Consolidating four North American headquarters into one for the world’s largest auto manufacturer might sound simple. But moving almost 5,000 employees and their families, from the east coast, the west coast and the Midwest  to  a single location in the south central part of the U.S. required a thoughtful and highly strategic employee communications and engagement strategy.

North Star provided counsel and strategy for employee communications, beginning with the announcement of the consolidation and moving quickly into managing the change journey of almost three years – when the new headquarters location would be constructed. Differences in regional culture,  on top of many unknowns and restructuring actions in the early stages of the journey, required critical leader and employee communications tools, strategies and measurement disciplines . With risk to talent retention across all functions and lines and business, North Star helped facilitate  collaboration and coordination across multiple functions and operating parts of the business.

The communications efforts yielded strong employee understanding of the rationale behind the decision to consolidate, deeper understanding of the attributes of the new headquarter location community, and awareness and use of support programs available to employees to help them with key decisions along the way.