How Bayer doubled down on employee appreciation during the pandemic

Recognizing a critical need to address employee well-being and appreciation during the pandemic, Bayer launched a multichannel campaign around its 2021 Employee Appreciation Day (EAD) it called “Stop and Thank.”

The campaign, prompted by internal Bayer research in late 2020 and early 2021, showed that U.S. employee sentiment toward the company was trending down on crucial metrics. Employees were initially appreciative of support and communications during the pandemic, but as the crisis showed no signs of abating, email open rates and engagement numbers began to decline. Employees reported they didn’t feel recognized for their work and Bayer was not attentive to overall employee well-being.

In response, ‘Stop and Thank” was developed to boost morale, well-being and employee recognition by using a leader-driven approach to enable and require leaders to recognize their teams. Ahead of EAD, emails were sent to managers and an article about the campaign was published on BayerNet, the company’s intranet. Managers were requested to share recognition of essential workers on a special photo wall on BayerNet, which was also shared on digital signage on work sites. The team engaged U.S.-based communicators outside of corporate communications, and prepped communications to senior leaders based in the U.S. to request their participation.