Making Lasting Change: InVision's Employee Engagement Campaign
Make Visions
Making Lasting Change: InVision's Employee Engagement Campaign
The Keystone of InVision’s Employee Engagement Campaign
Every year, InVision Communications hosts an annual company retreat for all of its employees. It is a keystone date and activity in our annual calendar and integral to our culture. Post-COVID, after years of disruption and remote work, the 2024 in-person event (“VISIONS Live”) has taken on deeper significance and vitality. Employees crave the opportunity to reconnect in person, to refresh, learn, share, and celebrate.
While VISIONS Live is the most visible element of employee engagement at InVision, it’s just a piece of our ongoing, evergreen Visions employee engagement campaign throughout the year.
Thriving in Times of Transition
While much of the world has been searching for the “new normal” post-pandemic, InVision has been fortunate to realize incredible growth over the past few years. We bolstered our client partnerships, won new clients, entered new verticals, and expanded our full-time staff. Our founders, Rod Mickels and Drew Hagen, sold the company to its employees in an Employee Stock-Owned Plan (ESOP) arrangement, and then, most recently, Mickels and Hagen stepped down as chief executives. Industry veteran Angie Smith became InVision’s second CEO in its 33-year history in January 2024. That’s a lot of transition!
With all this change, VISIONS Live 2024 needed to clearly articulate the evolution and continuity of our mission. We would continue to excel at our core competencies of engaging audiences through live and virtual platforms while expanding our offerings to include omnichannel campaigns, including brand storytelling, social media, digital tools, AR and VR, communications strategy, and more.
In addition, with its diverse workforce — in roles and expertise, career stages and cultures, geography, and work functions — being big-tent inclusive was a key driver in planning the 2024 VISIONS employee campaign.
A Consistent and Continuous Campaign
InVision’s employee engagement campaign included upgraded training programs; new communications and marketing tools; and overall program integration. Coming off of the 3.5-day VISIONS Live in early March in Scottsdale, AZ, our teams are turning up the volume, rolling out more programs to keep the focus on several goals for engagement:
· Client and employee recruitment and retention
· Employee growth and productivity
· Cultural integration and cohesion
· Effective communication and feedback
All the efforts fall under a single brand VISIONS, and employees are invited to participate through one robust “hub” that they are encouraged to return to often. We are experimenting with the right blend of fun activities with serious training (called “Thrive”), group interaction with individual growth, and more opportunities to hear from and celebrate more voices through the “VISIONaries” reward and recognition program.
We revamped our bi-weekly staff meetings to hear about more than just business updates; they are now imbued with more best practice sharing, recognition and appreciation, tips on providing effective feedback, as well as personal highlights from the InVision family, promoting well-being, empowerment and a rewarding work-life balance. And all of this is reinforced through a revamped internal email newsletter we are calling “Re: VISIONS.”
Inspired by the success of VISIONS Live 2024, we are planning to host a lighter, tighter version of the VISIONS Live event – dubbed “Double Visions” – in summer 2024, targeting specific regions and teams where the InVision community shines brightest.
An Exciting Path Forward
InVision’s VISIONS Live 2024 event stands as a testament to our commitment to employee engagement and continuous evolution. As we navigate significant transitions, including new leadership under CEO Angie Smith and expanding our offerings, VISIONS Live served as a pivotal moment to reaffirm our core competencies while embracing new horizons. Our ongoing employee engagement campaign, anchored by VISIONS, underscores our dedication to client and employee satisfaction, growth, cultural integration, and effective communication. With initiatives like “Double Visions” on the horizon, we are excited to continue fostering a thriving and connected InVision community.
