How Rayonier uses Happeo to bring its global workforce together
The challenge
An outdated and unengaging intranet which kept the team heavily reliant on emails to communicate internally.
The solution
An easy-to-use intranet to improve engagement, connection, and collaboration across teams.
The result
Rayonier’s new intranet “The Landing” brings together its global workforce and boosts collaboration across the U.S. and New Zealand.
The challenge: an intranet overhaul that’s long overdue
Rayonier is a real estate investment trust based in Florida, USA. The organization owns and manages over 2.8 million million acres of land, with around 420 employees worldwide, spread out across the U.S. and New Zealand.
“Happeo allowed us to streamline our communications and knowledge management efforts. In the U.S., we have a one-stop shop for employees, and everything is now centrally located. There's no more figuring out, wasting time, trying to find a form. When they go to our Happeo site they will find what they’re looking for.”
— Emily Stimler, Employee Communications Manager at Rayonier
The solution: an intranet our teams would actually want to use
"When we set out to find our new internet solution, we thought we would build something internally. But once we started looking at what was in the market, we were immediately drawn to Happeo. We loved that it is a Google solution and could work seamlessly with Google Workspace, and how it combined both traditional internet capabilities with the social components.”
Involving employees in the onboarding process
“Even though our Happeo site could be up and running within a month, we wanted to take the time to phase out our former intranet platform to make sure we did not lose any important pieces of information. The entire journey from start to finish took about six months.
As our employees would be using the product every day, we wanted to involve them from the start. Keeping our employees in the loop allowed us to gather valuable end-user feedback, instead of just looking at the platform from a communication or IT standpoint.
That’s why we selected a group of employees to be early adopters; they gave us feedback and helped create more buzz among the different teams.
We also had a naming contest closer to our launch, and our Happeo site ended up being called ‘The Landing’. This referred to a landing page and the forestry term, which resonated with our employees. As the winner of the naming contest would win a prize, this helped to boost engagement, get people excited, and helped to create internal buy-in.”
The result: a new intranet to support and engage the workforce
Easy setup with templates, company branding, and user customization.
Employees around the world stay connected and feel more engaged with the company.
Employees no longer rely on email as Happeo’s search functionalities help them find files and people much faster than before.
Increased productivity
"As soon as employees started to use the tool, they loved it. Using the search functionality, they could easily find what they were looking for, such as files stored in Google Drive and employee contact details. Our employees used the directory to find information about colleagues from across the world, including their names, phone numbers, location, and even the best way to contact them.
Happeo also makes it easier to broadcast news and announcements. Whether it's congratulating an employee on a promotion, welcoming a new employee, or reading about the latest company news, there’s no longer a need to rely on email. This was super useful during the Covid pandemic, as it helped our employees feel connected to the company even when working remotely.
We have quite a few field employees who are not desk-bound every day. The Happeo mobile app is an excellent way for them to feel connected. They can access the entire Happeo environment right from their mobile devices.
More two-way communications
"Our Happeo site is constantly evolving and growing. Currently, we are encouraging teams to launch their own channels. Teams can now communicate and collaborate directly in Happeo, instead of spending a lot of time looking through long email threads.
We've also recently seen an uptick in employees who’ve been empowered to create their own channels. We have channels for business-related matters such as specific project teams, and even non-business ones. For instance, we have a channel dedicated to pets, where people share pictures of their furry friends. We also have a channel for people who love reading, and soon we'll be launching a channel for people who love cooking."
“Our employees really enjoy using the platform. When I look at the analytics, I see that almost a hundred percent of employees use the site. This high level of engagement is what we love about Happeo.”
— Emily Stimler, Employee Communications Manager at Rayonier
The most seamless and helpful intranet we’ve ever seen
“Intranets are very personal to me. They've been part of my career since I started working in communications, and unfortunately I’ve had a lot of experiences with outdated intranet solutions.
Happeo is intuitive on the front end for our employees and simplifies my job as a manager and admin. Having a tool that is easy-to-use and that I can manage on my own, not having to rely on Happeo to add everything on their end, makes my life easier.
Happeo offered me good support setting up The Landing, while leaving room for customization. For instance, if I need to create a new page or channel, I can set one up using the templates provided by Happeo. On the other hand, the site allows you to customize various design elements to match with our own branding.
One of my favorite features is the bookmark for most frequently used. You can bookmark files and forms that you use regularly, and easily access them in the launcher."