Plantorama uses GAIS to create strong employee experiences
For Plantorama, high employee engagement is a must-have for great customer experiences and growth. With GAIS, they continuously work on well-being and turn insights into action across centers and teams.
Plantorama is Denmark’s largest garden and pet center chain. The family-owned company has a clear ambition: employee well-being is not a byproduct but a key requirement for healthy growth.
“We believe that unique customer experiences comes from focusing on good employee experiences and creating meaningful work lives. That’s why employee engagement is a central KPI for us,” mentions Maj Schøler Fausing, Vice CEO of Plantorama.
They use GAIS to measure well-being twice a year, with each center setting strategic goals for strong employee experiences. It was therefore important for Plantorama to find a tool that could provide insights across their organization and among their more than 800 employees.
“It was an advantage that GAIS is so easy to use in practice. We have 16 different centers where center managers and department heads can easily set goals based on areas identified in the well-being survey. They then work with the results within each team,” says Kathrine Laursen, HR Development Consultant at Plantorama.
One platform – insights across centers
“We needed a system like GAIS, which is plug-and-play, visually strong, and simple to use. I have experienced in other systems how frustrating it was to wait for survey results because they had to go through a large analysis process. With GAIS, we get the insights immediately,” Maj Schøler Fausing elaborates.
Plantorama collaborates with consultant Ditte Nørgaard Holm from PeopleFirst, who is certified in the GAIS platform. In close contact with HR and management at Plantorama, she helps set up the surveys and analyze the results. Ditte has also visited various centers to facilitate well-being processes.
“It has worked really well that Ditte comes in as an external consultant. Employees know her and trust her. When we visit the centers, we can feel that insights from the surveys have been worked on and initiatives put in place,” Maj Schøler Fausing mentions.
For Ditte Nørgaard Holm, GAIS has provided a strong foundation for talking about well-being.
“It’s about creating a safe space for dialogue and thereby gaining deeper insight into what matters to employees,” she explains.
Before their first GAIS survey was launched, they held a webinar for managers to prepare them to use the tool. In addition, she holds follow-up dialogues with several managers about their department’s results.
“I see GAIS as a dynamic tool, where we move along with the survey and follow where the results point,” Ditte Nørgaard Holm says.
From insight to action: “Join us for a break!”
The focus map in the survey report is one of the analysis tools that helps Plantorama prioritize efforts, even at the center and department level.
In one center, the factor Colleagues stood out. Employees in one of the center’s departments did not feel part of the broader Plantorama colleague community.
“This sparked a really good dialogue, and for many, insights like this can be an eye-opener,” Ditte Nørgaard Holm explains.
The well-being work led to visual reminders afterward, including a poster encouraging colleagues to take breaks together.
“The example may seem trivial, but it became a concrete action,” Ditte Nørgaard Holm mentions.
In another center, they have seen a significant increase in employee engagement between surveys. Here, there has been a particular focus on involvement, allowing employees to have a greater say in planning their work tasks.
“There has truly been a focus on listening to employees to find out what can be done to boost engagement. We can see that it has paid off, as engagement in that particular center is now at 82 points,” Ditte Nørgaard Holm says.
Nudging drives high response rates
“It has been important for us to achieve high engagement in the surveys. Therefore, Plantorama’s HR department has been in close dialogue with centers and health ambassadors. Sometimes a little nudging is needed,” consultant Ditte Nørgaard Holm says.
Centers participate in a raffle for pizza for the entire center if the response rate exceeds 50% within the first five days of the survey.
“This has definitely helped us get off to a strong start, and employees talk about the survey. In addition, cake is promised for an 80% response rate,” Ditte Nørgaard Holm explains.
During the survey period, there is ongoing dialogue about the response rate, with outreach to center managers in Plantorama.
“Sometimes a phone call is needed to motivate employees, so we get as many as possible to participate and ensure every voice is heard,” Kathrine Laursen mentions.
The follow-up after surveys also plays a role: “When more employees see that results have been acted upon and initiatives implemented, they are also more willing to respond to the next survey,” consultant Ditte Holm Nørgaard concludes.
With GAIS, we have gained a visually strong well-being tool that gives us a common language for well-being. GAIS is intuitive and offers self-help guidance, which is important for us, as we do not have a large HR organization to handle all tasks.
Maj Schøler Fausing
Vice CEO
