Cargill teams with GLS to communicate employee benefits

Open enrollment can be a hectic time of year for many HR and communications departments, but when you need to get timely information to 47,000 employees in hundreds of locations across North America, it can be downright daunting.

Not for Kris Jennings, director of internal communications at Cargill. With the help of top-notch design firms (KJE Design and Barbara Redmond Design) and Leif Taubenberger from GLS, this large and complicated benefits communication program went off without a hitch.

“Because of the complexity of our employee base, this is a very difficult project that needs to be done on a tight timeframe,” Jennings said. “We needed a provider who had the capacity and range of services to work on multiple pieces at once in a short amount of time. We chose GLS for its full-service printing, mailing and fulfillment capabilities.”

Because Cargill was introducing a new health plan option to Twin Cities employees and changing several health plan options around the country, the project was more complicated than usual this year. The entire benefits communications program included a wide variety of pieces—from letters to brochures to books—with the most prominent being a two-color, eight-page newsletter that was mailed to employees’ homes. Because of the diversity of Cargill’s employee base, Jennings needed to produce eight separate versions of the newsletter.

“We needed a provider who had the capacity and range of services to work on multiple pieces at once in a short amount of time. We chose GLS for its full-service printing, mailing and fulfillment capabilities.” – Kris Jennings, Director of Internal Communications – Cargill

She was looking for ways to streamline the process and eliminate costs wherever possible. “Leif was extremely helpful in making proactive recommendations to help reduce costs without sacrificing quality,” Jennings said. First, Taubenberger suggested changing the newsletter format to a self-mailer. This not only saved on envelope costs, but also cut postage costs in half for this one mailing alone.

Additionally, Taubenberger recommended changing paper stock and bindery formats to reduce costs. “Since this is the first time I had worked with GLS, it quickly demonstrated to me that Leif was looking out for Cargill’s best interests.”

Looking out for Cargill’s best interests also meant waiting until the last possible minute to print the program materials. “GLS worked around the clock and on weekends toward the end of this project to get it done,” Jennings said. She remembers one last-minute change on-press late in the day. “It was no problem for GLS. They simply accommodated the craziness that this project was.”

And in the middle of this time-consuming and sometimes crazy open enrollment project, Jennings realized she needed a 100-page spiral-bound book for a company-wide leadership and recognition event. The entire book needed to be done in less than three weeks. “I had to be 100 percent sure it would be done right and on time,” she said. “It was a must-have deliverable, and GLS came through for us.”

It’s this commitment to quality and customer service that will keep Jennings coming back to GLS. The benefits newsletter not only goes out during open enrollment, but also is distributed to employees on a quarterly basis. Jennings says she’ll use GLS. “The convenience of one-stop shopping for printing and mailhouse services makes GLS a good fit for a project such as Cargill’s quarterly benefits newsletter.”

Jennings originally chose GLS for its integrated, full-service capabilities, and now she says, “we’ll continue to work with GLS because of its can-do attitude, superior service and commitment to quality—all at competitive prices.”