Combe scaled award-winning programs through automation and AI across multi-lingual teams — competing with organizations 5x their size

About Combe

Combe is the most personal personal care company in the world, with ~500 employees across global HQ and manufacturing sites. The People Team set out to deliver a consistent, personalized employee experience across regions and roles, meeting people in their preferred channels and languages, and reinforcing Combe’s CARE values.
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“ChangeEngine makes us look good—beautifully branded, timely comms that people actually open.” — Sarah Jeffrey, Sr. HR Coordinator

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Challenges

• Manual newsletters and updates getting lost in inboxes, perceived as “spammy”
• Inconsistent experience across HQ, plants, and international teams
• Pre-boarding and manager prompts maintained in checklists; effective but time-intensive
• Lean team needing to do more with less while elevating brand quality and voice

Solutions

• Automated, localized onboarding with 25+ touchpoints starting ~12 days pre-start through ~170 days post-start, with dual-track messages for new hires and managers
• Precision segmentation and multi-channel delivery across 21 audience segments and four primary channels (Teams 1:1 and channels, work email, personal email)
• Brand-safe, AI-assisted content and a lovable internal voice/mascot that humanizes comms and keeps tone consistent
• Program libraries that run in the background: 15 programs powered by 76 automated moments (birthdays, anniversaries, onboarding, culture moments/holiday observances, wellness series like Financial Fridays, activity challenges)
• Built-in translation to reach a global workforce with culturally relevant observances and resources

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Impact

• 24K+ total communications sent; 11,426 in Q1 alone
• ~4.1 full-time workweeks saved per quarter through automation, plus 96 service hours delivered
• Channel performance: 97% open rate on personal email (59% CTR) and 46% open rate on work email (7% CTR)
• Onboarding series: driving faster ramp and fewer manual follow-ups
• Scaled award-winning programs that now “run themselves,” freeing the team to focus on more strategy
• Elevated employer brand and measurable engagement lift—positioning Combe’s People Team as innovative leaders who didn’t fix what was broken, but made something good consistently great and able to compete with organizations five times their size

“ChangeEngine lets a small-but-mighty team compete like David vs. Goliath—it’s our slingshot.” — Janon Cole, HRBP

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