Many of us have heard of Cargill. If you haven’t, you’ve almost certainly been fed by them.
The global food corporation operates across 70 countries thanks to the hard work of thousands of employees. However, given its broad footprint, the company needed a better way to reach its essential frontline employees — fast.
Let’s take a closer look at how Cargill was able to better connect, engage, and inform their frontline employees using Beekeeper’s mobile collaboration platform.
Addressing A Challenging Communication Gap
Cargill is on a mission to nourish the world in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way. To do that, the company employs over 155,000 workers worldwide, with Cargill Protein – North America staffing more than 28,000 team members in the U.S. and Canada.
Within Cargill Protein – North America’s footprint, there are more than 30 different languages spoken. A diverse employee base undoubtedly creates a more positive and inclusive workplace — but without the right tools, it also creates gapping language barriers.
The Cargill team also faced several operational challenges such as:
- Relying on costly and time-consuming paper-based processes
- Employing inconsistent two-way communication channels
- Siloed work across the various plants
The Cargill Protein team realized these communication gaps were causing operational inefficiencies and decided to make a change.
“When we think about putting people first, that’s really everyone. From the frontline worker to the C-suite. But, like many companies, internal audiences are oftentimes divided into wired and non-wired. At Cargill Protein, we have more than 23,000 employees in production plants that are non-wired. They don’t have email, may not know their digital identity, and may rely on videos, posters, and bulletin boards.”
– Jay Knoll, Sr. Communications Specialist, Cargill
From Non-Wired To Wired
In early 2020, Cargill partnered with Beekeeper to implement a mobile collaboration tool that would bridge their frontline communication gap. By February, the team was ready to pilot the app in its first location. Then, the global pandemic hit, and the ability to quickly reach every employee soon became mission-critical to their production.
“It was extremely important to safely communicate with employees in a COVID world, so they weren’t gathering around bulletin boards to look at schedules. Instead, they could have schedules at their fingertips.”
– Kimberly W. Wolff, Protein Emerging Capabilities, Cargill
By December 2020, the Cargill team deployed the Beekeeper platform across all 40+ Cargill Protein – North America locations. And, in less than a year, they’ve achieved a 52% activation rate with some locations reaching as high as 96%.
One of the unintended — but highly influential — benefits of the app was the sense of community it created among the frontline workers.
“It turns out it was absolutely beautiful in terms of the recognition and community building that was happening as we were going through this. It really helped with employee adoption.”
– Kimberly W. Wolff, Protein Emerging Capabilities, Cargill
Enhancing Efficiency And Enabling Culture Alignment
With their new Beekeeper app deployed to frontline workers, Cargill was well-equipped to communicate essential information when employees needed it most.
The collaboration and productivity tool unlocked additional benefits, including:
- Stronger frontline employee alignment with the company’s customer-driven culture
- Safer workplace processes that no longer required physical gatherings or document sharing
- More open team communication supported with inline translations
- Elevated employee engagement and empowerment
“Communication capabilities that are safe, that bring down language barriers are so important, and Beekeeper has been that tool to make it happen while increasing engagement. It’s also helped us build a customer-driven culture.”
– Jay Knoll, Sr. Communications Specialist, Cargill
