Case Study: Festival Foods achieves rapid employee engagement wins and improved associate satisfaction with Service Management Group (SMG)

Employee engagement program delivers quick wins for Wisconsinbased Festival Foods

Festival Foods, a family- and employee-owned grocery chain operating 20 stores in Wisconsin with about 5,000 associates, wanted to boost employee engagement to retain talent and drive better guest service. To uncover the associate voice and measure engagement, Festival Foods partnered with Service Management Group (SMG) to design and run an employee engagement program and survey tailored to their needs.

SMG’s survey achieved an 81% response rate and pinpointed a few high-impact drivers—recognition, communication, development, and wellbeing—leading Festival Foods to roll out targeted actions (e.g., “Catching People Doing Things Well” recognition, break-room corkboards and flat screens, a salad-bar discount increase to 10%, vending machines where needed, and the Boomerang Basics huddles). As a result, engagement scores rose and SMG data showed the most engaged stores delivered higher guest satisfaction plus lower shrink and turnover; associates who spend >75% of their grocery budget at Festival Foods had the highest engagement (53%). Service Management Group supported measurement and insights throughout the process.

Festival Foods

Michael Siakpere

Organizational Development and Training Manager