Associa has seen ‘incredible’ employee engagement with Workvivo
Connecting every employee at America's largest homeowners association management company like never before
71%
Of employees active on Workvivo
74%
Use Workvivo every month
14
Weeks from kickoff to launch
Associa is America's largest homeowners association (HOA) management company that specializes in nationwide property management and community management with a full suite of management, maintenance and real estate services for most any community.
This special case study was written entirely by our customer, Sarah Clausen – Director of Corporate Communications at Associa.
Take it away, Sarah!
People
8,000
Industry
Real Estate
Location
North America (HQ in Texas)
Category
Enterprise
My job is employee experience and Workvivo makes that job so much easier
Sarah Clausen
Director of Corporate Communications
The Challenge
“There was absolutely a disconnect in our organization. We are an organization made up of a lot of acquisitions and so every time we acquire a new company, they have new email addresses and a new HR system. Being able to communicate gets harder and harder as we acquire more companies. So it was a matter of communicating with all employees, not just those who are in our HR system.
“Our old intranet was very static. It was an old, old program, you couldn't even search for anything, and it was frustrating for all of our employees. We were seeking out a new intranet provider, but also a new way to connect with each other.
“I've vetted several different vendors over many years, and Workvivo came out on top for so many reasons. The platform itself, the ability to make it what we wanted it to be, and then the people who work at Workvivo – from day one they were so, so helpful.
“Our challengers were a separate workforce that was all over the place and we couldn't necessarily communicate with them. Now we can communicate with everyone; everyone feels the employee culture, the company culture, and they feel connected and a real part of our company now.”
The Solution
“There were a lot of things to work out. One concern was that we have employees from all different domains for their names and using the email address as the source of truth.
“It was really a collaborative effort between the Workvivo team and my team in figuring it out. And it was daunting at first, but once I realized that the Workvivo team was there and was going to help and knew the answers that I didn't, it was beautiful.
“We took 14 weeks to launch, and that included lifting and shifting our entire intranet – and I'm talking thousands of documents and pages! We're four months in now and I'm still going in every day and checking pages and kind of making them a little bit better because it was a rush at the end to get everything in there. And that's the beautiful thing about Workvivo; if I want to make a change, I can do it right then. I don't have to wait.
“Our old intranet was coded so if I wanted to change, I had to call my employee and he would literally have to write code. So it’s the ease of just making Workvivo what we want it to be. We've only been in there four months and I've already made several changes based on employee feedback and what's important to them.”
The Result
“Employee engagement has been incredible. When you jump into something like this, you can be fearful that people are going to misbehave or write rude comments and things like that, and absolutely the opposite of that has happened. We've never had a reported post or comment. People are so happy to be engaging with each other and sharing their stories and seeing what's happening across the company, and just seeing our leaders in a new light, meeting them through them telling their stories.
‘The feedback and the adoption has been just beautiful. We're not at 100% yet, but we're well on our way. And the people who are in there are really, really in there and encouraging their teams to be in there as well.
“I can see that people enjoy the ease of finding the things they need; they can search the intranet, which we didn't have before. Simple things like that are going to cut down on their time to find this one specific file they need. They could find it, search it – done, they've got it. Otherwise, they would have had to crawl through page after page of our old intranet.
“So in terms of productivity, I know that's absolutely going to change. But just the employee engagement and people knowing who they work for, what our company culture is, what our values are, what we stand for – they're seeing it every day now. And it's not in an email – it's on this beautiful site where people can share pictures and stories.
“Every time I go in there, I get a burst of energy and a feeling of, ‘I love my job. My job is employee experience and Workvivo makes that job so much easier’.
“The feedback has been extraordinary. Employees are really, really loving this new way to connect and feel a part of the company and feel like what they do every day is important.”
Favorite feature: Everything!
“There’s not necessarily one favorite feature, just the whole platform in general – the ease of the intranet, finding content, the connections, the ability to connect and ask an employee. If I work in Texas, I can talk to an employee in New York or Canada or Mexico.
“It’s that ability to connect and share ideas, and remember that even though we're spread apart, we're all on the same team here.
“And if I don't know how to do something, I guarantee there's someone in the organization who does. Now I have an easy way to post that and say, “Hey, does anyone know how to do this?” and then people comment.
“It's also the recognition posts and the shoutouts – these are the things that we're realizing make a big impact. To hear the CEO of your company give a shoutout to you, it's a big thing and it’s definitely key to the employee experience.”
Internal campaigns:
‘Five Questions With…’ and ‘Make Workvivo Work for You’
“One thing that we launched was ‘Five Questions With…’. That's a video series where one of our leaders will interview someone in the company. It started with the CEO, but it’s also going to interview frontline employees. It has four questions that are a bit more company-related – how we're doing, career growth, things like that – and then the last one will just be a silly one. For instance, the other day, we had one where our CEO was asked, “What's something people would be surprised to learn about you?” and he said, “I own a herd of longhorn cattle”.
“And so today, we have pictures up there of him with his Longhorn cattle. Little things like that help you see who these leaders are as people.
“Another thing that I developed was the ‘Make Workvivo Work for You’ campaign. Anytime employees see a post with that banner, they know that they're going to see a tip or a trick or something to help them personalize Workvivo to them.”
Why Workvivo?
“If you want to focus on your employee experience and give your employees a place to connect and feel a part of the company, and understand their importance and their role in the company, get Workvivo. Workvivo brings you all together. It helps you share your stories, connect, collaborate, and just bring everyone together like never before.
“The Workvivo team is the most amazing, incredible team I've ever worked with. I've never met a team who is so quick to respond. And not only are they quick to respond, they're quick to act. Just a couple weeks ago, I asked if we could have a search function for non-activated employees, and within an hour, they had added that.
“They are with you every step of the way. You will never feel lost or confused or overwhelmed because they are with you. They will stick with you from the day you sign to every single day afterward and answer every question. And it's not just your Workvivo representative – it's the whole team. You have this huge, whole team on your side working for you.”
