Founded in 1913, Wells Enterprises has grown from a single delivery wagon to the largest privately owned producer of frozen treats in the United States. The company churns out 200 million gallons of ice cream each year.
In the three years since it began the transition to digitized communication, the company has grown from operating a single production facility to operating multiple plants, with locations in New Jersey, New York, Nevada, and Iowa. As a result, the number of employees at the company has jumped from about 2,700 to more than 4,000.
Wells Enterprises has faced many of the same industry pain points that are ubiquitous to today’s large frozen treat product manufacturers. In particular, it faced the logistical challenge of communicating critical information across multiple operations sites, languages, and levels of access to technology.
- Distributed and Disconnected Workforce communication strategy doesn’t align with growing frontline workforce
- Paper-Based Communication slow, costly and ineffective way to deliver company news
- Language Barriers struggling to connect to multilingual workforce
- Centralized Mobile Platform scalable way to reach frontline workers in any location
- Instant Updates employees get company news in real time on their mobile device
- Inclusive Communication critical messages are better understood in employees’ preferred languages
To tackle the need for improved employee engagement, connectivity, and operations knowledge, Wells Enterprises partnered with Beekeeper, a mobile productivity and collaboration platform for frontline workers. Management’s main goals were to:
- Streamline communications
- Deliver pandemic updates
- Recognize employees
- Overcome language barriers
Now used by more than 30% of employees and counting, Beekeeper has proven to be a critical component in maintaining safe and successful operations and efficiency during Wells Enterprises’ expansion.
With Beekeeper, employees can now access company updates through the app or on a desktop computer, and the communications process is instantaneous. Now management teams can send out a mass message either to everyone at a particular job site or to select teams, saving them time since they no longer have to sort through irrelevant updates to find the information they need.
Streamlining Communications and Delivering Critical Updates
Consider a common disruption in facility operations: weather-related closures. Before Wells Enterprises made the shift to digital communications, employees were responsible for either watching the lower-third of their local newscast for closures at a particular job site or calling the hotline to listen to a series of pre-recorded voicemails. With up to 2,000 people working in one building, providing those updates quickly was an arduous task for management and employees alike.
Here are some other ways that Wells Enterprises has streamlined communications with Beekeeper:
- Digitized in-person meetings
- Created two-way communication between employees and supervisors
- Prioritized team feedback through sending out employee satisfaction surveys through the platform
Pandemic regulations delivered a particular blow to pen-and-paper processes. Health regulations are critical in the ice cream industry, especially in the current environment, and sanitation requirements have eliminated traditional fliers and safety quiz materials from breakrooms altogether.
After implementing Beekeeper, Wells Enterprise was able to:
- Eliminate manual process
- Conduct safety quizzes
- Send regulatory information in one, centralized location
The rapid ability to coordinate information helped in organizing the company’s first-ever socially distant drive-through flu shot event, which saw high levels of participation from the team.
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Digital communication has allowed Wells Enterprises to overcome several language barriers. Now, supervisors can disseminate company-wide information in a widespread alert instantly to the entire workforce or streamline news and deliver that notification to the affected teams at a particular site.
Before adopting a mobile solution, Wells Enterprises sent out manually translated, printed letters to deliver these types of updates, which were costly and slow to produce.
Wells Enterprises also faced a significant language barrier as the company grew. With Beekeeper’s instant inline translation that automatically translates posts, comments, and both peer-to-peer and large scale communications, the company is reaching its multilingual team more quickly than ever before.
The ability to break down language and geographical barriers has been especially valuable in incorporating new sites into the company. When new sites joined Wells Enterprises, most incoming production sites were operating on their own separate communications channels. For these types of large-scale integrations, a mobile solution is much more nimble than an intranet or email system.
Using a digital collaboration platform has also enabled Wells Enterprises to recognize exceptional employees across the organization. Managers often use Beekeeper to give kudos to team members in a central location where the entire company can celebrate that person’s success and build team relationships.
With a central, mobile communication system in place, Wells Enterprises has prioritized recognition to elevate its exceptional employees and let the team know their contributions are noticed and appreciated — both by senior management and by fellow workers on the floor.
Employees who have adopted Beekeeper love the transparency and accessibility that digital communications have brought to the team.
Empowered with access to regulatory information, company updates, and critical safety news during the tumult of the pandemic, the teams at Wells Enterprises have come through a period of rapid company expansion. They’re able to share successes with a greater ability to connect, improve engagement and efficiency, and celebrate new opportunities together.
