Customized workforce solution delivers $9 Million in savings

Customized workforce solution delivers $9 Million in savings

Our client - Little Tikes

A trusted and innovated toy brand known for providing safe and engaging products that foster children’s creativity and imagination.

The challenge

High turnover rates. Low workplace morale.

Little Tikes faced several challenges that required immediate attention and innovative solutions. One such challenge was a high turnover rate among its workforce, leading to constant hiring and onboarding efforts which impacted operational efficiency and recruitment costs. Additionally, the company struggled to keep up with order fulfillment, resulting in backorders and customer dissatisfaction that could harm its reputation and market position. Little Tikes needed a reliable partner to recruit and hire a large number of employees to reach its desired headcount, all while navigating a competitive labor environment. Moreover, negative online reviews and perceptions about the workplace posed a challenge in attracting potential candidates during the hiring phase. Effectively leveraging the significant Spanish-speaking talent pool in the area while ensuring smooth communication and integration within the existing workforce presented yet another hurdle

The solution

A consistent, streamlined experience to reinvigorate recruitment, retention, and reputation.

  • Custom VIP+ Program: Employbridge developed a dedicated on-site team to focus on Little Tikes’ order fulfillment, retention, and employee engagement efforts. Relocating order fulfillment from a branch to the Little Tikes site streamlined processes and empowered our team to fill orders efficiently. Best of all, we found an opportunity for $600,000 in tax savings for the client, greatly minimizing the overall cost of the program.
  • Comprehensive Support:  Employbridge’s unique program eliminated the need for additional agency partners. With only one agency team on site, associates and supervisors had consistent and streamlined experiences, support, and benefits across all shifts. This also dramatically simplified the process of implementing retention initiatives.
  • Wages and Bonuses: Our team leveraged regional wage data to determine competitive pay rates for the market and successfully increased the placement pay rate by $4/hr. We also made strategic recommendations for sign-on bonuses to boost both new hires and retention.
  • Reputation Management: To maximize interview traffic during the hiring phase, we developed an aggressive strategy for improving Little Tikes’ perceived reputation, leveraging online reviews, a heavy referral push, and traditional advertising. Our team also engaged in community outreach opportunities, including job fairs.
  • Additional Opportunities: To capitalize on the Spanish-speaking talent in the area, we implemented new roles for Spanish speakers and hired translators for teams to improve retention. Additionally, our team developed a recommendation for adding a third shift to boost productivity and broaden the appeal to candidates who prefer working nights
  • Retention Initiatives: The Employbridge team developed a wide range of associate perks aimed at improving retention and boosting employee satisfaction, including raffles, family celebrations, and vaccine vans.

The outcome

Customized solutions led to 100% order fulfillment and $9 million in savings.

With our customized VIP+ program, the EmployBridge team successfully surpassed the efforts of six agencies, enabled Little Tikes to catch up on back orders, and exceeded the client’s goals.

  • Hired 200+ employees to reach the desired 320 headcount. 
  • Achieved 100% order fulfillment.
  • Delivered over $9 million in savings to the client.
 

Headcount: At the start of the project, Employbridge’s goal was to reach 85% order fulfillment. By increasing headcount, we surpassed this goal by reaching 100% in the first year. Little Tikes’ current headcount is 320, 145 more than ever before — even while working with six agencies.

Retention: Wage and regional data helped Little Tikes make strategic decisions pertaining to pay rate and peak incentives. As a result, turnover was reduced beyond expectations from what was discovered to be an estimated 75% to less than 20%. This dramatic shift in turnover contributed to nearly $1.9 million in annual savings.