The Importance of Strategic Communication For High Engagement

Founded in 1942 as the state-owned ‘Companhia Vale do Rio Doce’, today Vale is one of the largest private sector mining companies in the world. The organization operates in more than 30 countries – and in Brazil it has a team of approximately 55,000 employees distributed across the country – with the majority of them in operational jobs within the businesses.

Due to its size and well-established presence, Vale has a robust HR department, comprised of distinct strategic teams but all focused on one common goal; to provide greater wellness and satisfaction to employees. Among its current challenges, the search for more agile and globalized processes particularly stands out, because the company continues to expand internationally – “Our objective is to think about how to care for our employees globally and implement solutions for Vale as a whole. So that employees understand that independent of the country in which he or she is working, they are all part of Vale,” comments Bruno Torquetti, Global Benefits and Mobility Manager.

In December 2019, the company surveyed the idea of enhancing the wellbeing of its employees. These employees, both administrative and operational – with a presence in different regions of the country (in state capitals and more remote areas) – required a solution that would meet the needs of employees across the world and demonstrated accessible values and flexible and user-friendly resources. With that in mind, Vale signed a partnership with Wellhub – and ever since, the results in terms of engagement have been substantial:

Strategy for success

In less than a year, more than half of its employees have registered on the platform and 21% of them are enrolled and enjoying what Wellhub has to offer. Vale’s impressive results demonstrate how effective close collaboration between Wellhub and the company’s Global Benefits team can be. However, it’s also important to highlight one of Vale’s unique advantages that clearly contributed to this successful partnership; transparency and open communication between leaders and their team members.

According to Torquetti, one of the main ways to engage with employees is to keep their managers well-informed: “The leaders are the company’s spokespersons. Hence, we nurture them in a variety of ways – management newsletters, Whatsapp messages, meetings – so they can share information with their entire teams.”

Wellhub has helped people and was one of the main messages of the organization when it comes to employee health care. It was a milestone. – Bruno Torquetti, Global Benefits and Mobility Manager

The rise of new forms of work

Although the pandemic has created a number of challenges for many, it has also opened new doors to innovation as new ways of working emerge. For many companies, the home office is here to stay – and this is no different for Vale.

As part of an industry providing essential services, Vale maintained its operations in the field throughout the pandemic, making sure to follow all measures recommended by the WHO. Corporate employees, on the other hand, have been working from home since March 2020. Despite this significant change in working environment, remote work was swiftly embrace by the majority of its employees. “We conducted a satisfaction survey and the favorability of the home office came out at over 90%,” says Torquetti. After the pandemic, Vale intends to make the “anywhere-office” model feasible for around 20,000 of its employees. 

Although a fairly recent partnership, the positive impact Wellhub has had on Vale is quite noticeable. Above all, Wellhub has helped to reinforce its dedication to employee wellbeing: “Wellhub has helped people and was one of the main messages of the organization with regard to employee health care. It was a milestone.” – says Bruno Torquetti. The executive also notes that the launch of Wellhub’ digital solutions generated very good feedback during the pandemic: “People being able to get moving at home while in quarantine was very important. It added a lot of value to us.”