Commerce Bank Energizes Employee Engagement with Bonfyre

Background

Commerce Bank engaged CPG Agency and Bonfyre to ring in its 150^th anniversary celebration. The success of the three-week long event led to an ongoing partnership that continues to this day.

Goal

For the anniversary event, Commerce wanted to maximize employee participation in the celebration festivities and generate awareness and engagement in the institution’s rich history. Reaching beyond the celebration, the bank identified several broader goals for sustained culture and engagement initiatives.

1. Make key information more accessible for employees, keeping team members in the know regarding company operations and important updates.
2. Amplify the voices of the workforce, encouraging employees to speak their minds and participate in company functions.
3. Build a community that fosters camaraderie and offers an opportunity for employees to forge new connections with the company’s values at their core.

To achieve these goals, Commerce needed a space where its large employee population could gather around to communicate, share, and visualize participation.

Related: Build a winning internal communications strategy to support your culture

Strategy

Use digital and physical tools and experiences to share photos, videos, and stories, employees are able to build bonds with one another regardless of team, branch location, and region.

In collaboration with CPG Agency and Bonfyre, Commerce drove engagement through unique “phygital” experiences—experiences that blend both physical and digital interactive components During the 150^th anniversary event, CPG Agency developed a “green tubes of fun” campaign. Each Commerce branch and office received a mailing tube with activity instructions and materials capsuled inside. These groups would follow activity instructions (i.e. “Take a photo of your team posing in a dollar bill with the face cut out”) and post the results to Bonfyre to share and compete with other teams.

More recently, Commerce implemented a phygital campaign similar to the ice bucket challenge titled “Pass the Mic.” Holding a physical Commerce-branded microphone distributed by Bonfyre, Commerce employees recorded brief videos to show appreciation for a colleague. After posting the video to Bonfyre, employees would “pass the mic” to the person they recognized, prompting them to record their own video calling out a different coworker.

Commerce continues to use Bonfyre as a culture-enhancing platform today, providing employees with a dedicated space to connect, stay informed, and build camaraderie. Every day, Commerce employees enhance their work experience with Bonfyre features:

• Subculture Bonfyres create close-knit communities around specific departments and employee populations.
• The Bonfyre platform adds an extra dynamic to both new and pre-existing culture initiatives, driving deeper engagement with video contests, employee recognition spotlights, and more.
• Peer-to-peer in-app badges give all employees the opportunity to recognize the achievements and hard work of their colleagues across the organization.

Results

Commerce employees of all generations and functions use Bonfyre to connect and share, boosting engagement levels and camaraderie all across the organization.

The Commerce Bank Bonfyre ecosystem saw the following results in its most recent engagement cycle:

• 73% of employees invited participate in the Bonfyre community
• 57% engagement in Bonfyre (posting or liking content)
• 6,800+ total chats, photos, and videos shared
• 22,000+ likes given to content
• 30% of activity occurred outside the typical 9–5 work day