How Rapha Fosters Connection, Creativity, and Inclusion With Lattice

Challenges at Rapha

As cycling lifestyle brand Rapha approaches its 20th anniversary, its leaders set three new focus areas: maintain and develop meaningful connections, inspire an innovative and creative spirit, and continue to foster an inclusive community. 

To achieve these ambitions, the global team needed to challenge themselves to drive greater engagement, performance, and growth—all in alignment with their company values.

“It’s an exciting time for the business,” says Cat Percival, People and Culture Manager at Rapha. “To play our part in driving change, we needed a solution that would combine performance and engagement and provide our managers with the tools needed to create an inspiring place to work—one where everyone is empowered to do anything they put their minds to.”  

Replacing highly manual processes also required a solution that would fit Rapha’s unique culture and scale with them. “We needed a platform that meets us not only where we are right now but also wherever our journey takes us next.”

The platform also needed to support Rapha’s global approach. “It needed to support other languages and work in every location in a way that was globally relevant,” says Cat. 

Using Lattice at Rapha

After exploring three different platforms, Rapha discovered Lattice was the only one capable of meeting all their needs. “Lattice is an all-encompassing solution that provides us with the tools we need to understand the connection between performance and engagement,” says Kelly, Head of People & Culture at Rapha.

Lattice Engagement was a true light bulb experience for Rapha. Having previously used a complex and highly manual suite of spreadsheets, the ability to run surveys and receive data in a fast and intuitive way has been, in their words, “transformational.”

“We can have better conversations with managers about what is going on with their teams and can spot areas requiring immediate change,” says Cat. 

“Linking back to our three ambitions, engagement supports our ambition to make meaningful connections by driving clarity and certainty about where the business is going,” says Cat. Given the lack of diversity in the professional side of the sport [cycling], diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) is a priority for us at Rapha. “With [Lattice] Engagement, we’ve been able to identify some of those barriers to belonging and begin to break them down,” she explains. 

“Leaders have more clarity on how they can have a positive impact on the business.”

Impact of Lattice at Rapha

From the onset, Rapha’s goal was to roll out a solution that empowered them to integrate their values into the entire employee experience. While it’s still early days, the Rapha team is thrilled by the results so far.

For example, using Lattice Engagement, the team now turns around survey results in just two days and has seen a 20% increase in review completion since launching reviews in Lattice. “The data allows us to give our managers in-depth insights about their teams so that they can create meaningful change and know where to focus their efforts”, says Kelly. “It’s equally essential that we give employees the space to feedback anonymously each quarter.”

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Being able to tackle DEIB in a data-driven way has also been highly impactful. “By linking engagement insights to demographic data, we can spot what’s working well and where we need to improve. The data gives us a tangible action plan and faith that we’re moving in the right direction,” explains Cat.

“Another game changer for us has been the performance review feature”, says Kelly. The Rapha team have found the platform to be incredibly user friendly and adaptable to their needs. This has shown in review completion rates, which have been better than ever since launching Lattice. It has saved a huge amount of time and empowered managers to focus on having meaningful conversations over administrative time spent on reviews. It helps us and our managers to understand our people better and where they are at in their careers. 

"Lattice has enabled us to empower and connect managers and team members in ways that weren’t possible before. This has resulted in much more impactful conversations, helping everyone to thrive." Cat says, reflecting on the positive impact of the platform so far. Though excited by their initial results, the Rapha team were even more enthusiastic about what the future holds. At Lattice, we’re just as excited to see the team hit new milestones and continue to evolve its engagement, performance, alignment, and DEIB strategies over time.

Takeaways

• The Rapha people strategy is fundamentally tied to the objectives and values of the business.
• Performance, engagement, goals, and growth are all intrinsically linked, and people feel more invested in their individual success and being part of a diverse team where everyone is working towards fulfilling Rapha’s mission.
• With actionable intelligence, the people team can see they’re genuinely driving change.
• The team has fostered a greater sense of belonging on a global scale.