How Lexicon Sparked Mental Health Conversations on Every Job Site - Using Speakap

Discover how a national construction company used its employee app to normalize mental health conversations — on job sites, in break rooms, and across 30+ project sites.

• Industry: Construction & Steel Fabrication
• Location: USA (HQ in Little Rock, Arkansas)
• Number of users: 3,000+

The challenge: how to run an effective internal comms campaign when you have a distributed frontline workforce

Here's the problem: how do you run an internal communications campaign when your people are scattered across 30 construction sites in 13 states?

Lexicon's workforce isn't sitting at desks checking email. They're not passing by break room posters. They're pulling 12-14 hour days in extreme conditions, often away from their families, moving between remote job sites.

Even with a fully staffed Health & Wellness Center at HQ and telemedicine options nationwide, field crews were staying silent. Cultural stigma and high-pressure roles meant mental health support was underutilized or ignored. And in an industry where the suicide rate is 4x higher than the national average, silence can be deadly. Cultural stigma, high-pressure roles, and dispersed teams meant mental health support was often underutilized or ignored. 

We care about our people. But we weren’t hearing from them when it came to mental health. Janell Schmidt Chief Human Resources Officer at Lexicon

The challenge was specific: run a campaign on a topic that doesn't get talked about openly in construction. Get mass reach across dispersed locations. Drive authentic engagement, not just passive views. Turn one-way messaging into actual conversations.

The standard playbook - email, maybe a town hall - wasn't going to cut it.

The solution: run the campaign on their own branded employee communications platform

Lexicon launched "Strongest Steel" during August 2024 on LexCOMM - their branded employee communications platform powered by Speakap. They ran it again in 2025. The strategy: own the channel, lead with authenticity, and make engagement unavoidable.

The goals of the campaign were clear:

• Break the stigma
• Encourage self-care
• Promote early intervention
• Highlight available resources
• Foster peer support across sites

The platform that made it possible? That’s LexCOMM

• They already owned the channel. LexCOMM wasn't some new HR tool. It was how Lexicon communicates, period. By the time the campaign launched, they'd hit 60-70% platform adoption. "We've gotten to the point where in our onboarding, we say, 'This is how we communicate internally,'" said Bill Fitzgerald, VP of Marketing and Communications. That foundation meant the campaign reached the majority of their dispersed workforce from day one.
• Social-style engagement turned announcements into conversations. When Schick commented on posts, others followed. When site managers shared their stories, their crews responded. The platform's social format made the campaign feel like an actual discussion, not a corporate broadcast.
• Flexible permissions let Lexicon control the narrative. They gradually opened posting permissions - starting with leadership, then expanding to employees. When workers asked to share personal stories, Lexicon could say yes on their terms. This control meant they built trust before opening the floodgates.
• Centralized resources made action easy. Instead of hunting through emails or attachments, employees tapped once to access support programs and training signups. Everything lived in one place.

Because LexCOMM was already in daily use, the campaign didn’t have to fight for attention. It landed exactly where it needed to - on mobile phones in the field, in break rooms, and across shifts. And that’s what made it the perfect launchpad for something deeper. 

We knew the stigma is strong in construction. But with LexCOMM already embedded in our culture, we had the platform to do more than just share resources - we could start a real conversation. Janell Schmidt Chief Human Resources Officer at Lexicon

LexCOMM enabled:

• Mobile-first, role-specific communication
• Push notifications that cut through noise
• A trusted space where employees could safely engage
• Two-way dialogue that encouraged participation
• Multilingual content to reach everyone in their own language

Without Speakap, the campaign would’ve lived on posters or in scattered emails. With it, Lexicon could meet people where they were - and bring them into the conversation.

What it looked like in action:

• Daily posts with reflections, tips, and conversation starters, all posted in both English and Spanish to reach our diverse population, all with the ability for people to respond, share their experiences, and how they have overcome challenges in their lives
• Push notifications and email alerts to ensure visibility
• Personal video messages from the CEO & COO
• “Easter egg” posts to boost interaction, with weekly prizes like Carhartt jackets, lunchboxes, and gift cards
• Job site branding — breakroom banners, hardhat stickers, and lunchbox swag
• Employee-created posts that drove organic, personal engagement
• Consistent visibility of support services — both in-app and onsite

The results: weekly active platform users jumped 40% during the campaign

The numbers tell the story. Weekly active users spiked from around 300 before the campaign to over 420 by the end of August - a 40% increase in platform engagement.

But that spike didn't happen by accident. It started when CEO Patrick Schick posted a vulnerable video and stayed in the conversation. He commented regularly throughout the campaign, admitting his own struggles with positive self-talk. When the CEO admits he needs to work on something, everyone else gets permission to speak up.

Site managers followed his lead and shared personal reflections on LexCOMM. Then employees started volunteering their own stories. A construction worker, who lost his son to suicide, reached out asking if he could share his experience on LexCOMM. "This is you. This is your story," Bill told him. "If you are comfortable with it, absolutely, I encourage you to share it."

The conversations didn't stay on the platform. "Knowing that people are talking, that they're having the conversations, that they're not afraid to speak up," Bill reflected. "You can just tell. You can pick it up out in the shop and in the field."

Here are some quotes from Lexicon employees:

• “Some of this hits home for personal reasons. I’ve always been told not to bring your problems to work - but no one knows the story or the battle. THANK YOU.”
• “I suffer from anxiety and just knowing there are people around me who will and have taken the time to listen and check up on you after… it’s priceless.”
• “You never know what’s going on in someone’s life. This campaign ensured people knew that help is available - 24/7.”
• “I never knew how many people had similar issues to me. Some of the stories in the posts really opened my eyes.”
  
• “I really appreciated all the information that was provided. It is definitely past time to take the stigma out of mental health issues. Thank you Lexicon and Brandy for all the wonderful information.”

What this means for your frontline communication

Lexicon's success came down to a 2 critical factors:

• 60-70% platform adoption before launch. They positioned LexCOMM as how the company communicates - not an optional tool. Without that foundation, nothing else works.
• Social features that enable conversation. Two-way engagement beats one-way broadcast. That's the difference between compliance and culture change.

Thinking about Speakap for your workforce?

If LexCOMM helped Lexicon shift stigma and scale support in an industry where mental health is rarely discussed - imagine what it could do for your teams.