We’re excited to announce that one of our customers, Seaboard Foods, recently won a first-place Golden ARC Award for their internal communications strategy implemented through Beekeeper!

The app allows all Seaboard Foods employees, with an emphasis on hourly and non-desktop employees, to communicate information, create awareness about corporate values, and maintain a close-knit company culture. A year after launching Beekeeper, there was a 7% increase (for a total of 83%) in employee satisfaction levels regarding internal communications.

Addressing Manufacturing Operations Challenges

Seaboard Foods is a connected food system in the U.S. that handles everything before the farm and beyond the plate. Their 5,000 employees are spread over six states, including more than 500 pig farms, a pork processing plant, two biodiesel plants, feed mills, and a full logistics infrastructure consisting of 170 heavy duty trucks, and 400 light duty vehicles.

Less than 12% of employees had access to email or the corporate intranet, making efficient information sharing across a large, dispersed workforce the biggest challenge. Production workers in isolated areas had to rely on word-of-mouth, printed documents with slow distribution, or didn’t receive any information at all. The organization has a diverse workforce demographic consisting of all ages, technology skill levels, and 25 different languages.

A Mobile Internal Communications Solution

The company wanted to provide another channel for employees to get information about the company easily, despite the work environment or the language spoken. They selected Beekeeper as their manufacturing operations tool to solve their internal communication challenges because:

• Beekeeper is a mobile internal communications solution that could connect the 88% of employees they couldn’t previously reach
• Onboarding to and using Beekeeper doesn’t require a corporate email address
• The Beekeeper platform keeps everyone engaged and operating on the same page with transparent, two-way, and real-time communication

The internal communications app is available via a mobile or a desktop application, making it accessible for production workers and office-based employees alike.

“We have the perfect manufacturing operations tool that allows us to communicate across the board with all our employees, whether it’s our managers or hourly production, everyone has the same level of communication.” –Jennie Watkins, Training Manager, Seaboard Foods

Watch how Seaboard Foods uses Beekeeper to reach and engage their distributed manufacturing workforce.

Digital Tools Improve Company Culture

Although Seaboard Foods is a large company that’s continually expanding, management excels at making everyone feel like an integral part of the Seaboard Foods’ family. The internal communications team strives to maintain a close-knit culture by finding innovative ways to keep everyone connected and aligned with business goals, and feel like part of the bigger picture.

Since Seaboard Foods started using the Beekeeper platform, information surrounding company updates, safety, and operations have been shared daily with employees from all levels and many locations. SBF Connect has multiple communication streams that house live updates that are accessible to everyone. It is also fully customized, matching the company’s corporate identity, and is a champion of their culture.