The people ops team at Huntress, including Director of Learning and Development Billy McMillan and People Coordinator Veronica Werve, put a lot of thought into employee engagement programs for their fully remote global company. Crafting these programs with intention have yielded incredible results, including an onboarding score of 94% and an eNPS of 58 (nearly double the average).

When teams are putting up numbers like these—and consistently improving them year over year—the natural next question is: how do they do it? Veronica and Billy shared their methodology during our “Evolving Your Engagement” strategy webinar. Here’s how they craft programs to support a fast-growing team—and how they use strategic automations to support a wide variety of programs critical to engagement and productivity.

Engagement Survey Data at Huntress

It all starts with data. Billy and Veronica use regular engagement surveys to help them identify what’s going well, and where there’s opportunity for improvement. During their most recent survey, here’s what they found:

• Onboarding Survey Results: Huntress tracks onboarding success through surveys conducted at 30, 60, and 90-day milestones. Their average score is 94%, which reflects the success of their streamlined onboarding processes, heavily supported by Journeys automation.
• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): Huntress’s eNPS score stands at 58, which is an increase of 14 points from the previous year and well above the tech industry benchmark of 22. This metric indicates a high level of employee satisfaction and loyalty, with 85% of the workforce participating in the survey.
• Engagement Metrics: Key engagement metrics also saw improvements, such as:
  • Personal Connection: Employees scored having a close personal connection at work an 85, a 6-point increase from the previous year, largely due to the success of intentionally building networks for employees.
  • Authenticity at Work: A 5 point increase from the year prior, employees rated the statement “I can be myself at work” 88 points.
  • Mission Alignment: Employees scored mission alignment a 91: 5 points higher than last year were awarded for the statement “My job feels important to me because it is aligned to the vision and mission of the company.”

Huntress’s Pillars of Engagement Programming

1. Promote Engagement Through Connection

• Create new hire cohorts every two weeks for shared learning.
• Implement an onboarding buddy program to provide peer support.
• Encourage strategic connections set up by managers to facilitate cross-functional relationships.
• Utilize Donut for automated introductions and water cooler chats, making remote connection-building seamless.

2. Build a Culture of Belonging

• Host monthly belonging sessions on diversity and wellness topics.
• Maintain a dedicated Slack channel for open, inclusive conversations.
• Use Donut intros to facilitate ongoing cross-company connections and create a sense of belonging.
• Huntress takes a strong stance on creating a culture of belonging, emphasizing that employees should “Be the ‘B’ in Belonging.”

3. Focus on Continuous Growth

• Leverage Donut for nudges and reminders throughout learning programs to keep development top of mind.
• Implement a recognition program where employees can practice acknowledging others’ achievements using platforms like Bonusly.
• Encourage reflections and meaningful conversations between managers and teammates to enhance personal and professional growth.

Hot Topic: Automating Administrative Tasks

One of the biggest challenges in scaling engagement initiatives is managing the growing administrative workload. Veronica shared how Huntress leverages automation to free up time for higher-value tasks:

• Reduced administrative time from 96 hours per year to near-zero.
• Automated messaging and task assignments for new hires and managers.
• Streamlined processes for adding new hires to systems and communication channels.

Veronica saves 96 hours a year through automation, which enables her to reinvest time in enhancing experiences and thinking more strategically as the company scales.

Measuring Success

Huntress places a strong emphasis on data-driven decision-making to ensure their engagement initiatives remain effective. They focus on:

• Collecting feedback through regular surveys (engagement, onboarding, etc.).
• Analyzing data to identify trends, gaps, and areas for improvement.
• Comparing results over time and across departments to track progress.
• Conducting SWOT analyses to identify strengths and opportunities for growth.

Billy noted that regular feedback has allowed them to fine-tune their engagement strategy, and despite rapid growth, they consistently achieve over 80% participation in their surveys, underscoring a culture of openness and action.

Looking Ahead to 2025

Planning for 2025 has already started in earnest. Huntress’s people ops team is taking a data-driven approach to planning, and in response to feedback is planning on:

• Equipping managers with focused training on key responsibilities.
• Bringing clarity and alignment through all conversations.
• Implementing a “continual onboarding” approach to keep a learning mindset and strengthen culture beyond the first 90 days.

We’re so grateful to Billy and Veronica for sharing their employee engagement data as well as the methodology behind how they create their standout lineup of employee programming. The results speak for themselves: a focus on creating connections and providing growth opportunities create impactful programs that drive company success.

 

Want to learn more? You can view the full webinar here: