Case Study: How Life Time Inc Earned Its Highest Employee NPS During A Pandemic

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60%

of employees are active monthly

1,600

new Beekeeper logins in one day

5+

point increase in annual NPS score

Life Time Inc. is a pioneer in the health and wellness industry with more than 150 locations in 41 markets throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company employs over 32,000 team members and operates a mix of health clubs, athletic events, and co-working spaces across its portfolio. Given the nature of its business, the frontline-majority workforce is widely dispersed, but that doesn’t stop the team from rallying together behind a shared mission — helping people lead happy and healthy lives.

Life Time Inc. partnered with Beekeeper in 2018 to launch its frontline employee collaboration platform. However, like many other businesses around the world, Life Time had to quickly adapt to a new normal as a global pandemic brought business to an abrupt halt in 2020. In March of that year, the company made the difficult decision to close all health clubs per government regulations and guidelines.

As the closures extended far beyond anyone could have predicted, the team eventually had to furlough 90% of their workforce. At a time when workers needed information most, the business also grappled with the complex legal regulations surrounding how Life Time could communicate with furloughed employees.

Adapting to Shifting Communication Needs

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Life Time took swift action to temporarily close their clubs at the recommendation of local governments. And, with the closures, the team knew they had to pivot their communication strategy quickly.

Their goals were to:

1. Provide all team members with the information they need, when they need it, where they were
2. Keep their furloughed workforce connected and informed while ensuring compliance with government regulations
3. Build employee confidence through clear, transparent communication between leadership and their workforce
4. Increase user engagement and stickiness within the Beekeeper mobile app

“Beekeeper (or LT Grid, as we call it at Life Time) is our single company-wide method of communicating with our team members. Less than half of our team members currently have email addresses, and about three-fourths of them work part-time. Grid is really the only way we can make sure messages consistently reach all of our team members.” Laura Kennedy, Internal Communications Manager, Life Time Inc.

With Beekeeper already integrated throughout the organization, the team had the flexibility it needed to stay connected with active and furloughed employees while also remaining within regulatory compliance.

Their approach included:

• Designating the Beekeeper tool as their single source for critical company news
• Deactivating all club, market, and in-center business unit-specific Streams
• Maintaining a singular “Company News” Stream in which all employees had access to need-to-know information and resources
• Broadcasting frequent leadership messages that not only shared tactical news, but also let employees know they were constantly on the minds of the executive team
• Leveraging 150+ group chats when it was time to activate their staggered re-opening plan

Centralized Communication

keeping company news all in one place

Leadership Engagement

frequent messaging from executive team

Highest NPS Score To Date

employee trust and credibility at all time high

Since launching Beekeeper, Life Time Inc. has, on average, 60% of its team members active on the platform on a monthly basis, and about 45% of team members engaged weekly. In 2021 and beyond, the Life Time team is laser-focused on enhancing user stickiness and engagement through the tool and ultimately, increasing their active user base by 20-25%.

Additionally, by making Beekeeper the primary channel for company news during the pandemic, the company achieved three major milestones:

1. Reached 1,600+ new logins in a single day
2. Received 25,000 views on an executive leadership message video that was distributed exclusively on Beekeeper
3. Earned the highest team member NPS in company history with a 5+ point increase compared to the previous year

However, Life Time’s successes go far beyond the numbers.

At a time when employees needed information fast, the Life Time team shared consistent messages through an easy-to-use mobile platform all employees had access to. Which, in turn, built credibility and employee trust that translated into the company’s most recent net promoter score (NPS), which reached an all-time high.

As Life Time Inc. looks ahead, it will continue to lean on Beekeeper’s reporting and analytics capabilities to maintain the pre-COVID user engagement and stickiness goals that are still in play. The team plans to leverage Beekeeper’s analytics functionality to provide real-time progress updates to both field and corporate leaders, so they can continue to optimize their strategy and further support their passionate community of team members.