How Metals Fabrication Text Enabled 99% Of Its Team

A workday at Metals Fabrication begins at four am with the first shift, and ends at one thirty am with the second shift. As a result, keeping track of the 150+ staff nearly 24 hours a day is an almost impossible task.

If the hours weren’t enough of an obstacle, a lot of the Metals Fabrication team is made up of folks who don’t have the time or ability to check a computer while they’re on the floor.

These obstacles fell on Metals Fabrication’s Management team to resolve. That is, until they discovered the great technological equalizer—texting.

They realized that around 99% of the team had a cellphone. And whether a worker was on the floor or at home, a text message could reach them without any additional action on their end.

Why Texting Works For Metals Fabrication

Metals Fabrication knew there was a small window of time where they could share important announcements with staff.

“They’re hard workers,” notes Angie Parker, the catch-all communications and AP Manager. “They get a 10-minute break in the morning, a 30-minute lunch, and then a 10-minute break in the afternoon. That’s all they’re off the floor for. And while they’re on the floor they’re not allowed to use their cellphones, or go to a computer and check their email. Then, when they check out for the day they want to go home to their families, they don’t want to get on their email.“

Since a text only takes a second to access from your phone, and less than a minute to read, SMS updates seemed to fit perfectly into these windows.

How To Encourage SMS Buy-In From Your Team

Every quarter Metals Fabrication gives each worker $50 to donate to a local charity of their choice. They’ll vote quarterly on which organization they’d like to see their donation go to and stay updated each quarter on how many thousands of dollars they played a part in contributing to that cause.

It’s a tradition that the team loves to participate in, so by transitioning their voting process to text, employees were eager to get involved.

“Having a hand in the contributions has been a great incentive,” notes Angie.

Over time the employees have associated the texts with the heartwarming donation notification, which makes the essential Management texts just as warmly received.

With Text to Vote Polls, the process has become just as enjoyable for Angie, who facilitates the quarterly donation from the administrative side.

The votes are automatically counted for her and the donations are parceled out in a matter of minutes!

Employee Updates Through COVID-19

Like the millions of other businesses around the world, COVID-19 has caused disruptions in the everyday life of employees.

Metals Fabrication was met with serious shifts in employment, hours, and availability for workers across the board. Thankfully, their text message system already had their staff connected remotely making it easy to share updates from a safe distance.

"With COVID-19 SimpleTexting has become a total blessing. We’ve been able to send out notices to either come to work or not come to work. We can pick and choose certain people to send those messages to rather than picking up the phone and trying to call them. It’s definitely saved us a lot of time."

Angie Parker

AP Manager

Before COVID, Metals Fabrication hosted weekly safety meetings with their staff. And while they miss the face-to-face connection, they’ve also been able to share important updates via text to ensure everyone remains healthy, safe, and positive.

“People can respond back too which is cool. We can go in every day and see if anyone responded or anyone had any questions. There was a time when nobody was here in the office to be able to answer the questions, so it was good to be able to still be there for our employees”

Metals Fabrication Future Plans For Texting

What began as a way to engage employees in a fun, philanthropic activity has now become a communication mainstay for Angie and her team.

Looking forward to the next year, Angie is already preparing to share valuable benefits enrollment information and deadlines via text with her team.

“A lot of these guys don’t want to learn something new, they want to come to work and get the information. They don’t want to deal with email, so that’s why SimpleTexting works so well for us.”

Think your team might take well to text message updates? Give SimpleTexting a try for free for 14-days and pilot this program yourself!