal engagement and wellbeing support.
As their retained marketing agency, The Marketing Pod (TMP) was the ideal partner to help them to deliver an integrated employee engagement campaign. They tasked us with the following objectives:
To engage their 100-strong management community, so they could in turn support their teams
To support HR to deliver health & safety comms in order to keep on-site staff safe
To open up lines of communication around mental health and wellbeing and strengthen their position as a company that cares
To reach as many employees as possible through a mix of channels
We created a multi-channel, integrated campaign to maximise GEFCO’s chances of connecting with employees in different locations and with different concerns and needs. Here’s how we helped them to:
1: Execute engaging virtual events
GEFCO wanted to carry out a programme of informal and interactive online events in a range of formats, such as a ‘Business as Unusual’ virtual conference for their leadership team. We built a bespoke online event platform that enabled a seamless user experience, ensured only verified employees could attend, and provided attendees with supporting content after each session. GEFCO UK hosted 11 events on this platform, focusing on a range of issues from supporting colleagues to group strategy.
2: Achieve success with new channels
With many employees suffering from ‘Zoom fatigue’, GEFCO wanted to try out a new content channel they had never used before - a podcast. We supported them in this by recommending technology they could use to record remotely, writing scripts for the podcast episodes, managing the speakers and editing the recording to produce a polished podcast. We also created blogs and social media assets to promote the release of each podcast.
3: Stay connected with on-site & off-site employee
GEFCO’s team worked incredibly hard throughout the pandemic, and they wanted to show them that they recognised the contribution they were making. We helped them to do so by creating two emotive, uplifting employee videos - a Thank You video and a Christmas video, as well as an Easter e-card.
As a number of employees were still working on-site, we also produced a range of health and safety materials promoting social distancing and extra hygiene measures for a Covid-secure environment. This included 74 posters in multiple languages to help keep staff safe across GEFCO’s European sites.
The results_
The podcasts have been listened to by over 400 people so far and have received much positive feedback.
GEFCO's Corporate Comms team in France have decided to make the podcast format as an integral part of their digital communications strategy.
The Business as Unusual virtual format also exceeded expectations, with all 100 invited employees attending at least one session.
In 2021, this campaign won a PRCA Dare Award for Covid-19 Employee Engagement and was shortlisted for PRMoment’s Employee Engagement Campaign of the Year Award.
“We saw an incredibly positive response to our employee comms, during such a difficult time. Our objective was to reassure our teams that they were important to GEFCO’s future and part of the GEFCO family. We knew that many would be feeling anxious about furlough, would be worried about safety on site, or would be trying to juggle work and family commitments at a more intense level than ever. The campaign had something for everyone, and drew people onto a range of different platforms depending on their digital expertise and circumstances. It’s encouraged us to try new tactics in the future, not just in the UK, but across our European sites too.”
Lydia Maule, Head of Marketing, GEFCO UK