Curated Customization: Rethinking employee engagement in the world of personalisation
CLIENT
Maersk A/S-IT
SERVICE
Employee Engagement
SERVICES
Industrial Design
Market Research
Concept Generation
Visualization
Graphic Design
Sourcing and Procurement
Customising
Quality Checking
Packaging
Shipping
YEAR
2021
The Brief
Rethinking employee engagement
First impressions last. How do we create an experience of pleasant delight for an employee joining one of the largest shipping companies in the world? How do we make employees feel they're a part of a family? What can we do to make a new employee feel valued and appreciated from the moment they begin their employment?
Many a time, it's not just the employee that's a part of the company. The employee's friends and family also become an extended part of the company. What can we do for Maersk to maximise brand recall among employees and their social circles?
Onboarding while working from home – How can we create a physical experience of joy for employees who have gone through an entirely digital hiring and onboarding process? Only 12% of employees agree that their company does a good job of onboarding new employees.
Benefits, company mission and values are among the top 5 things potential hires look at while accepting an offer. According to recruiters, the biggest cause of rejected offers (32%) is potential hires accepting another offer.
How can we give Maersk’s offers the Wow factor, to enhance offer acceptance rates?
69% of job seekers are likely to apply to a company that actively manages its brand. How do we deliver a Maersk branded experience for a new employee?
The number one reason why employees quit is a lack of appreciation at their current job. 79% of employees who quit claimed this was a major reason for leaving. 51% of those with jobs are searching for new openings. How can we increase employee retention by making employees feel appreciated and valued?
87% of organizations cite culture and engagement as one of their top challenges, and 50% call the problem “very important.”
Approach
Setting Sail
We began by designing the employee welcome kit that a new employee receives on their first day at Maersk. We identified and built user personas for the target employee group from Maersk Tech. Based on the persona, we curated a collection of products along various themes like sustainability, technology, health and bespoke design.
Smooth Sailing
We identified the Maersk shipping container as the imagery that people all over the world think of when "Maersk" is mentioned. Everyone has seen rows of white-grey containers with the Maersk logo boldly plastered across the front, neatly stacked on ships or behind a truck on the road.
The simple Maersk container became the inspiration and starting point for our design direction.
Even though the employees are not directly working in shipping and container logistics, it was important to maintain the imagery of the container to maximize brand recognition and recall among employees and their friends and families.
Choppy Seas
After multiple rounds of back and forth, we finalized the list of items going in the welcome kit. These items were based on the themes of technology, electronics, daily essentials for techies, and health.
Testing the Waters
A journey of a thousand welcome kits begins with a single prototype. In our case, it was 16 prototypes - each with different printing styles, graphics, build qualities, placement of items and various lid constructions.
Various ways of opening the lid for delightful unboxing
Layered experience – the gift that keeps on giving
Textured Printing, for a multi sensorial experience
Tech Kit for Onboarding
All On Board
Unboxing the Maersk Welcome Kit was a multi sensorial experience. 1,000 employees across two continents received the kits as part of their onboarding into Maersk. Numerous LinkedIn posts with images of the Welcome Kit from happy employees praising Maersk followed.
Maersk received raving reviews from employees who were proud to join a company that recognised their value.
