How Sobeys improved operations with feedback surveys and rewards

As one of Canada’s largest grocery retailers, Sobeys and its franchisees employ over 131,000 people to feed a nation. And with over 100 years’ legacy of caring for people and their communities, it is no surprise that they have a staggering commitment to growth, learning, and development that has seen them named to lists of Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures and Canada’s Top 100 Employers. It is a commitment that extends to every hourly worker, and Sobeys is proud of their innovative facilities and commitment to health, safety, and employee excellence.

In the spirit of innovation, Sobeys launched the Achievers Employee Experience Platform™, called Bring It! internally, to foster a culture of recognition and improve the employee experience. Bring It! acknowledges and rewards employees for their hard work, dedication, and contributions. Employees earn points through recognition from managers and peers, achieving milestones, and participating in initiatives. These points act as currency within the program and can be redeemed for various rewards, such as gift cards, merchandise, experiences, charitable donations, and more.

The Bring It! platform enhances employee engagement and motivation by providing tangible incentives, ensuring employees feel valued, contributing to a positive and productive work environment at Sobeys.

Enhancing cube truck loading

As creative problem solvers, the team quickly identified a great opportunity to use the Bring It! platform to address additional business needs by optimizing supply chain logistics in their retail support centers. Using Achievers Listen™, Sobeys focused on improving one of the most crucial aspects of their logistics operations: cube truck loading.

Efficient cube truck loading is essential for keeping products fresh, cutting transportation costs, and boosting overall operations, so Sobeys wanted to identify areas for improvement as well as gather feedback from their employees on the loading process. They aimed to optimize the loading of these trucks to ensure every inch of space was used effectively, delivering products in the best possible condition.

Incentivizing learning through gamification

To improve cube truck utilization, Sobeys looked to Achievers Listen™, the employee feedback software within Bring It! to develop a comprehensive strategy for improvement centered around feedback surveys and employee rewards. They shared a reference guide on cube utilization to hourly employees and created a quiz to assess and enhance employee knowledge, driving operational efficiencies and cross-facility alignment. The quiz probed for employee insights on loading procedures, logistical challenges, and suggestions for improvement.

Additionally, to foster active participation, Sobeys introduced a rewards program where employees who scored above 80% on the quiz would be awarded points in Bring It!, incentivizing engagement and commitment to the improvement process.

Using the power of engagement to drive change

Sobeys implemented a cube utilization quiz using the in-platform survey option offered by Achievers and observed remarkable results. While the quiz played a role, the primary driver of these results was the incentive program that awarded points to RSC employees for meeting cube utilization quarterly targets. By utilizing Achievers Listen Feedback surveys as an educational tool for employee operations, Sobeys increased median cube truck utilization from 77.3% to 86.2%.

This improvement translated into real-world benefits. By incorporating a feedback component into the quiz, Sobeys gathered valuable insights into areas needing improvement in cube truck utilization. Leveraging this feedback, they implemented targeted strategies to enhance utilization practices, resulting in tangible operational enhancements.

Using Achievers Listen Feedback surveys as an educational tool for employee operations, Sobeys increased median cube truck utilization from 77.3% to 86.2%.

Looking to the future

Looking forward, Sobeys is excited about what’s on the horizon with the Achievers Employee Experience Platform™. They’re gearing up to introduce new ideas aimed at further boosting employee engagement and performance.

First up is a quarterly focus on getting store deliveries out on time. They’re also putting together a team to brainstorm fun campaigns and initiatives using Bring It!. Plus, they’re working on better reporting tools to see how well everything’s going and make improvements as needed. Lastly, they will be using the same methodology from the cube utilization quiz to launch a similar initiative on food safety.

Sobeys is eager to see where these efforts take them in creating a workplace where everyone’s happy and thriving and Achievers will be right there with them every step of the way.