Overview
Founded in 1855, Samuel, Son & Co., Limited, is a family-owned integrated network of metal manufacturing, processing and distribution divisions. Samuel employees provide metals, industrial products and related value-added services from locations across North America. The company leverages its industry expertise, breadth of experience and the passion of its people to help drive success for North American business – one customer at a time.
Supernova Award Category
Future of Work: Employee Experience
The Problem
Samuel’s goal is to transition to a more agile culture. Traditionally, communications were top-down, with information shared amongst the organization’s top 150 employees, but not necessarily further than that. When Colin Osborne took on the role of President & CEO in 2019, a revolutionary 3-year strategic plan was devised, with a key focus on transitioning to a more agile culture that emphasizes employee empowerment.
One of the biggest challenges in shifting to an agile culture was finding ways to reach and engage employees in various roles and regions. Since Samuel has more than 70 locations, in three different countries (Canada, the US, and Mexico), and three primary languages for company communications, the enterprise looked to technologies that would allow them to manage everything from one central location and make content available in a self-serve way, so that employees could access information when it was most convenient for them.
In addition to connecting employees in different regions, Samuel's workplace technology needed to underpin messaging strategies that would engage their entire workforce, including deskless team members on their shop floors, who make up more than 50% of their workforce. The overarching objective was to share the same information with all levels of the organization, clearly communicate their Strategic Plan, and provide two-way communications opportunities so that employees can ask questions and share their feedback.
The Solution
Digital technology has underpinned Samuel's transition to an agile culture, and embracing technology is a key pillar of their Strategic Plan. The enterprise launched The Torch, an intranet that serves as employees’ go-to source for information. The platform centralizes essential resources, including policies, quick links to Samuel programs, and easily searchable guides of people and facilities, and also provides multiple mediums for two-way communications, including channels designed to bring specific groups together to share ideas and expertise (like plant managers) and the ability to submit questions directly to Samuel’s leaders.
Samuel also chose to launch BrightSign, a hardware that plugs into the back of internal TVs, so that frontline employees can view updates and access two-way communications through QR codes from their workplace setting. Content can be managed from one central location and local facilities can also add their own custom content.
The results
Prior to Samuel's cultural change, many employees didn’t have regular opportunities to interact with leadership and hear updates straight from the source. In contrast, teams can now engage with leaders by leveraging The Torch’s communications channels. Users can submit questions to Samuel’s CEO via a form, they can add their insights to Samuel Solutions (a company-wide ideation program), and they can join conversations about specific topics like Agility and Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging through Torch Talk channels.
The Torch has also opened the door to Samuel’s Leadership Huddles, which were previously restricted to the organization’s 150 senior-most employees. Now, video recordings are published on the intranet so that everyone can watch the discussions, ask questions, share their ideas, and rate their call experience.
In the words of Daniela Todaro, GM, Bothwell, “I really appreciate that two-way communication is initiated across the company. I have seen a huge impact as people start to embrace the changes; feelings of pride and belonging are replacing indifference and uncertainty. Being able to watch the monthly Leadership Huddles and having access to information updated frequently on The Torch is not only changing the way we operate, but how we think. There’s been an infusion of positive energy throughout the organization and it continues to grow stronger.”
Metrics
Several metrics can be used to illustrate the success of Samuel's culture strategy. Pageviews on The Torch have increased by 186%. The number of employees who read the current CEO blog is also 10 times higher than readership levels for their previous executive content.
On average, an Ask Me Anything question is submitted to Colin once every three days, with responses posted on a bi-weekly basis. In addition to those responses, Colin has released 17 blog updates since the beginning of 2021. On average, these updates are read by 42% of people who have access to The Torch, with particularly popular topics, such as COVID-19 updates, climbing to viewership of 67%.
Additional testimonials include:
Debra Hakala, Manager: “As someone who joined Samuel over two years ago in an acquisition, I have found The Torch a great tool that brings us all together as one big team.”
Barbara DiFilippo, Customer Service Supervisor, Central Canada: “I can’t express how valuable The Torch has become for all of us in the Samuel Family. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Torch has become my source of information and updates. The content rivals any news media today.”
The Technology
Samuel's intranet, The Torch, was launched in collaboration with Unily, which provides a widget-based interface that is easily customizable, with four key goals in mind – providing more two-way communications opportunities, offering tools to simplify daily work, increasing awareness of company news, and increasing alignment with Samuel’s Strategic Plan and Mission, Vision and Values.
Disruptive Factor
The launch of The Torch was a big change at Samuel. Prior to its inception, the company emailed all announcements as PDFs and the old intranet, a 2016 SharePoint site, was rarely visited or updated. Despite that, Samuel saw intranet usage drop by 2.5% the month of launch. However, as the communications team continued to post daily, multi-media content and drive traffic to The Torch, they quickly saw things turn around. By February, usage had increased by 88%, climbing again in March to 105%.
In a recent company update, President & CEO, Colin Osborne, said The Torch had “gone viral.” It has become the go-to place to share company updates, launch new programs and engage team members. Recent new additions include:
- A page for Team Agility, a team devoted to finding ways to improve processes and increase efficiency across the business with opportunities for people to sign up or submit suggestions
- A Torch Talk channel for people to share photos of themselves getting their vaccine
- A scavenger hunt to familiarize people with Samuel’s new DEI page
- A Mission, Vision and Values page with a video update from Colin and links to new company assets, like an updated internal PPT, new email signatures and business cards
Shining Moment
At the start of 2021, Samuel released an updated mission, vision and values video, which was posted on both The Torch and BrightSign. When their EVP of Manufacturing arrived at a plant in Cartersville, Georgia, he saw three new employees watching Samuel’s CEO explain what their new values are and why they matter. Even during a time when travel was restricted due to COVID-19, Samuel was able to make their CEO more visible and keep their employees more aligned than ever before.