Employee engagement is an important nut to crack to unlock the benefits of a team that is connected, feels valued and cared for. We sat down with Marsha Roul, Employee Experience Specialist and Bright Breaks Champion at League Data. Marsha shared with us how her company maintains a strong culture of well-being while using Bright Breaks as a tool to reach their engagement goals in a hybrid setting.
💡 “New hires are just blown away, they love that they have this available to use. They love that they’ve selected an employer that gives them the opportunity and encourages them to take advantage of breaks to support their wellness.”
With a total employee count of 36, League Data is consistently in the top 20% of our customers when it comes to percentage of employees regularly taking breaks on Bright Breaks.
Marsha shared her experiences and advice on healthy workplace culture and Bright Breaks engagement which will be expanded on later in the post:
- Living company purpose core values as a team
- Learning to engage as a team virtually
- Maintaining consistently high employee engagement with Bright Breaks
- Employee onboarding
- Making use of provided resources
- Employee portal
- Internal incentives
- Full support from Senior Leadership team
- Leading from the Middle Group
- Using Bright Breaks as a connection tool
- Marsha’s one tip for engaging your team on Bright
Watch the full conversation with Marsha Roul, Bright’s Chief of Staff Jared Perry, myself and other Bright Breaks champions here:
Maintaining Consistently High Employee Engagement with Bright Breaks Living Company Purpose and Core Values as a Team
Marsha shared that League Data’s purpose and values umbrella their culture which they see as very precious. Their purpose and core values are revisited as a company every year so that they change and grow with League Data.
“We make a conscious effort to live and breathe those core values every single day. We’re not afraid to talk about the hard things.” emphasizes Marsha. “If something happens and it doesn’t really align with who we are and it doesn’t align with our values and our culture, we can address it. We can have that conversation with each other because we’ve put in the work to build that trust and there is an expectation of transparency. It’s a beautiful thing when you have that open trusting relationship so that you can have those conversations.”
As employee well-being is one of their core values, League Data has in place in addition to Bright Breaks:
- An annual monetary wellness benefit to spend on anything employees feel support their wellness,
- A flexible, trust-based work schedule
“We’re a tech company, but we consider ourselves a people first company. Our core belief is that if our employees are well and at their best, then League Data will be at its best.”
Learning to Engage as a Team Virtually
Marsha describes League Data as a tight knit group that felt disconnected at the beginning of the pandemic. Being a mostly office-based work environment before, this called for learning new ways to feel like a team while they were apart.
Weekly Team Zoom Chats
One way League Data stays connected is a team chat every Thursday, called KAT (Kick A** Team!) chats. Conversations range from business, strategy and also just a time to connect.
“One thing that our staff really respond to is breakout rooms. We noticed that when we had staff meetings and all of us were on the tiles, a question would be asked and there would be just crickets, silence.” Shares Marsha, “So, we started using breakout rooms and everybody just seemed to start opening up.”
League Data dedicates time in their KAT chats to check in on their team to ask what everyone is doing for fun and what they’re doing for their own well-being. “Everyone just opens up and shares, it’s really nice.”
“I also use that time on the weekly KAT chats to promote Bright Breaks.” adds Marsha, “We’re all there in one place, so I check ahead of time what’s happening on Bright Breaks and if there’s things on Bright Breaks that our crew would benefit from, I talk about it there. It helps.”
Maintaining Consistently High Employee Engagement with Bright Breaks
League Data is consistently in the top 20% of customers when it comes to percentage of employees taking breaks on Bright Breaks. It’s normal and expected for engagement to ebb and flow, and League Data has stayed between the range of 22% and 78% since their Bright Breaks launch at the beginning of April 2022.
Employee Onboarding
When asked how her team maintains high engagement she shared it starts with employee onboarding.
“We have a robust employee onboarding process and weave Bright Breaks into it.” Marsha shares. Here’s what’s in place for new employees to access Bright Breaks:
- Bright Breaks description and links to Bright live breaks as well as ondemand
- A live Bright Breaks demo during orientation
- Signing up the employee to ensure they have an active account so they can start participating right away.
“New hires are just blown away, they love that they have this available to use. They love that they’ve selected an employer that gives them the opportunity and encourages them to take advantage of breaks to support their wellness.”
Making Use of Provided Bright Champion Resources
“I find them very valuable and I’m very grateful that I don’t have to create them. When they become available to me, I use our email scheduling option, select the content that I want to use that will resonate with our people, and I schedule all the emails to go out. It takes me half an hour and then I don’t have to think about it anymore.”
Updating Employee Portal
League Data’s employee portal is where the team goes to find out the latest news in the company. Bright Breaks is often part of the news to share, such as internal incentives on Bright Breaks.
Internal Incentives
League Data often holds internal incentives for their team using Bright Breaks.
Marsha describes a summer-themed challenge they hosted in July that incorporated our Beat The Heat Quest that was running on the platform that resulted 70% engagement of her team.
The prize was a bundle of supplies and goodies that you would need for a day at the beach and this is what they asked of their team to be entered to win a draw:
- Show something you to do take care of yourself during the Summer
- Tell us something you to do take care of yourself
- Complete the Beat The Heat Quest on Bright Breaks
“Our team loves a prize! It could be as simple as a $25 gift card, they love those little side challenges, that really works for us.”
Full Support from Senior Leadership Team
League Data’s senior leadership team not only supports Bright Breaks but uses it with the rest of the company.
Relying on Leading from the Middle Group
Marsha relied on a group of team leads in her company to drive the culture of well-being in general, as well as engage with their teams on Bright Breaks.
“I use that group of people and the relationship they have with their teams to promote Bright Breaks because I know how good Bright Breaks is for our staff.” “I ensure that this group of leaders has the resources and information that they need so that when they have weekly one-on-ones with their team that they talk to their teammate about it.”
“When they see their leaders taking breaks and taking care of themselves, it makes it easier for (the rest of the team) to do it.”
Using Bright Breaks as a Connection Tool
When asked if League Data makes a habit of meeting each other’s teammates on Bright Breaks, Marsha replies “That’s one of our favourite parts! We really enjoy that.”
Marsha describes inviting the team inviting each other to different Bright Breaks.
“The ability to collaborate and connect, that is one of the biggest things that drew us to Bright. Working Hybrid remote, we were lonely. We had to make opportunities to connect and Bright Breaks really helps us with that.
“It’s so fun, you get in a class (break), to see a peer from another province, you can wave ‘hi’.” Marsha says while describing how much her team loves seeing each other in Bright Breaks.
Marsha’s One Main Tip for Engaging Her Team on Bright
“Be Authentic. If you’re going to talk the talk, walk the walk. That makes every bit of difference. Be an example.”
Marsha says that as an authentic Bright Champion steps to take are
- Share that you’re taking Bright Breaks breaks
- Share your experiences, encourage others to share theirs with the team
- Invite colleagues
- Talk about Bright Breaks when you can
- Share the responsibility of promoting Bright Breaks with others
We discussed much more about the particulars of Bright Breaks, employee engagement and happiness surveys and more. Watch the video to hear the full exchange.
Is your team a Bright Breaks customer yet? Book a demo to start the conversation.
Post written by Heather Williams, Bright Breaks’ Team Lead of Customer Success
