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CUSTOMER STORY

How Costco is driving frontline employee engagement in bulk

9% turnover rate

A best-in-class retention rate for retail

600 stores live in 2 months

A rapid, coast-to-coast Appspace rollout

2,000+ devices deployed

Digital signage reaching frontline teams everywhere

ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE

Meet Costco

Costco is a multinational retail corporation with over 815 locations across the globe. With a workforce of 288,000 and a loyal customer base of 109 million cardholders, Costco prides itself on its exceptional service and strong employee culture. 

Costco is regularly included in Top Places to Work rankings. Their employee engagement track record speaks for itself, with more than 60% of U.S. employees having 5+ years of service, and more than 30% having 10+ years with the company. More incredible is an industry-trouncing turnover rate of around 9% for those employed for more than one year.

THE CHALLENGE

Deliver timely and engaging content to dispersed teams

As Costco’s market share grew, so did the concern that existing communication strategies might break down. 

To intercede, Costco’s employee development and communications team sought new avenues for delivering information to employees in a more timely, consistent, and effective way. 

Employees were requesting more information about the company’s career opportunities, expansion plans and business goals, as well as videos featuring executives.

The team needed a solution that would give them control over the scheduling, prioritizing and layering of information to employees. This included curating information from corporate, regional, and individual locations into an effective blend, providing employees with a well-rounded view of the company and their store.

Costco’s goals were to:

  • Improve the frontline worker experience 
  • Celebrate great work 
  • Schedule and share content from various
  • internal groups – corporate, regions and stores
  • Maintain company culture during major expansion

THE SOLUTION

A cost-effective way to reach deskless workers

The Costco team identified digital signage as a cost-effective way to reach its primarily deskless workforce. 

After beginning research on workplace communications solutions, they learned that corporate IT and two Costco merchandising teams were piloting Appspace for digital signage. 

Armed with IT’s support and positive feedback from the teams already using Appspace, the communications team rolled out their solution: Appspace and ChromeOS for internal-facing digital signage throughout the U.S. 

The implementation started deliberately with a pilot group of stores and had early success. But when the pandemic struck, it brought a new urgency for improving employee communications. So the team dramatically altered the planned region-by-region implementation. 

With Costco’s senior leadership approval, a blitz approach began, and with support from Appspace, the team accelerated the implementation. As a result, all U.S. stores installed the digital signage solution in a matter of weeks. Next was a rollout strategy for Canada, and potential for expansion to other geographies.

Costco has installed digital signage in breakrooms to reach deskless frontline employees and in corporate and regional offices.

THE RESULTS

A more informed frontline

Appspace has been a success at Costco. It’s helped to improve employee engagement, communication, and collaboration. Employees now have access to timely and relevant information about company policies, store activities, and more.

Industry
Retail

Company size
10,000+

Solutions
Digital signage
Frontline communication

The retail industry is well-known for its manage-by-walking-around culture, but we’re simply getting too big to rely solely on this approach. With Appspace, we've advanced our employee communications strategy to continue strengthening our workplace culture. Their digital signage solution has also helped us to more effectively reach our workforce, especially frontline employees.

Employee Development and Communications Director, Costco Wholesale

Why Appspace?

Improve communication across your workforce.

Create spaces employees want to be in.

Manage everything from one platform.

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