In our interview with Ian Anderson, marketing director of Nice-Pak International Ltd., we learn his perspective on how companies can increase job satisfaction and simplify work for employees while maximizing productivity and boosting customer satisfaction.
When you first decided to use a mobile engagement app at Nice-Pak International, what were your goals?
IA: We had three top priorities in this arena. The first was to maximize awareness of structures, roles, and responsibilities across our multi-site operation, which has grown quickly over recent years—in Europe alone, we produce over 670 million packs of wet wipes each year and employ over 950 people across our three facilities in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Second, we wanted to ensure that all reference documents were readily available to all staff, with a goal of making their jobs easier and helping them perform to their best potential.
Third, we hoped to create a buzz around the business by making people feel part of a wider team. Some related goals we had were optimizing employee communications to eliminate cross-departmental boundaries, streamline job functions, improve productivity, and build greater job satisfaction—all of which consequently help to create a winning team atmosphere that can improve customer satisfaction.
What made you hone in on a mobile app as a potential solution for engagement-related goals?
IA: Employee engagement and customer service have long been priorities for Nice-Pak, as evidenced by the fact that our tenure of service is above the industry average, with 57 percent of our employees having more than 10 years of service. For the past four years, the company has also been honored by the Top Employers Institute for the conditions that the organization has created for its employees. Yet even so, like many successful growth-oriented organizations, we have experienced some growing pains.
As the company has expanded its workforce, our staff have become more far-flung and geographically distributed, as well as internally distributed. This meant teams consisted of people working at desks as well as non-desk employees (NDEs) working on the manufacturing floor. This business necessity has the potential to jeopardize the provision of excellent customer service if it’s not properly managed.
Clearly, what’s key to customer service is for employees to be able to identify and contact the ideal person within the organization to serve each customer’s needs. But because of the company’s explosive growth, many of our employees did not know each other well enough to understand each other’s roles and responsibilities. As a leading employer and manufacturer we were determined to maintain our standards in productivity and customer service – so began the search for a solution.
How did you go about choosing the right mobile solution for your company?
IA: We considered a few different solutions, including an intranet, but it didn’t work well. In short, we struggled with the practicalities of some staff (especially those who work on the factory floor) not having access to the system.
We then enhanced our intranet with internal communication screens and notice boards that we thought might help us realize our goals. But even when combined, we still did not feel that we were maximizing our reach.
StaffConnect’s mobile app platform was the one solution that seemed to tick all three boxes for our top goals of maximizing awareness, making reference docs easy to access for all staff, and helping people feel connected to the organization and each other. Since launching the service last November, we’ve been encouraged by the benefits and process improvements offered by StaffConnect.
What are your initial plans for the app, and what are you targeting for the future?
IA: For Phase 1 of the launch, we are concentrating on relatively one-way communication (from the company to our staff). Once implementation is complete, we may consider opening up more two-way communication options for a Phase 2.
Talk more about what Phase 1 currently looks like—what are the key features of this phase?
IA: Well, since the StaffConnect mobile app platform is easily and securely accessible by every one of our employees from their smart device, we see it as the ideal solution for breaking down barriers between different parts of the organization, and also for maximizing reach, communication, and engagement across our entire workforce. So with that in mind, Marketing and HR are driving our Phase 1 launch, which is focused on outreach to employees.
The key features of Phase 1 include five different components of the app: News, which broadcasts company news and important announcements directly to all employees; Library, which provides employees with access to important company documents, manuals, guides, and other corporate collateral; Directory, which provides access to employee profiles and contact information; Tickertape, which highlights important news and announcements directly to the app home screen with a scrolling tickertape; and Events, which features detailed promotion of company events and has the ability to link to relevant event information and registration.
Based on your initial experience with Phase 1, how would you describe what it’s like to work with a mobile app platform?
IA: I’d sum it up by saying that we’ve found the StaffConnect mobile employee engagement platform is already helping our company to deliver an enhanced employee experience, which was one of our bottom-line goals. The platform is providing the resources for each and every one of our employees—no matter where they work—to be kept informed, to identify and reach out to fellow colleagues.
The platform also finally gives the company mobile tools that make it easy for managers to show people on their teams that they are important and valued, since actions speak louder than words. All of these things boost loyalty and productivity, leading not only to happy employees but happy customers.
