Social Code Cracked // Turning Vague Brand Values into Real Productivity

A stock-listed company was facing a major problem: high turnover rates and unproductive employees. Sometimes: three people doing the work of one. Costly and wasteful. Here’s what we did:

Stock-Listed Company // Fixing Employee Retention to Drive Real Business Growth

A disengaged employee costs a company an average of $3,400 for every $10,000 in annual salary (Gallup). Many companies throw perks like free lunches and quiz nights to try and solve this. The real issue? A disconnect between business goals and how employees saw their role in achieving them.

We ran a company-wide survey to uncover why employees were disengaged and what was blocking productivity. Next, we turned company values from abstract ideals into clear, actionable steps—rewiring onboarding, training, and leadership communication. The result? Higher productivity, lower turnover, and employees who don’t just clock in but actively drive business growth each day.

What we did

  • We identified and mapped out the root causes of disengagement, not just surface-level complaints.

    AI-Driven Employee Insights sentiment analysis and engagement tracking to pinpoint where motivation dropped and why.

  • Turned abstract mission statements that noone knows that means, into Interactive Digital Playbooks —so every employee knew exactly how their daily tasks contributed to business growth step-by-step.

    So we made it easy for employees to do the right thing— that actually contributes to sales and business growth and cuts wasteful hours and expenses.

    No vague mission statements. No unnecessary steps. Just frictionless systems that made productivity and engagement the default.

  • Developed a digital communication flow that eliminated clutter, ensured leadership messages landed, and kept employees on goals each day.

  • Replacing an employee costs 50-200% of their salary (SHRM, 2023). Yet most companies treat retention like an afterthought. Fixing engagement isn’t just about happy employees—it’s about cutting wasted costs and maximizing performance.

    Want a team that actually moves your business forward? Let’s talk.

SocialKode Hack #56

The Psychology behind Productivity

People don’t resist change because they’re lazy — they resist it because it feels effortful This is the Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1988): when too much mental effort is required, the brain defaults to old habits—even if they’re inefficient.

Most new initiatives fail because they expect employees to change behaviors without making it easy when it’s harder to do the ‘productive thing’ most employees will do the ‘NOT productive thing’. So we did the opposite: we simplified, automated, and engineered friction out of the system—making high performance the effortless choice.

The book Debbie Has Left for Marketing for the Day highlights how vague mission statements don’t drive action—clear, step-by-step behaviors do. It aligns with Implementation Intentions Theory (Gollwitzer, 1999), which shows that people are far more likely to follow through on a goal when given specific “if-then” instructions rather than broad aspirations.

Examples:

Instead of “Encourage innovation,” → “Dedicate 15 minutes of every team meeting to discussing one small process improvement.”

Instead of “Improve efficiency,” → “Use a shared project board where every task has a deadline and owner.”

Instead of “Drive more website traffic,” → “Publish a blog post with SEO-optimized keywords once a week.”

The result? These turn vague company goals into clear, practical actions employees can take, day in and day out, to drive growth and achieve business goals (over and over).

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