Sustaining high employee engagement with WorkBuzz

Plan International’s transition to WorkBuzz, supported by a decade-long consulting relationship and a collaborative onboarding experience, enabled the organisation to maintain high engagement and evolve its listening strategy across a global workforce.

Plan has been working with Agenda Consulting on its employee engagement surveys for over 10 years and recently transitioned to WorkBuzz. The opportunity presented itself to adapt to the new platform whilst ensuring high survey response rates across a diverse, global workforce.

The transition was supported by consistent consulting relationships from the team who have worked with Plan for over a decade on employee engagement to maintain institutional knowledge, paired with responsive customer service and a collaborative approach from WorkBuzz.

“One thing that stayed constant and I really appreciate it is customer service and response to queries. The responsiveness from the team and the patience needed on the learning curve – that is definitely something to celebrate. It was a pretty high bar already and WorkBuzz met it. So that’s wonderful.” – Maria Beghloyan, Organisational Design and Development Specialist, Plan International

In their recent survey and first on WorkBuzz, Plan achieved an impressive 83% response rate—up from 82% in the previous cycle. This success was attributed to:

• Strong leadership support, including direct communication from the CEO.
• Clear accountability embedded in leadership objectives.
• Creative internal campaigns, such as a visual “heartbeat” tracker that filled up as response rates increased over time.
• Healthy competition between country offices, some of which reached 100% participation.

Daily updates and visual cues helped build momentum and fostered a sense of collective achievement throughout the time the survey was open for responses.

At Plan, survey results aren’t just collected—they are acted upon.

Feedback is integrated into strategic frameworks and communicated consistently between survey cycles. This reinforces trust among employees that their voice matters and contributes to a culture of continuous improvement.

Maria Beghloyan, representing Plan International, emphasised that the organisation’s greatest asset is its people. Engagement efforts have helped attract and retain talent, especially in challenging environments where mission delivery depends on staff resilience and commitment.

Plan is exploring the full capabilities of WorkBuzz, and the organisation is committed to evolving its employee listening strategy. Future survey cycles will build on lessons learned, with a focus on maintaining high engagement and leveraging insights for meaningful change.