The Company

Spotlight have 60 employees and operate in the performing arts sector from two locations. Their male to female split is roughly 50:50, they have an online to offline ratio of 60:40, and an average workforce age of 38.

 

The Challenge

A culture and communications survey at Spotlight identified the need for improved employee engagement and greater internal communications. From these findings, a company culture engagement team was set-up and named The Mag7 – after The Magnificent 7. Their mission statement is, ‘To help to embed a new company culture, built from the inside out that embraces collaboration, contribution and celebration’. The Mag7 is there to listen to all employees, to share ideas, concepts, and to make things more inclusive and fun across the business.

A lot of Spotlight’s employees have been there for many years and are reluctant to welcome change, but there are also newer recruits who expect internal communications and employee engagement programmes to be in place. This, together with the fact that Spotlight contains a wide range of departments, each requiring people with their own set of skills, made deciding on a ‘one size fits all’ package quite the challenge. The Mag7 knew that they needed a platform which could act as an intranet but is tailored and personalised to make communication almost second nature to their employees.

Media from awards night

Spotlight’s winner's interview at The Engagement Excellence Awards 2016

Spotlight-1

Spotlight at The Engagement Excellence Awards 2016

The Approach

Spotlight and their Mag7 team wanted a platform that would reflect the importance of their internal culture and was passionate about upholding the company’s internal values. The Green Room was the result and took branding inspiration from the company’s love for film, theatre, and television. As did the launch campaign, which used an 8-minute episode featuring each Mag7 member, as well as the CEO of the Company, in the vein of popular BBC series W1A. The premise of the episode was a parody around the creation of The Green Room. The need for a staff intranet was discussed and provided a ‘virtual hang-out space’ which would also allow employees to take advantage of exclusive benefits and discounts.

On the day of launch, Spotlight used the resources available from Reward Gateway in the form of Adam, a Product Ambassador. Adam took to the film lover theme and dressed as Willy Wonka to hand out Golden Tickets and talk about other incentives on the platform. Posters were put up and on the screens around the office were screensavers providing more information about The Green Room, all sticking to the British film, television, and theatre theme. A launch party was held after work on launch day, too, with a photo booth, The Green Room branded cupcakes, sweets, and an especially-created playlist.

 

The Results

After the first month, 91% of the Spotlight workforce were registered to the platform. The Green Room became a whole new communications channel for Spotlight and they are able to reach their employees in ways we hadn't before. Employees log in every day to keep up to date with company news which makes the information much more powerful. As it stands, engagement levels are currently at 94%. With their employee discounts, £48,700 has been spent since launch and saved employees over £2,900.

Spotlight was also able to see a rise in terms of how colleagues communicate with each other and how they feel about Spotlight as a company. For the survey statement, “I am committed to helping Spotlight succeed” there was an increase from 68.4% the previous year to 73.2%. Similarly, with the statement, “I am encouraged to share knowledge within my team and with other teams”, there was an increase from 31.6% the previous year to 40%.