Case Study: Video for Employee Engagement at Witt Family Home Stores

At DreamOn Studios, it’s an honor to partner with our clients as an extension of their team and help them grow their businesses through effective communication and storytelling. 

In this case study, we want to highlight our client (and friends!) at Witt Family Home Stores, a 50+ year-old auto parts and hardware company with strong values and deep care for their employees. In a season of rapid growth, DreamOn Studios helped them create and host story-based town halls and ongoing content to engage employees and promote their values. 

As a result of our work together, their employee engagement is up, and employees feel proud to be part of the company!

Keep reading for a behind-the-scenes look at our process, strategy, outcomes, and learnings around using video for employee communication and engagement. 

Client: Witt Family Home Stores

Witt Family Hometown Stores is a family-owned group of Napa Auto Parts and Do it Best Hardware stores throughout Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Josh Witt, President and CEO, is a third-generation owner who grew up in the auto parts industry.

He leads the organization with a passion to positively impact customers, employees, and the community. Through Josh’s leadership over the last year and a half, they are now up to 200 employees and 17 locations and counting!

Background: Why Their Work Matters

As a family-owned company with strong values and a community focus, DreamOn Studios was excited to start working with CEO Josh Witt, HR Director Matt Boren, and the rest of the team.

“Our mission boils down to selling auto parts and hardware, but we do so with a desire to be a company that makes a difference for our employees and customers,” says Matt Boren.

“We do that with values such as honesty, family, and building relationships. We’re not out here just to make the best profit—we want to partner with our customers and help them grow and be successful.”

Problem to Address: Employee Communication Across Multiple Locations

Before Josh and Matt connected with DreamOn Studios for communication support, they were in the middle of rapid growth opportunities but struggled to communicate their vision and values to employees efficiently and effectively across multiple locations. 

“When I joined Witt Family Hometown Stores, they were on the verge of pretty major growth opportunities,” Matt explains. “And Josh really wanted to take that opportunity to rebrand and improve the relevance and the image of the organization.”

Ultimate Goal: Build Company Culture with Ongoing Communication

Matt and Josh asked themselves: How do we maintain relationships with our employees and ensure the organization’s values are felt across all our stores? 

They quickly realized that you can’t be in 100 places at once!

“We needed a way to communicate, to interact with our employees, to share those values, to promote the culture that we believe in,” Matt explains. “And we needed technology to do that. We needed to be able to get into everybody’s pocket.”

This is where DreamOn Studios came in!

Recommended Solution: Townhall Meetings & LMS Solutions

Just like we do with every client, before we recommend a solution, we want to understand the context and heart behind their vision and goals. This gives us a holistic perspective so that we can address their real needs and not simply deliver on a transaction.

“When we met with Matt Deuel and Mason Geiger, right away, it was clear that they understood our values,” says Matt.

“They asked a lot of questions about our story, our goals, and our why. We had this immediate synergy between us and them going, Wow, they get us. They understand us.”

After understanding the goal of communicating their vision and values to their employees on an ongoing basis across multiple locations, we recommended that they host regular town hall meetings over video.

As we got more involved, we also recommended developing an LMS employee onboarding series, story video, and text message delivery system to help engage and train their team.

It’s important to note that while the town all, LMS, and text messaging system were our suggested solutions, they are merely vehicles to communicate their story, values, and vision to engage employees meaningfully.

“Essentially, every time we’re coming to the table, the creativity and how they help you tell your story with purpose and meaning—that’s where the value is, right?” says Matt. 

“Anybody can use a camera—maybe not as well as DreamOn can use a camera, but anybody can use a camera. It comes down to the storytelling. So, it’s the little things we probably wouldn’t have figured out on our own. When you have a partner helping you communicate in general, you can see some of these things you wouldn’t have otherwise.”

Process 

Projects

• Quarterly Town Hall meetings
• Brand Story Video
• HR Onboarding series delivered via an LMS
• Text Message communication system

The Team

The DreamOn Studios team involved included:

• Concept development: Matt Deuel, Mason Gegier, and Mike Deuel
• Project Management & Production: Matt Deuel
• Technical Director & Editor of Town Halls: Mike Deuel
• Cinematographer & Editor of Story Videos: Andrew Palladino

The Witt Family Homestores team involved included:

• Host & Voice: Josh Witt, Owner & CEO
• Host & Voice: Matt Boren, HR Director

The Space

We utilized our state-of-the-art studio space and created a customized set designed to reflect the Witt Family Home Stores brand.

Discovery & Development

At first, Josh and Matt felt unsure that what they had to share with their employees would be valuable and create the engagement they hoped for. However, after we understood their heart and vision, we knew what we had to do to help them get their message across and started unpacking those ideas.

“Before we started on town halls, we had no idea what we were gonna do, what we were gonna say, or how it was gonna go,” says Matt. “It was that first planning session, where we sat down, and Matt Deuel drew out what we didn’t even know was there! We asked, How do we tell them we value every employee and want to do what we can to help them succeed? 

“Our conversation really helped us figure out that we do have something worth sharing. We do have a message to relay. Through the process of working with DreamOn, we realized it’s a whole lot more effective if you can share an actual story.”

