The beet

Improved Communication Amongst Team Members Strengthens Culture

One of Whitsons’ key promises is to “Nurture Authentic Communication” by establishing open lines of communication. Effective communication is the backbone of any successful organization and improving communication in the workplace keeps business running smoothly and advances team member relationships, which contributes to less employee turnover and higher retention.

To further enhance our internal communication strategy, Whitsons has developed Café Connections, an internal messaging system that significantly changes how we connect with our team members.

This new technology is a state of art product we developed to replace traditional internal bulletin boards, memos and posters using a high-impact visual messaging system”. “The goal of this back of the house platform are to improve the delivery of relevant and timely information. This will result in increased team member awareness and help us achieve our operational objectives,” said Kelly Friend, Whitsons’ Chief Operating Officer for Contract Management. “Whitsons’ Café Connections is ideal for communicating customer and client related information, in real time, to our onsite teams—even reaching those without email access,” continued Friend.

This new platform enhances the overall team member experience, and seamlessly integrates with Whitsons’ existing systems, transforming plain data into attention-grabbing digital messages that are displayed right in the kitchen to keep our teams throughout the field engaged. The impact such a tool has serves to improve employee retention, creating far-less unanticipated disruptions in an already challenging year.

Café Connections also maintains our branding and messaging while allowing location level access, where managers can create personalized messages geared towards their own teams. Unique customizable widgets, including real-time Twitter feeds, news updates, local weather, clocks and more, are also part of the platform. By streamlining our internal communications, Whitsons can keep our teams up to date more efficiently and bring our customers the latest and greatest service options faster.

“As we continue to build upon our commitment to community engagement, having a resource like Café Connections enables us to engage our onsite team members by keeping them up to date on corporate notices and announcements, our latest videos, training materials, events and celebrations, team member recognition and much more,” says Bill Whitcomb, Jr., VP of Customer Experience.

Whitsons is phasing-in the new Café Connections system to locations beginning in Fall 2021.