C.H. Robinson Reverses 7-Point Engagement Decline with +5.9 Point Rebound in 12 Months
- Engagement increased +5.9 points in 12 months after declining -7.3 points the prior year
- Trust in senior leadership to lead through change reached all-time high (+10.9 points YoY), now 10 points above best-in-class benchmark
- Survey credibility rebounded +9.5 points, reversing four consecutive years of decline in just 12 months
When CEOs talk about cultural compatibility during mergers, it can often be overstated. There are invariably going to be differences in cultures, regardless of similarity.
What Was the Opportunity?
In 2024, C.H. Robinson's engagement data showed that while employees maintained strong relationships with their managers, they struggled to connect their daily work to the company's overall strategy and were losing confidence their feedback would drive change. This occurred amid significant enterprise-wide transformation – including a CEO transition and a broad transformation of strategy, leadership, and operating model — which increased uncertainty and made it harder for employees to see a clear, stable “why” behind decisions. At the same time, employees were doing this work amid a prolonged freight recession and a challenging market environment.
The data tells a compelling story of an organization on the rise:
Engagement declined -7.3 points from the prior year, highlighting a clear opportunity to re-engage employees and focus attention where it would have the greatest impact.
Strategic clarity gaps were wide. A gap existed between executives and individual contributors on understanding company strategy, which was unsurprising as the company was going through a massive transformation. Optimism and confidence in strategic direction trailed both 2023 results and external benchmarks.
Survey credibility declined for four consecutive years. The cumulative decline of -16.5 points meant employees weren't seeing a clear "you said, we did" feedback loop. Many had stopped believing that speaking up would lead to change.
Feeling valued declined. "I feel valued" fell year-over-year, emerging as a core engagement driver alongside confidence in strategy.
Change resilience lagged. Employees rated their direct managers higher than senior leaders on leading through change, and persistent collaboration challenges between divisions compounded the problem.
This combination — clarity gaps, lagging recognition, and skepticism about action — made it urgent to simplify the cultural narrative, activate leaders at every level, create meaningful two-way connection points between employees and leadership to prove that listening produces visible change.
What Was the Solution?
C.H. Robinson designed a multi-year, enterprise-wide solution that integrated culture, strategy, operating model, and listening — delivered through clear storytelling, leader activation, and systemized action planning.
Unified culture into "The Robinson Way." The organization retired four overlapping constructs (mission, vision, EDGE values, legacy leadership principles) and introduced The Robinson Way — a single framework built around purpose, customer promise, and five behaviors: Authentic, Persistent, Accountable, Curious, and United. Critically, this wasn't designed top-down: a cross-functional group of culture builders from every business area co-created the framework with employees through iterative listening, prototyping, and validation. The result was a cultural narrative employees recognized as their own.
Embedded the Operating Model as the engine of execution. The company clarified long-term enterprise, divisional, and functional goals; aligned workstreams to those goals; and deployed scorecards with measurable inputs and lean-based action plans with a continuous improvement mindset. A3 problem-solving empowered employees closest to the work to define problems, surface insights, and co-create solutions aligned to enterprise priorities. This ensured every team understood how their work drives strategy forward and improves customer experience.
Activated transparent two-way communication between Senior Leadership and the desk. C.H. Robinson expanded Ask-Me/Us-Anything meetings across every division, added in-person elements to previously virtual-only Global All Hands meetings, and created divisional scorecards that cascade strategy and KPIs to local teams, thus enhancing transparent two-way communication, visibility to enterprise goals, and a speak-up culture.
Systemized action planning and feedback loops. The organization required action plans to be entered into the Perceptyx platform and launched behavioral nudges to all people leaders, embedding reminders into the flow of work. An employee idea portal allowed employees to suggest opportunities aligned with the operating model, and intentional communications demonstrated how feedback shapes change.
Published transparent pay practices. For U.S. and Canadian employees, C.H. Robinson published pay ranges and decision logic to improve understanding of fairness and the link between pay and performance.
What Was the Impact?
The results represent one of the most dramatic engagement turnarounds in recent memory — and it was achieved in just 12 months.
Engagement rebounded +5.9 points after declining -7.3 points the prior year, with the strongest increases in referral behavior and pride. This 13-point swing from negative to positive trajectory demonstrates the power of focused, enterprise-wide action.
Strategic clarity reached all-time highs. Understanding of strategic direction improved +8.9 points year-over-year, and confidence in company strategy gained +11.8 points — directly addressing the executive-to-individual contributor gap that had been identified as a critical barrier.
Trust in senior leadership reached an all-time high. Trust in senior leaders to lead through change improved +10.9 points year-over-year and now sits 10 points above best-in-class benchmark. High-frequency, two-way touchpoints (AMAs, All Hands with open Q&A) proved to be key levers behind this credibility rebound.
Survey credibility reversed four years of decline. The +9.5 point rebound in survey credibility, achieved in just 12 months, demonstrated to employees that feedback drives visible action. The score now approaches the best-in-class benchmark.
