How Alaska Air Group Takes Employee Communications to New Heights with a Modern Intranet and Mobile App

Headquarters:

Seattle, WA

Founded:

1932

Company size:

30,000+

Industry:

Transportation

Alaska Air Group

With a history of innovation and roots going back more than nine decades, Alaska has long been a brand that people love. The company, which flew more than 49 million passengers in 2024 and generated $11.7 billion in annual revenue, was named the 2023 Worldwide Airline of the Year by the Centre for Aviation (CAPA) and was Airline of the Year in 2022 by global aviation industry publication Air Transport World.

This is just one of its many recognitions, which include achievements for travel experiences, workplace equality, and impact on the airline industry development.

The Challenges

Managing high traffic during critical events

Alaska’s old intranet often crashed under heavy traffic, particularly when urgent updates were needed to keep employees informed on critical information and operational impacts.

Centralizing tools and information

The outdated technology and tools that lived on different systems and platforms made it difficult for employees to perform their jobs, impacting their productivity and morale. Alaska aimed to create a single “front door” to essential employee resources.

Connecting deskless and desk-based employees

Alaska’s workforce includes deskless roles like pilots, flight attendants, and maintenance staff on mobile devices, as well as back-office staff at desktops. The existing “one-size-fits-all” intranet didn’t meet their diverse employee needs.

Personalizing content by role and location

Alaska wanted to target employees with relevant information based on their role and location, offering a tailored homepage experience that matched each employee’s needs.

We had this existing one-size-fits-all intranet, but one-size-fits-all does not work in our industry. Employees need the right information at the right time and to connect in the way that’s right for them.

David Henrich Senior Manager of Communication Operations, Alaska Airlines

Enabling granular communications to 30,000+ employees

99.5 %

employee app adoption

96 %

active app users

98 %

positive employee feedback at launch

Critical Success Factors

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Overwhelmingly positive feedback

The new intranet and Team AAG employee mobile app were so easy to use, there was very little negative employee feedback—to the surprise of the implementation team.

Fast, high adoption

Adoption rates in the first year—99.5%—were double the goal. In fact, the internal goal of 50% by the first year was far surpassed in two months, with 85% adoption.

Decentralized, efficient growth

Decentralized and easy content management enables leaders to quickly publish their own content without the communication team creating a bottleneck.

Maximum engagement

The Alaska communication team can look at Staffbase’s analytics suite to understand content performance and reinforce key information, as well as tailor how long flagship content gets highlighted.

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Improved employee experience

Employees can easily and seamlessly find the information they need when they need it, regardless of what device they use or where they’re accessing the intranet.

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