✈️ How Alaska Airlines Achieved 99.5% Employee Engagement

🎇 Happy Fourth of July Weekend, HR Leaders!

As we head into a long weekend celebrating Independence Day, we know many of you are balancing time off requests with keeping operations running smoothly. In this edition, we spotlight a timely case study on Alaska Airlines’ remarkable communication overhaul that drove 99.5% employee engagement—even among hard-to-reach frontline workers.

Their story is packed with actionable insights for building trust, improving morale, and ensuring your teams feel connected, no matter where they work.

Upcoming In This Issue:

• ✈️ Case Study: How Alaska Airlines Achieved 99.5% Employee Engagement

• 🤖 Latest on AI | Gen Z vs. the Bosses: The AI Adoption Gap

• 🔢 Report by Gartner | Proceed with Caution: Agentic AI’s Rocky Road Ahead

• 🤝 HR Tips from HR Pros | Leading the People-and-Machine Era

Tailored HR Software Recommendations for Your Org

 📰 Latest in HR News

• Last year’s July 4th surged PTO requests by 326%; how HR can prepare]

• SHRM president calls for HR to ‘rise above’ the storm

• Microsoft Mandates AI Use for Employees—Is This an HR-Approved Move?

• Walmart hit by new immigration legislation and lawsuit over hiring practices

✈️ Case Study: How Alaska Airlines Achieved 99.5% Employee Engagement

read the full 1,429-word article here

Challenge

Breakdowns in communication were eroding morale and accelerating turnover at Alaska Airlines, especially among its frontline workers.

New research revealed that 58% of employees considering quitting cited poor internal communication, and only 10% of non-desk employees were very satisfied with how they received company updates.

In safety-critical industries like aviation, such communication gaps posed both operational and regulatory risks.

Solution

The airline replaced its patchwork systems with a centralized, mobile-first platform tailored to the needs of different employee groups. This approach aimed to close information gaps, boost engagement, and ensure critical safety and operational updates reached all staff in real time.

Strategy and Implementation

Starting in January 2023, Alaska Airlines launched a phased rollout of the new Staffbase-powered platform.

Key elements of the strategy included:

• Surveys and Focus Groups: Gathering feedback from employees to understand pain points and ensure the new system addressed real needs.

• Beta Testing: Piloting the platform with select teams in July 2023 before the August 2023 full deployment.

• Clear Communication: Keeping employees informed about each step to avoid surprises, reducing resistance to change.

• Gradual Transition: Slowly retiring legacy systems while incentivizing the adoption of the new platform.

• Leadership Buy-In: Engaging executives by highlighting how communication improvements directly impact operational success and employee retention.

This “slow-to-go-fast” method allowed Alaska to make real-time adjustments based on employee feedback, building trust throughout the process.

Results

The transformation delivered remarkable outcomes:

• 99.5% adoption of the new platform within months—far exceeding the original target of 50% in the first year.

• 98% positive feedback from employees at launch, including traditionally hard-to-reach frontline workers.

• Real-time communication capabilities now enable critical safety updates, crisis messaging, and compliance communication to reach every employee instantly.

• Improved clarity in leadership communication tripled employee happiness compared to organizations with unclear messaging, according to related research.

Conclusion

Alaska Airlines proved that thoughtful, employee-focused communication can dramatically boost engagement, even in safety-critical industries.

By phasing implementation, listening to employees, and ensuring clear leadership messaging, they built a scalable system that keeps workers informed, connected, and committed.

Their success shows modern communication isn’t just about efficiency—it’s essential for morale, safety, and long-term retention.

🤖 Latest on AI | Gen Z vs. the Bosses: The AI Adoption Gap

Nearly half of Gen Z workers say their managers don’t appreciate the advantages of AI, even though 90% of these young professionals believe AI will save them time and 70% have taught themselves the skills they use today.

This disconnect highlights a missed opportunity: while 84% of employees overall want AI to handle routine processes, most agree AI should complement humans by tackling repetitive or error-prone tasks, not replace them.

Key Takeaways

• 📊 Gen Z Self-Starters: 70% of Gen Z workers learned AI skills on their own, showing their initiative and eagerness to adopt new tech.

• ⏱️ Efficiency Demand: 84% of employees want AI to take over repetitive tasks, freeing time for higher-value work.

• 🚫 Biggest Barriers: Resistance to change, lack of trust in AI, and workforce skills gaps are slowing broader adoption.

• 🚀 Few Prepared: Only 10% of organizations have strong AI strategies; most still expect employees to adapt without clear training or planning.

read the full 502-word article here

😄 Comic Relief (HR Edition)

🔢 Report by Gartner | Proceed with Caution: Agentic AI’s Rocky Road Ahead

Many organizations are diving into agentic AI—autonomous tools promising smarter decision-making—without a clear plan for scaling, maintaining, or measuring success.

This rushed enthusiasm, coupled with vendors exaggerating capabilities, is setting the stage for disappointment if companies don’t prioritize thoughtful implementation, employee involvement, and ongoing evaluation of these powerful but complex technologies.

Key Data

• 🚨 Cancellation Warning: Gartner predicts over 40% of agentic AI projects will be canceled by 2027 due to escalating costs and unclear business value.

• 🕵️ Agent Washing Reality: Of thousands of agentic AI vendors, only around 130 offer genuine autonomous capabilities; many simply rebrand existing tools.

• 🔮 Future Potential: Agentic AI could handle 15% of day-to-day decisions and appear in 33% of enterprise applications by 2028 if applied effectively.

• 💡 Investment Insight: Polls show most organizations either invest conservatively or are waiting to see how agentic AI evolves before committing resources.

read the full 1,098-word article here

🤝 HR Tips from HR Pros | Leading the People-and-Machine Era

Kent McMillan, a seasoned HR pro and co-author of Rethinking Operating Models, shares practical tips for how today’s HR professionals can lead organizations where human and machine collaboration shapes both culture and operations.

Instead of occasional redesigns triggered by crises or leadership changes, McMillan advises HR leaders to embrace continuous transformation, helping organizations stay nimble and resilient as both human and machine capabilities advance together.

Key Takeaways

• 🔄 Continuous Reinvention: Organizations need “never-ending” change engines to keep updating team models and workflows as markets evolve.

• 🤝 HR as Designers: HR must champion alignment among strategy, technology, and culture—not just manage hiring or employee relations.

• 📈 Measurable Gains: Companies embracing continuous change see up to double the revenue growth and customer satisfaction of slower-moving peers.

• 🛠️ Adaptive Models: Building operating models that flex to customer demands and commercial shifts helps organizations stay competitive in a fast-changing world.

read the full 603-word article here