For example, one of the things we discovered during our conversations with Josh and Matt was their passion for hiring individuals who come from difficult backgrounds, often with a felony record, and giving them a second chance.

We were so moved by their heart around this idea, especially since many businesses hesitate to hire someone with a record. When they told us about one young man who has gone on to do incredible things for the company, we knew this would be an inspiring story to share with their employees!

Outcome & ROI

While jumping into an investment like producing town halls and creating a new system to onboard employees can be intimidating, Witt Family Home Stores soon realized the investment was worth the return! This isn’t about shooting video on your phone, after all! 

As a result of our work together, they communicate more efficiently and effectively, employee engagement is up, and employees feel proud to be part of the company! 

Increased Engagement

“Two years ago, we had 70 employees, and now we have almost 200,” says Matt. “You don’t know what you don’t know. We didn’t know how we would keep everyone feeling like they were a part of the team as we were trying to grow.”

With the ability to communicate with their growing team through video, employees feel more connected to each other.

“We also see a better utilization of our benefits,” Matt explains. “We see people better informed and knowledgeable about what our challenges are. As you get the message out there, you can see employees adjusting their approach and focusing differently. 

Improved Efficiency & Effectiveness

“DreamOn Studios also helped us develop an onboarding process for new employees,” says Matt.

“Before, I was literally driving to each store location to onboard a new employee. If I couldn’t get there, I had to trust that the manager would say all the right things and check all the right boxes to ensure we were compliant with all of the hiring requirements. We’re way more efficient now! We save time using that tool and ensure we share a consistent message with a new employee.”

Greater Sense of Employee Pride

“The more you know about what an organization’s doing and why they’re doing it, there’s that pride too, “ says Matt.

“I think there’s also that sense of buy-in. All of us struggle with change. We struggle with adjusting, but if we know why, that helps people understand. And many companies don’t share the why, or they don’t have a platform to share the why. That’s a big deal!”

Joys: Story Impact 

It is so exciting to see a storytelling approach win and make such an impact on their team. Our favorite example was a storytelling video we created about one of their employees. After they screened it at their Christmas party, it got a 10-minute standing ovation! 

“The entire room rose to their feet!” Matt exclaims. “It was so powerful. I mean, it gave you goosebumps.

“We could have said, hey, we believe in hiring second chances, and we have a culture that supports that—X, Y, and Z, here are the facts,” Matt continued.

“But that’s not going to move people. What’s going to move people is a story—it’s knowing one of their coworkers sitting in the room had their life changed because of this job. That’s the power of a story. As we brought several different employees in to share their stories or talk about what they’ve done—we’ve seen the pride that they have.”

4 Key Learnings

#1 Storytelling Changes The Game

Telling your employees about your values differs from showing them how to embody them. The best way to show your values is through the art of storytelling.

Once we got into storytelling, everything about their communication flow improved, creating more excitement and engagement.

#2 Focus On What’s Important To Your Audience

The first town hall we hosted was long and included a lot of information and data, which lost people’s attention. So, for the second episode, we pivoted to tell more stories and pre-produced some videos to share, highlighting their employees. 

“DreamOn actually told us, this is too long. This is too much content,” says Matt. “After that first town hall, we realized we must keep things bite-size and consider the audience and what they will get out of it. We asked ourselves, What’s important to them? What moves them?”

#3 Utilizing Multiple Forms Of Communication Boosts Engagement

When you start learning how to communicate more efficiently and effectively, focusing on what’s most helpful to your audience, you also adjust other communication channels.

“You can’t just force everybody to use certain channels,” says Matt. “They just won’t do it. So if you want to reach people and give them the best shot, you must communicate over multiple platforms to reach everyone.”

One of the outcomes of helping Witt Family Home Stores included a shifting mindset, which ultimately helps keep employees more informed while boosting engagement. 

For example, they started filtering their communication through different questions, like:

• Does this communication belong in an email, meeting, video, or text?
• Does this communication overwhelm people with data?
• Does this communication matter to our employees?
• Does this communication get to the point?

#4 Lean On Your Partner

At DreamOn Studios, it’s our goal to partner with our clients as an extension of their team. We always want the best for them. So, we go into the relationship by laying a foundation of trust to help put our clients at ease. 

“The first time we did the town hall, it was intimidating,” Matt explains. “We thought, How are we going to do this? How do we fill all this time? How do I not sound like an idiot? I initially thought we had to figure it out and have things in order, but once we let go and let them drive, our results were way better!

“Working with DreamOn goes much deeper than video and AV. This is more about communication. This is about storytelling. This is about your emotional and social intelligence, right? That’s where these guys are really gifted and where the value is. So, if I were to advise future clients who want to work with DreamOn, I would say to share your basic ideas and goals and then sit back and watch how they guide the process.”

Let’s Create Something Together!

Investing in your business through effective communication and storytelling is a worthy investment that will impact your company culture!

If you’re ready for a partner to come alongside you as an extension of your team to produce your company town hall or employee onboarding program, we’d love to meet you! 

Schedule your studio tour or discovery call today!