Employee Voices Shape a New Communication Strategy for Inari

Building a Responsive Culture

Findings from Inari’s February 2023 census survey presented an opportunity to revamp the organization’s internal communications strategy. Mark Berry explained: “Communications emerged as one of our top areas for continued improvement from the survey results.”

In response, the company delved deeper to understand specific employee needs. “Employees overwhelmingly expressed a desire for streamlined, more digestible communications,” Berry continued. “Specific feedback from the post-survey focus groups and a subsequent pulse survey emphasized three main points: a stronger focus on the business points during meetings, a quicker-paced meeting structure with shorter segments, and an overall reduction in the number of meetings.”

The company heeded this feedback. “We’re currently undergoing a major realignment of our communication protocols, executing changes at both the enterprise and functional levels,” said Berry. “The data derived from these processes helped our People & Communications teams to get aligned and act on these opportunities in a much faster, more focused way.”

Dawson Yates, People Operations Analyst at Inari, outlined the specific changes being made: “We’re recalibrating our approach to employee meetings. They’re now more intentional, with clear agendas, while at the same time leveraging the full range of communication channels available to Inari employees.”

When asked about the early outcomes of these changes, Berry was optimistic. “The modifications have been positively received. Several employees reached out after our latest all-hands meeting. They praised it as one of the best meetings we’ve had, with our CEO even dubbing it the best ever.” The feedback underscored the value of Inari’s commitment to refining its communication approach via employee listening.

Democratizing Information

Inari is also working to democratize how it delivers critical information to employees. “We’ve identified our communication channels — all-hands meetings, Friday upload meetings, Slack, email, our intranet site, and even mailings to people’s homes,” said Berry. “We want to ensure that we are making the information we present publicly available for those who may have missed a meeting or want to revisit the details — as well as using these channels to capture additional feedback about the work that’s underway.”

One notable practice that emerged from this communication overhaul was a decision to publish the Inari employee experience scorecards, obtained via Perceptyx’s listening software, on a specific Slack channel for all-hands meetings. These scorecards, according to Berry, are frequently referenced in meetings, creating an environment where actions are grounded in the perception of employees, not just management.

Revealing Hidden Insights with Perceptyx

During the survey and review process, the wealth of data captured was insightful, but it was the follow-up discussions and focus groups that were truly transformative. As HR Business Partner Jennifer Booker explained, Inari conducted not just enterprise-level focus groups, but functional ones, too.

“If you took one of our functions like Science, for example, we not only shared the data, but we wanted to learn more about what was really going on,” said Booker. “The data tells you one thing, but then listening and hearing from our employees directly in focus groups was eye-opening for us because it allowed us to understand additional context about where the problems were. ‘Okay, we think we have a problem with X, we think we have a problem with Y, but as we step back and analyze it as the leadership team of that function, we have a bigger problem with Z.’”

Berry highlighted the positive impact of functional groups conducting their own analysis, an approach that enhanced employee engagement and commitment. As Berry noted, it was gratifying to hear functional leaders say, “‘Do you know why that score is the way it is? Well, this is what the Perceptyx survey tells us our people said.’ The fact that leaders are now focused on addressing what was said is the exciting thing.” The proactive attention to issues raised by the survey feedback, and an eagerness to understand the reasons behind them was, in itself, a major win for Inari.

Perceptyx’s People Insights Platform Scored High With Inari Leaders

Perceptyx’s listening software has been a game-changer for leaders at Inari, who’ve found it to be extremely user-friendly. Yates, responsible for the system’s maintenance, appreciated the ability to “white label” the platform, incorporating Inari’s brand colors, logo, and specific terminology into the survey interface and reports. “By branding the interfaces with our company imagery, it builds a sense of trustworthiness, and trust is what drives Inari’s results,” said Yates.

Booker, who frequently pulls reports for various levels within the organization, found the customization of access particularly helpful. “I think you can easily be overwhelmed with all of the data, all of the cuts, all of the double-clicking into something like Perceptyx’s platform, where there is so much data to navigate,” she said. “We were savvy about how we rolled the results out to our managers because we didn’t want them to go down non-productive rabbit holes. We made sure they had exactly what they needed.”

One feature that received universal acclaim was the ability for each leader to automatically generate a PDF report of their results. “I consider it to be very straightforward,” said Yates. “It’s easy to understand. There are so many different reports, but the ability to filter those for different groups is great.”

However, Inari didn’t rely on the intuitive design alone; they complemented it with manager training sessions. “We held manager trainings during the survey results roll-out in order to highlight, ‘This is what you have access to if you meet the threshold of having enough responses…and if you don’t, this is what you have access to,’” explained Booker. “It was very easy for a manager to go in and download their team’s results — and our training on top of that access made sure they were able to make the most of this data.”