Employee engagement at scale: AkzoNobel’s journey with Eletive

When a company with 34,100 employees and a presence on every continent decides to rethink how it listens to its people, it’s not a small undertaking. For AkzoNobel, a global leader in paints and coatings, this wasn’t just about launching another employee survey – it was about sparking meaningful dialogue, empowering managers, and driving engagement from the ground up.

From annual surveys to continuous listening

For over two decades, AkzoNobel had conducted annual engagement surveys. Early versions were long and traditional, with over a hundred questions covering a wide range of topics. Over time, they evolved into shorter, more focused engagement surveys aimed at enabling local teams to take action.

But by the end of the 2010s – and particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic – it became clear that something more dynamic was needed.

We wanted something that could motivate teams to talk about their experiences, something that would allow for more dynamic, continuous listening.

The team began re-evaluating their approach, asking themselves tough questions: Why are we really doing this? What do we want to get from it? And most importantly, how can we make sure managers are empowered to use the results to drive real change?

Selecting Eletive: Supporting people managers

As the team assessed potential partners, one guiding principle became clear: people managers needed to be at the center of the engagement strategy.

“One of the key drivers for selecting a new platform was centered around empowering our people managers – because they are at the heart of team engagement,” said Sophia Wopperer, Regional HR Manager North America.

The platform also needed to be:

• Accessible to blue-collar (offline) employees

• User-friendly with an intuitive interface and reports

• Available in multiple languages

• Able to provide strong benchmarking relevant to manufacturing

• Equipped with built-in action planning support

Eletive met all these criteria, and more. Features like the anonymous employee chat, AI sentiment analysis, employee lifecycle surveys, and integration with SuccessFactors sealed the deal.

Empowering employees through self-leadership

Beyond equipping managers, AkzoNobel was drawn to Eletive’s unique approach to self-leadership. For the first time, all employees – not just HR or people managers – were given access to their own personal engagement dashboards.

This shift marked a turning point. By allowing individuals to view their own results, reflect on their work environment, and explore suggested actions in their native language, AkzoNobel encouraged every employee to take ownership of their own engagement.

Giving employees access to their own data really enabled a culture of accountability and self-reflection.

“It’s about making engagement not just something that’s done to you – but something you co-create,” says Sophia.

This principle of self-leadership has helped move engagement from being an annual HR process to becoming a shared, ongoing responsibility across the organisation.

Bringing the organisation on board

Recognising the importance of local ownership, AkzoNobel created regional sounding boards with over 100 employees representing different geographies, functions, and job types. These sounding boards validated project decisions, gave real-time feedback, and even helped choose the internal name for the survey “Voices”.

“They became our advocates,” said Sophia. “They helped us shape and refine our approach. It really drove acceptance and engagement.”

Communications were also tailored and personal. Posters featuring real employees were displayed across sites, and 56 trainers conducted 50+ live webinars in 22 languages for over 5,500 people managers.

“We wanted people to see themselves in the campaign, literally,” Sophia explains. “That made it more tangible, more real.”

The biggest effort, however, went into educating people managers—enabling them to listen to and act on their team’s feedback and to feel accountable for the work environment they create. This wasn’t just about delivering instructions. It was about empowering leaders with both the mindset and the tools to make a difference.

Together, this dual approach – empowering both managers and individuals – lays the foundation for true bottom-up engagement across a complex global organisation.

An ambitious implementation in just 3 months

With the contract signed in June, AkzoNobel set an ambitious goal: to launch the new platform globally by mid-October. “It was a bit of a crunch time – for both us and Eletive,” Sophia shares. “But we made it! It was a fantastic team effort.”

The rollout was guided by four key phases: design & integration, communication & change, education, and action planning. From day one, AkzoNobel assembled a cross-functional implementation team across HR, IT, communications, and culture & change. Eletive’s customer success managers worked hand-in-hand with the AkzoNobel team to ensure nothing was left to chance.

“To Eletive’s credit, they were an amazing partner throughout. A huge shoutout to Diana, Madeleine, and Emily on the implementation team, they were instrumental in making this happen,” Sophia adds.

Record-breaking results in year one

The response was overwhelming. Nearly 90% of employees participated in the first survey – one of the highest participation rates AkzoNobel had ever seen. The engagement index and eNPS scores landed well above benchmark, and the team received over 43,000 open comments from employees.

For a company with a significant offline population, that kind of response is huge. We knew we’d done something right.

Offline employees in particular engaged at high rates, thanks in part to tactics like providing kiosk codes, manager support, and even the occasional candy bar for those participating during shift breaks. “It may sound small, but the trust we built through consistent, clear communication really paid off,” she adds.

KIOSKKIOSK functionality enables employees who don't have a work email to easily participate in the employee engagement surveys by using a code.Read more

From insight to action: Making employee feedback matter

Gathering feedback was just the beginning. The next step was helping business units translate insights into concrete improvements.

Brian shares how his global business unit approached action planning: “We led by example. Our leadership team discussed the survey results openly, both for ourselves and for the wider business. That gave us the credibility to invite other teams to do the same.”

They focused on three core areas:

• Psychological safety and inclusion – “Even though our results on topics like harassment or code of conduct were very low, we approached them like we would safety: aiming for zero harm.”

• Health and wellbeing – Post-COVID, this became a crucial area. Teams were encouraged to talk about physical and mental health openly, using simple frameworks like four-box matrices or stress maps.

• Internal communication – While relationships scored high, the team noticed that workload clarity was lacking. Improving communication around progress and updates helped bridge this gap.

Connecting engagement to business performance

One of the most impactful steps AkzoNobel took after launching the new survey was to embed employee engagement data directly into the BU’s existing performance dashboard. By placing it alongside traditional business metrics—like revenue, volume, supply chain efficiency, and profitability—engagement became part of the everyday business conversation.

“Whatever kind of business you’re in, you’ll have some common measures. Like a topline metric, something relating to supply or service delivery and something relating to your profit,” Brian explains. “But we added two more: one for customer engagement, using NPS, and one for employee engagement – using eNPS, through Eletive.”

With both employee and customer Net Promoter Scores tracked in parallel, the company creates a bridge between internal culture and external performance.

Having both employee and customer NPS side by side allows us to directly connect engagement with business outcomes in a really meaningful way.

This integration helps with visibility and keeps engagement alive in the system, reinforcing that how people feel at work isn’t just an HR metric; it’s a driver of long-term business success.

An employee engagement strategy for the long term

The Eletive platform is now an integral part of AkzoNobel’s engagement strategy. In 2024, the focus was on refining and building on the foundation. In 2025, employee engagement will be fully integrated into the company’s core ways of working – just like performance and talent management.

While AkzoNobel says they’re still learning, one thing is clear: with the right tools, the right questions, and a commitment to listening, large-scale change is possible.