Scooter's Coffee: Brewing a Strong Culture That Scales

The Challenge

Scaling culture through explosive growth and a pandemic 

Heading into 2020, Scooter's Coffee already had ambitious growth plans, with a goal of reaching 1,000 stores on the horizon. Leadership knew that listening to employees would be critical to support company culture, talent acquisition, and retention as the business scaled — and then a worldwide pandemic hit, scattering the workforce between remote, hybrid, and in-person roles almost overnight. 

Outgrowing a homegrown, manual approach  

Scooter's Coffee launched its first-ever engagement survey in June 2019 with just over 250 eligible employees, administered through SurveyMonkey with results calculated by hand in Excel. It worked for a company of that size, but with expansive growth on the way, it wasn't going to scale. There was no way to see patterns without digging for them manually — every trend and every participation rate had to be pieced together by hand, with increased headcount about to make that workload far bigger. 

A workforce that doesn't fit one mold 

Scooter's Coffee isn't one workforce — it's several. Corporate Support Center employees, supply chain and manufacturing teams, and store-level baristas, shift leaders, and store managers all experience the business differently, which made even something as simple as choosing a benchmark a challenge.

“We're a franchise system — we have office employees, warehouse employees, and multiple distribution centers. It can be tricky to identify a benchmark that resonates with all of those different employee types.” 

— Patty Nash, Senior Employee Experience Advisor, Scooter's Coffee  

The Solution

As the Scooter's Coffee employee base grew more distributed heading into 2020, the search for a new engagement survey partner quickly grew into something bigger. Quantum Workplace stood out for the breadth of what it offered beyond the survey itself — tools that could automate one-on-ones, support a wave of onboarding, and turn scattered feedback into a real, connected story.

“Quantum allowed us to automate our one-on-ones with our employees and leaders. During those uncertain times, it was really important for our leaders to stay connected to our teams.”

— Patty Nash, Senior Employee Experience Advisor, Scooter's Coffee

What ultimately sold the team, though, was realizing the data didn't have to live in silos.

The Results

Rolling out with purpose, not all at once 

Scooter's Coffee approached engagement starting at the top, building leadership buy-in before asking anyone to change how they worked. From there, the team deliberately chose not to launch every feature at once—prioritizing recognition and 1-on-1s first, given the isolation of pandemic-era work, and holding off on goal setting until the organization was ready. 

“We didn't throw everything at the team all at once — we prioritized. Goal setting, for us, was something we held off on until we were truly ready for it. Because of that layered approach, we now have 80% of our employees actively using the system.”

— Patty Nash, Senior Employee Experience Advisor, Scooter's Coffee

New hires learn Quantum Workplace routines from day one of onboarding, followed by small group and 1-on-1 training. A Culture Ambassador program pairs every new hire with a tenured employee for their first 90 days, and a Cultivating Leaders program for newly promoted managers covers everything from giving feedback to running effective 1-on-1s — with Quantum Workplace built into the curriculum. 

“We had a leader in our Cultivating Leaders program who confided to the group that she wasn't a Quantum user. Through those discussions, she was convinced to give it a try and set it up with her team. She came back the following session and said, 'I'm converted. I see the benefit.'”

— Patty Nash, Senior Employee Experience Advisor, Scooter's Coffee

Turning employee feedback into real programs 

When the Scooter's Coffee annual engagement survey revealed that employees wanted clearer paths to grow their careers, the HR team used that data to build the business case for three new development programs: Cultivating Leaders, for newly hired or promoted leaders, Elevate, a high-potential leader development program that pairs 360 feedback with executive coaching, and Catalyst, a program designed to further develop high-performing individual contributors. The impact showed directly in the numbers: 81% of employees adopted goals in Quantum Workplace, and companywide turnover dropped by nearly 5% in a single year, with corporate-owned stores seeing a double-digit decline.  

Recognition that carried a remote workforce through hard times 

When the pandemic took away the hallway high-fives and breakroom shoutouts that had always fueled Scooter's Coffee's culture, recognition became the next best thing — paired with automated daily tenure posts that mark employment anniversaries across a dispersed workforce.

“We often joke with employees that if they're ever having a bad day, simply pull up the Recognition feed on Quantum, and your mood will instantly improve.”

— Patty Nash, Senior Employee Experience Advisor, Scooter's Coffee

Listening at scale as the company nearly quadrupled 

The engagement survey at Scooter's Coffee has scaled right alongside the business — from just over 250 eligible employees in 2019, to 325 in 2020, to 800+ in more recent years — with participation holding at a strong 93.4%. As the workforce grew more complex, the HR team worked directly with its Quantum Workplace insights analyst to refine the survey by employee group, ensuring corporate support center, manufacturing, and store-level teams were each asked the questions most relevant to their day-to-day experience. 

That continued investment is paying off. The Support Center's engagement index climbed to 84% — up more than 10 points year-over-year — with trust in leadership and belief in the company's future both showing meaningful improvement across the organization. 

Insights Hub: Helping shape what's next

Five years of close collaboration has earned Scooter's Coffee a deeper role in the partnership: helping shape what Quantum Workplace builds next. When the product team began developing Insights Hub, a new AI-powered capability designed to surface trustworthy, ready-to-act-on insights, Scooter's Coffee was invited as one of the first organizations to test it. Mikala Friedrich and John Spehn have sat down directly with Quantum Workplace's product team, reacting to early prototypes built on real Scooter's Coffee data and pushing for the same clarity and simplicity that has defined the partnership from the start.

“Your product team has been amazing with the small language tweaks that have allowed the Quantum Workplace platform to feel like Scooter's own technology. It doesn't feel like an outside technology.”

— Mikala Friedrich, Chief Human Resources and Systems Officer, Scooter's Coffee

What's Next for Scooter's Coffee 

As Scooter's Coffee looks forward to continued growth, the HR team continues to refine its engagement survey strategy by employee group, expand leadership development programs like Cultivating Leaders and Catalyst, plus work directly with Quantum Workplace's product team on what's next for Insights Hub, including new insight areas like top talent retention and performance growth.

“As we grow, it’s important that we continue fostering strong connections across the organization. Those connections strengthen our culture and help us stay grounded in our company mission.”

— Patty Nash, Senior Employee Experience Advisor, Scooter's Coffee 

It's a fitting way to describe a partnership built on the same principle that drives the Scooter's Coffee mission: “To create an amazing experience for each life we touch” — including the people doing the work behind every cup.