Overview

A national leader in water, hygiene and energy solutions engaged Pioneer to lead the Change Management for F&B United (FBU), an effort to integrate its Water and Hygiene Teams within its North American Food and Beverage organization. Pioneer provided full lifecycle support —from approach and strategy development to planning, implementation, and execution.

The Challenge

Orchestrating a smooth transition through a change that impacts hundreds of employees at a Fortune 500 sales and service organization requires big-picture expertise as well as meticulous attention to detail. When the client needed to bring together its Water, Hygiene, and NA Food & Beverage Teams into a new “Food & Beverage United” (FBU) business unit—involving approximately 850 associates in commercial and non-commercial roles across North America—the company turned to Pioneer.

This integration required a change management leadership approach that would meet the following objectives:

Successfully transition associates to new teams
Drive adoption of a new, combined value propositions and integrated ways of working
Address gaps in knowledge, processes, skills, and cultural differences on integrated teams
Provide a unified structure to fully engage all associates, including the Water Team that was acquired 13 years prior with minimal integration

Our Approach

Defined the Strategy

Defined clear change management strategy with targeted approaches for key stakeholder groups
Strategy addressed the unique needs of Leadership Team, District Managers, Business Development Managers, Corporate Account Managers, Field Reps, and Function Teams

Executed The Change Approach

Gathered detailed change impacts to understand the employee integration journey
Translated impacts into a unified plan to ease transition and drive early revenue growth activation
Leveraged Pilot Team to test and learn from change intervention activities for Scale-Up
Designed and implemented new approach to team meeting cadences to drive client growth/retention strategies, increase cross-functional connectivity, and align teams at all levels
Introduced a new “post-Day 1” approach to feedback aggregation and routing via Hypercare
Led cross-functional workstream (Change/Comms/Training) collaboration and partnership across 16 workstreams to ensure cohesive and unified employee experience
Developed countless customized, on-demand initiatives and resources to meet stakeholder needs, including: First and Next 90-Day Onboarding Checklists, Business Strategy on a page, District Meeting Playbook, 13 tailored Grow/Gain/Retain meeting cadence templates, Leadership Sponsorship resources, and Peer Partner Program

Filled Internal Training and Communications Gaps

Coached team members, advised on strategies, and activated training and communication plans
Developed essential training and communications collateral: video scripts, elevator pitch, talking points, key email communications, FAQs, continuing education content, and more
Completed a training needs assessment and developed a strategy to rapidly upskill teams on fundamentals of Hygiene/Water, legacy platforms/tools, CR fundamentals, and soft skills

The Results

158 Change Impacts collected across 16 workstreams to inform Integrated Strategy & Plan
42 Peer Partner Groupings (across 96 employees) established to deepen relationships and 1:1 support
13 Meeting-in-a-Box templates developed
12 Stakeholder Personas + 10 journeys mapped
8 Employee Experience Surveys deployed and analyzed
7 highly successful FBU Onboarding Events (Summits/Roadshows) to jump-start growth
+$700M of opportunities identified across teams including Field Reps, Corporate Account Managers, and Business Development Managers
$2M across 25 cross-sell wins in 2024 (before FBU Day 1)

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