Millerbernd Manufacturing Keeps Its Workforce Informed During Pandemic

Millerbernd Manufacturing Ensures Business Continuity While Boosting Employee Confidence

Millerbernd Manufacturing Company uses state-of-the-art construction techniques to create light poles, traffic signal structures, and accessory components.

Founded in 1933, Millerbernd has four manufacturing plants spread across two locations in Winsted, Minnesota. Due to the nature of its business, 80% of Millerbernd employees work in production roles inside these manufacturing centers without access to a computer. Before finding AlertMedia, Millerbernd relied on email to communicate with employees—which isn’t effective when the majority of employees are working away from a computer. Because Millerbernd manufactures essential traffic light parts, they needed a solution that could guarantee their employees received critical communications quickly to ensure business continuity. They selected AlertMedia for its ease-of-use and multi-channel messaging capabilities, which allows Millerbernd to send important information to their employees via text, email, voice, and app notifications—all at the same time.

While the company initially enlisted AlertMedia for operational purposes like filling urgent shift needs, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic presented a new reason for Millerbernd to leverage AlertMedia’s emergency communication software.

Communicating Critical Information to Deskless Workers Has Challenges

Manufacturing is a deadline-driven industry. To maintain a strong reputation as a manufacturing company, you must meet demand in a timely fashion. Millerbernd Manufacturing uses AlertMedia to help its Human Resources department fill critical open shifts at their production facilities. Filling these open shifts allows Millerbernd to meet tight deadlines and maintain their sterling reputation within the manufacturing industry.

When a shift becomes available, Julia Hafften, Human Resources Assistant at Millerbernd, uses AlertMedia’s survey feature to ask all qualified Millerbernd employees if they are available to work that vacant shift. Hafften also developed custom notification templates and organized trainings to empower Millerbernd Shift Supervisors and Team Leads to send out shift availability surveys themselves. Using pre-built templates and dynamic groups allows management to easily target the Millerbernd employees most likely to fill that vacancy—helping meet production deadlines.

Millerbernd also uses AlertMedia’s emergency communication software to inform employees of facility closures and ensure that they are conserving energy during severe weather. By nature, manufacturing facilities put a strain on local energy providers. When the local grid in Winsted, Minnesota becomes overwhelmed during extreme weather, Millerbernd’s energy provider will request that they temporarily stop production. On days that this occurs and production has stopped, Hafften uses AlertMedia to message employees via text and email—letting them know not to come to the facility until further notice. As these production stoppages usually come with little warning, Hafften must reach every Millerbernd employee in a timely manner—something that email alone simply doesn’t provide.

When COVID-19 began to spread across the United States in March 2020, Hafften quickly realized that AlertMedia’s emergency communication software was the most effective way to keep their employees updated on pandemic developments.

“Our use of AlertMedia transitioned from a strictly operational function to being the company’s voice during the pandemic. It’s the perfect solution for delivering important updates about COVID-19 that impact our employees’ safety and our business.”

Eliminating Misinformation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

To keep employees safe and avoid the spread of misinformation at the onset of the pandemic, Julia Hafften leveraged AlertMedia to send regular updates to Millerbernd’s 450 employees—many still reporting to the manufacturing plant as essential employees. As the Department of Health provides new information, it is Hafften’s responsibility to make sure that these updates, recommendations, and guidelines reach every Millerbernd employee as quickly as possible. Hafften uses AlertMedia’s emergency communication software to instantly send these updates to every Millerbernd employee via multiple channels like text, app push, and email. She easily verifies that each employee received these updates using AlertMedia’s read receipt feature.

Proactive Communication Keeps Employees Engaged and Connected

AlertMedia helps Millerbernd keep their employees engaged and connected during a time when the organization is physically disconnected from one another. Before the pandemic, Millerbernd held monthly meetings to keep employees informed of everything happening within the business. With gatherings put on hold, the organization was forced to transition to video-based meetings. Hafften uses AlertMedia to easily send meeting invites to every employee.

Says Hafften, “AlertMedia has been an immense help in getting critical communications in front of employees. I truly do not know how we would be able to provide these updates without it.”

While AlertMedia’s capabilities have helped Hafften better communicate with Millerbernd’s employees throughout the pandemic, it’s not just the software’s capabilities that have Hafften excited. “I could sing the praises of the Customer Success team at AlertMedia all day long. Their response time and desire to help us during this pandemic is impressive.”