Drives Engagement in a Post-pandemic Workplace by Elevating Employee Recognition and Culture 

The Company

Fossil Group, Inc. is a global design, marketing, distribution, and innovation powerhouse specializing in lifestyle accessories.   

Starting as a humble watchmaking business in 1984, the company has grown to include jewelry, handbags, small leather goods, and wearables under a diverse portfolio of owned and licensed brands. Fossil now has 30,000 points of distribution across 140 countries, including 400 company-owned retail locations. 

What makes Fossil tick? A collaborative workforce that embraces purpose and the core values of authenticity, grit, curiosity, humor, and impact. “Greater together” is more than a saying at Fossil Group—it’s the driving force of the company’s employee and business success, earning it recognition as a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality” by the Corporate Equality Index. 

The Challenge

Fossil Group is a highly engaged workplace, but during the pandemic, a lack of in-person interactions and events impacted employee engagement and culture. Upon returning to the office after a year of working apart, the human resources team sought innovative ways to re-engage employees and stay aligned with the company’s goal to “Win at Culture”.  

Although Fossil Group did not experience the negative impacts of The Great Resignation, costly and unwanted turnover was a threat that needed to be managed rather than ignored. The company knew an engaging employee experience is critical to building a magnetic culture and driving employee success. 

The Solution

Fossil Group relaunched its global Pulse Survey on Quantum Workplace to surface data-backed insights on the company’s engagement strengths and opportunities. 82% out of 6,477 invited employees completed the survey, enabling the company to learn that it could drive the most significant increase in engagement by recognizing the contributions of employees and their impact to the company’s success. 

The HR team acted immediately to enhance awareness of the Recognition tool within Quantum Workplace’s suite of integrated Performance Management solutions. It sent a company-wide email to remind employees of the real-time recognition feature in response to Fossil Group's feedback. A new set of fun badges tied to Fossil Group’s strategic priorities and heritage months, such as Women’s History Month, were also added to make the recognition process more interactive and rewarding. 

To celebrate employees’ achievements and encourage active usage of the Recognition tool, HR set up a Public Recognition Stream on the company’s intranet to highlight recognitions shared through Quantum Workplace. It was an easy lift for the HR team with the unique shareable URLs provided by Quantum Workplace. Recognitions are displayed in a grid, sorted by the most recent posts, and refreshed automatically every 30 seconds. 

“We find that the more conversations we have with employees, the more engaged they become, across the board, which improves our retention and culture.” 

Besides the more traditional approach to employee recognition, Fossil Group leaned into special events, career development opportunities, and touchpoints with senior executives. These initiatives simultaneously achieved two objectives: showing appreciation to employees and increasing engagement through fostering authentic connections. The Fossil Group Culture Committee, a group of high-performing leaders, was relaunched to act as a collective voice for employees and help prioritize their feedback. 

Fossil Group Connection Days, established in 2022, are company events such as a BBQ or Global Huddles with Breakfast Tacos to regularly pool the company’s talent and connect them with the business and each other. The engaging employee experience at Fossil Group begins from day one with the Fossil Group Onboarding Journey for New Hires, Welcome Home workshop, and a free watch for each new hire.  

The HR team and leaders leverage Quantum Workplace’s Engagement Surveys and Performance Management tools throughout the employee journey. Employees are kept on the path to success through 30/60/90-Day Check-Ins, the Annual Performance Cycle, and ongoing learning and development opportunities. 

Fossil Group leverages Quantum Workplace’s robust and easy-to-use software to: 

• Capture employee voices and surface insights that help leaders drive impactful results 
• Recognize and celebrate employee success to enhance engagement with the company’s culture 
• Build an engaging employee experience that attracts, retains, and develops the company’s best talent

“Through our focused efforts and the support of Quantum Workplace’s platform, we confirmed what we already knew about our team. When we come together, we are capable of even greater innovation, engagement, collaboration, creativity, and growth.” 

- James Webb, VP of Global People Development & Engagement