How Webmart’s culture delivers 92% engagement

Webmart is an award-winning marketing agency which creates unique, integrated campaigns whilst supporting communities through charitable donations and sustainable initiatives. Founded in 1996, the company has over a quarter of a century’s experience in creating campaigns for businesses across the country, using their experience to help its partners identify their target audience and develop a strategy that works. 

Webmart has partnered with People Insight since 2021 to run its staff engagement survey to increase transparency and create a more inclusive work environment. 

Webmart’s ethos is ‘Do good, be good’ and at the centre of this philosophy is a commitment to holistic employee wellbeing. Employees are valued as whole individuals, not just through their workplace personas. Throughout the company, from finance, to procurement and sales and through to management, the team believes in having a positive impact in everything they do. 

This holistic approach extends to support mechanisms like regular employee surveys to gauge employee engagement and wellbeing. 

Webmart has always conducted staff surveys. They carry out an annual 360 feedback survey which is conducted in-house and an engagement survey which, until 2021, was also carried out by the Webmart team. 

A key driver for asking People Insight to take over the engagement survey was the guarantee of anonymity, leading to greater levels of honesty amongst respondents. This has allowed Webmart to further enhance its already excellent reputation as an employer by implementing changes that directly impact on their team’s welfare. 

Another selling point that set People Insight apart was the quality of our results dashboard, which allowed Webmart to cut the data in different ways to explore the results from multiple angles. 

Industry benchmarking has been particularly useful for Webmart, revealing to audiences both internally and externally how well the company was doing amongst its peers. This has helped with both recruitment and retention. 

The addition of a feedback section which allows employees to add their own comments means staff can think about their answers on a deeper level and provide quality feedback for senior leaders to take onboard. 

To achieve as high a response rate as possible, Webmart shares information on the employee engagement survey through their monthly all-staff updates, which were previously done as a video but now take the form of monthly gatherings. Follow-up emails act as a reminder as the deadline for completion moves closer. The emails are personalised and describe changes which have been made in the company since the previous survey. This ‘you said, we did’ approach encourages a greater response rate by demonstrating the benefits of taking part in the survey. 

The survey itself is open for two weeks. The response rate is every bit as important as the survey engagement score, as the more people who fill out the survey, the more valid the data becomes. 

Using People Insight’s Pearl™ framework as a baseline for their survey’s question design, Webmart is able to add bespoke questions focusing on areas of importance to the business to get a greater insight from the team. In areas where scores are lower, the team was able to add follow-up questions to explore the reasons behind this. These additions take the process from a generic staff survey to a tailored Webmart survey. 

Using the breakdown of responses from the dashboard, the management team focuses first on the areas that need improvement, as well as areas that have already been earmarked as a focus, to ensure these are improving. 

The insights gained from the engagement survey have led to several meaningful changes. One notable initiative is the development of a Communication Charter, which was driven directly by survey feedback. Webmart’s employees identified communication as a key area for improvement, prompting the company to host an away day and workshop focused on understanding and improving communication channels. 

In its last survey, Webmart saw an 8% uptick in colleagues positively responding to the statement “People communicate openly here regardless of position or level” 

Other initiatives that have stemmed from survey insights include company-wide activities designed to strengthen employee engagement and wellbeing, including monthly gatherings, team away days, and whole-team summer and Christmas parties, all of which aim to build a sense of community and shared purpose among employees. 

Webmart’s 2024 survey revealed positive momentum across key areas of the employee experience. Improvements were seen in open communication, leadership clarity, and core drivers like autonomy and enablement. This all points to continued progress in building a transparent, empowering workplace culture.  

With an impressive 89% engagement score and a 92% participation rate, Webmart earned People Insight’s Outstanding Workplace Award for the third consecutive time; recognition reserved for organisations in the top quartile, where employee experience isn’t just talk, but a clear priority backed by action. 

Highlights from the engagement survey are initially shared with the management team before being shared with the wider team through the company’s monthly all-team meetings. An action plan is created and feedback on progress against the plan is shared in each subsequent monthly gathering. 

Webmart’s Wellbeing Team takes charge of the action plans, holding itself accountable for delivering on its commitments. Regular progress reports are presented to the management team, but the Wellbeing Team also sees itself as accountable to the entire company. Through sharing details of the action plan, the Wellbeing Team opens itself up to challenge to ensure goals are being met. 

Success is measured in two key ways. Firstly, Webmart tracks the delivery of the actions it commits to following each survey. Secondly, it looks for tangible improvements in the results of subsequent surveys. That consistent follow-through has made a clear impact with Webmart not only seeing continuous progress in their results but also earning People Insight’s Outstanding Workplace Award again in 2025. 

Looking ahead, Webmart has established a survey rhythm that aligns well with their business needs. While mindful of survey fatigue, they are currently receiving high-quality feedback at a manageable frequency that supports meaningful action. This is complemented by personal check-ins, providing informal and anecdotal insights that reflect their proactive, people-focused culture. 

We at People Insight look forward to continuing our partnership with Webmart in our shared mission of creating the most engaging workplace possible! 

If you’re looking to revamp and refresh your employee listening strategy, we can help to make it more proactive and meaningful than ever before. Get in touch with us for an employee survey today and our consultants will get back to you for an introductory chat.