One of the UK's largest homebuilders has improved how it reaches its people - connecting 94% of its workforce through a new mobile-first platform, with broader gains in engagement and retention following
LONDON, July 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bellway Homes, one of the UK's largest residential developers, has seen a reduction in voluntary turnover by more than 19% and lifted employee satisfaction above 90% in the 12 months following the launch of a new mobile-first employee communications platform built on Staffbase. The platform, named Pathway by employees, now reaches 94% of Bellway's roughly 3,000-strong workforce - two-thirds of whom work on construction sites without a desk or corporate email.
The news at a glance:
- Voluntary turnover down more than 19% and employee satisfaction above 90% within 12 months of launch
- 94% adoption across a workforce that is two-thirds deskless, far above typical reach for construction and other frontline-heavy industries
- During a market-moving acquisition rumour, 1,500-plus employees read the company's first statement the same evening it was issued, outside working hours, ahead of the media
- A single, governed source of truth replaced a legacy SharePoint system holding 7 million-plus documents and conflicting versions of core policies that employees had stopped trusting
For years, Bellway relied on a SharePoint system that had not been meaningfully updated since 2014. It had accumulated more than seven million documents and multiple conflicting versions of the same policies. As trust eroded, employees simply stopped using it, and an internal rebuild stalled against limited IT resources. The harder problem sat beyond the desk: most of Bellway's people work across hundreds of sites in England, Scotland, and Wales, where reaching them with consistent, trustworthy information had always been a challenge.
Rather than reaching the easiest third of the workforce first, Bellway designed for the hardest to reach. A two-person Group Communications team led the project, grounding it in employee feedback through a 12-month pilot with 300 employees across the business. Pathway launched company-wide in May 2024, supported by a roadshow across all 21 divisions where communications and HR teams met site-based employees face to face.
"We chose Staffbase because we simply couldn't deliver a project like this ourselves, and they had the roadmap and the team to deliver," said Paul Lawler, Group Head of Communications at Bellway.
The shift changed how information moves through the business. Email was repositioned for critical updates and a weekly summary, while day-to-day communication moved into Pathway, where employees choose the content relevant to their role, location, and team.
"We've gone from blasting inboxes to giving people real control. Now they choose the content they care about, and they actually engage with it," said Lawler.
The value of a single trusted source became clearest under pressure. When market rumours of a possible acquisition surfaced outside standard hours, Bellway issued its first statement through Pathway within minutes of the official market announcement. More than 1,500 employees read it that same evening, hearing it from their employer rather than from the media or at the start of the next working day.
The platform has since become embedded in how the company operates and communicates, from policies and benefits to a content hub featuring award-winning site managers. The phrase "It's on Pathway" has entered everyday language at Bellway.
"It's not just a comms tool. It's a cultural asset," said Lawler. "It's the biggest transformation we've ever made in internal communications, and we delivered it on time and on budget."
Bellway is already exploring what comes next with Staffbase. Earlier this year, they became the first UK Staffbase customer to pilot the Staffbase On Air AI podcast tool, leading to the launch of the Pathway Podcast. This gave employees, particularly those working on construction sites, a new way to access company updates through personalised audio content while on the move.
Alongside this, AI-powered content creation, governance, and search tools help ensure information remains accurate, accessible, and easy to find. Just this month, Bellway began testing Staffbase's AI chatbot, Navigator, providing employees with immediate resolution to daily queries and requests. Together, these innovations have helped create a digital workplace that is practical, engaging, and genuinely useful for employees.
"Bellway designed for their hardest-to-reach employees first, and that decision is what made 94% adoption possible," said Dave Maffei, GM, Global Markets at Staffbase. "When a workforce that is two-thirds deskless is reading a company statement before the media does, that is what a single source of truth actually means in practice."
Read the full case study at www.staffbase.com/customers/bellway-homes.
About Bellway
Bellway is a FTSE 250 listed residential housebuilder headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, employing almost 3,000 staff across 20 Divisions across England, Scotland and Wales.
We are delighted to have been awarded 5-star homebuilder status by the Home Builders Federation for the tenth-year running. This independently judged award evaluates our customer service, quality of construction, and the reviews we receive. Bellway also achieved 'Large Housebuilder of the Year' for 2025 in the Housebuilder Awards, the second time in three years. In addition, we have received several awards for our 'Better with Bellway' sustainability strategy as we look to deliver industry leading carbon reduction targets.
Bellway began as a small family business in the North East in 1946 - with a passion for building exceptional quality homes in carefully selected locations, inspired by the needs of real families. We are proud of our heritage, and remain one of the region's largest employers.
To this day, we maintain these same core values, combining our decades of expertise with the level of personalised care that Bellway is known for.
You can find out more about Bellway here.
About Staffbase
Staffbase is the first AI-native Employee Experience Platform. It puts the power of AI in every employee's hands - especially those currently disconnected on the front lines. With Employee AI, Staffbase brings together communications, IT, and HR to reimagine how people and organizations work together.
More than 1,500 enterprise customers - including Adidas, Alaska Airlines, DHL, MAN Truck & Bus, and Whataburger - use Staffbase to inspire their people and help them deliver their best work. Staffbase connects companies with employees everywhere through a branded employee app, intranet, email, SMS, digital signage, and Microsoft 365 integrations - and now through new agentic experiences such as personalized podcasts and a conversational assistant - all powered by a single platform with an end-to-end AI foundation.
Staffbase was named a Leader for the third consecutive year in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Intranet Packaged Solutions and is also recognized by G2 as a Leader for Employee Intranets. The company is headquartered in New York City and Chemnitz, Germany.
More information:www.staffbase.com
Press contact:press@staffbase.com
