Appreciating Drivers
Driver appreciation is a large-scale and crucial initiative for the company. With over 23,000 drivers to celebrate across the country each year, the varying event experiences created negative sentiment on the company's social media accounts when posting driver appreciation content. To address this, I developed a program with three goals in mind:
- Increase consistency in the experience for drivers
- Increase consistency in the experience for drivers
- Better engage the entire company in driver appreciation
- Ease the process for the event planners.
The tactics we employed were:
Centralize Event Resources
I created a SharePoint site that can be used each year to share instructions for ordering environmental branding, apparel, and promotional items; enter event details; share photography; and set expectations with leadership. This contributed to event consistency and eased the process for the event planners who only have to do these tasks once a year. We housed all materials available to order in The Print Shop, reducing costs by avoiding outsourcing materials that could be produced in-house.
Incorporate a Theme
To involve all employees, regardless of their involvement in supporting drivers directly, we developed a theme that changes each year. This also helps differentiate the celebration between years for the drivers keeping the content fresh. The first theme was Rearview Retro: A Blast from the Past. We incorporated merchandise to be sold in The Scroll Shop and crafted a company-wide communication plan to promote the new line.
Centralize Event Resources
I created a SharePoint site that can be used each year to share instructions for ordering environmental branding, apparel, and promotional items; enter event details; share photography; and set expectations with leadership. This contributed to event consistency and eased the process for the event planners who only have to do these tasks once a year. We housed all materials available to order in The Print Shop, reducing costs by avoiding outsourcing materials that could be produced in-house.
Incorporate a Theme
To involve all employees, regardless of their involvement in supporting drivers directly, we developed a theme that changes each year. This also helps differentiate the celebration between years for the drivers keeping the content fresh. The first theme was Rearview Retro: A Blast from the Past. We incorporated merchandise to be sold in The Scroll Shop and crafted a company-wide communication plan to promote the new line.
Celebrating milestones
Safe, tenured drivers are celebrated as they reach the career milestones of one, two, three, four or even five million miles driven collision free. This program has been in place since 1989, and the look of the celebratory materials has varied quite a bit during that time. I became involved in the look and feel in 2019 and have worked strategically to tie it in with the current brand, keep materials evergreen to reduce costs, and add personal touches to help ensure the honorees feel properly seen and celebrated. The additional benefit of connecting this event with the brand is the photography, video and social content obtained at this annual event is used year-round to show off the culture of appreciating and celebrating our people.
Honoring Veterans
Wreaths Across America is another major event the company participates in each year in which brand integration was crucial. Read more about this initiative here.