The Robinson Way achieved rapid adoption. Over 75% of employees believe The Robinson Way enables their success. Commitment to continuous improvement strategy increased +8.0 points year-over-year.
Compensation understanding improved dramatically. Compensation understanding climbed +7.8 points and now exceeds best-in-class benchmark. Performance-pay linkage rose +13.3 points as employees gained clarity on how pay connects to performance.
AI readiness positioned for the future. The majority of employees indicated they are ready to adopt AI tools the company is launching, an unexpected signal of change resilience and trust in organizational direction. Which is good for a company going through a massive AI transformation.
A single cultural frame, co-created with employees, replaced complexity, thereby making it easier to act, coach, and recognize in the flow of work. C.H. Robinson proved that when listening, action, and communication align around a clear narrative, employee engagement can be rebuilt (and then boosted) in a single year.
By employing a listening strategy and leveraging a platform that gives you objective data, it’s invaluable to informing your people strategy,” says Miller.
The Impact
Improvements in employee engagement, retention, and leadership support
The employee listening strategy delivered significant benefits:
Discovery of Engagement Hotspots: The data revealed previously unanticipated issues across different business units that leadership had assumed would be more insulated from M&A activity. “We thought our people challenges, such as retention, were only in our wholesale banks, but the reality is they were in our frontline and branches as well,” notes Miller. This insight allowed for more targeted action planning and interventions.
Identification of Cultural Misalignments: The surveys exposed important differences in how each organization interpreted the bank’s core values. While both banks considered themselves people-centric, their practical approaches differed significantly. “[Some of the people from American National Bank] perceived us to be more process-oriented... they really didn’t understand why we had all these ‘hoops’ to jump through,” explains Miller. “They saw that as an example of, ‘Hey, we can be flexible and nimble when we need to service a customer.’ But for us, it was like, ‘Wow, that’s a really risky proposition.’ We leveraged the data and insights to then go and have conversations with those leaders and action plan around it.” Subsequent surveying showed that this “values gap” had indeed narrowed.
Acceleration of Technology Investments: Insights from the survey revealed significant technology gaps that negatively impacted productivity and employee experience. For example, American National Bank, the acquired institution, had implemented innovative tools like DocuSign to streamline loan administration. However, these capabilities were lost during the transition to Atlantic Union Bank, creating frustration among employees. “For your job to be easy, and then to come to Atlantic Union Bank and have the thing that makes it easy go away... that degrades the experience all the more,” explains Miller. This degradation in the employee experience also risked reduced productivity and retention.
Recognizing this as an acute pain point, Atlantic Union Bank acted swiftly. They worked cross-functionally with their technology and operations teams to reprioritize the DocuSign project within their existing roadmap. This decision was driven by the understanding that reinstating such tools was essential for retaining talent and improving engagement. The initiative had a meaningful impact on teammate work experience, engagement, and retention. “The most powerful thing we heard is, ‘You listened. You leveraged this information and did something with it. That reaffirmed the commitment to the combined organization and retention in the long term,’” says Miller.
Expansion of Leadership Visibility: Listening data showed that new markets without an existing Atlantic Union leadership presence struggled more during the transition. “It felt like the blind were leading the blind,” says Miller. This led to a strategic change in their integration approach, ensuring the physical presence and accessibility of legacy leadership in new markets.
Lessons for the Future
Improvements in employee engagement, retention, and leadership support
The insights gained have now become part of Atlantic Union Bank’s M&A playbook, directly informing their approach to future growth. “The lessons learned from our listening strategy have literally been written into our playbook for future state M&A,” Miller explains.
The impact extends beyond immediate integration concerns. The data now informs executive goal-setting and accountability measures as well, with leaders being evaluated on their contribution to successful integration outcomes. “Senior and executive leadership has a responsibility to support the success of the integration,” says Miller. “Thanks to Perceptyx’s platform, we can measure engagement, where we see hotspots, where we’re seeing risk to retention, and where we’re seeing far-reaching positive impacts.”
Senior and executive leadership has a responsibility to support the success of the integration,” says Miller. “Thanks to Perceptyx’s platform, we can measure engagement, where we see hotspots, where we’re seeing risk to retention, and where we’re seeing far-reaching positive impacts.
Looking ahead, Atlantic Union Bank continues to refine its employee listening strategy, particularly as it manages the challenges of back-to-back acquisitions. “Merger fatigue is real,” acknowledges Miller. “We have to prioritize our investment in time to ensure that we are not losing momentum around teammate engagement and actioning on the insights we had, amid a lot of different distractions. In the instance of back-to-back mergers, we have to be mindful of the future integration but also continue attending to the teammates who have joined in the not-so-distant past.”
Objective data has been instrumental in helping the company interpret feedback and insights, explains Miller: “It is imperative to run pulse surveys during a merger and respond to that data before going into the next merger.” This approach provides valuable lessons learned as they prepare for their next acquisition. Another focus area for Atlantic Union Bank moving forward is leveraging features that support action planning: “[Perceptyx has] made [action planning] so easy, it’s so seamless.”