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The Intranet Guide to Retail Survival

Guide

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The Intranet Guide to Retail Survival The Intranet Guide to Retail Survival

Contents

How retail survival may lie in your intranet 4

How to launch your intranet 6

Training 8

Culture 10

Remote and geographically dispersed workforce 12

The window to the digital workplace 14

Search 16

Finding expertise 18

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How retail survival may lie in your intranet

T here have been a lot of

predictions regarding the

future of retail, and while

the industry has undergone huge

changes, our advice is to ignore the

doom-mongers. Retail isn’t dying,

it’s evolving. And with tech changing

the way people shop, you need to be

equipped for the revolution ahead.

Choosing the right tools to drive

your organization’s success can

be difficult when the future looks

subject to extreme change. This

guide will help you address aspects

of your business and demonstrate

how the most complex of issues

can be solved with the help of social

intranet software.

An intranet connects your workforce

and maximises growth through

powerful internal communications.

This helps your workforce to become

engaged with your organization, and

when you have engaged employees,

great things can happen.

For over a decade, leading retailers

have come to Interact to help

solve in-house problems. ASOS,

Lush Cosmetics, N Brown Group,

Waterstones and Mattress Firm

all overcame challenges with

the help of the various features

and functionality of our intranet

software.

This guide showcases the insights

from seven major retail brands who

all have shared how they solved

their problems - problems which

are relatable to anyone working in

the industry. Out of the thousands

of intranet projects we’ve worked

on, these are the cases which will

show you how to launch an intranet,

train your staff effectively, connect

geographically-dispersed workers,

create a digital workplace, nurture a

positive workplace culture, resolve

issues and tap into the expertise that

lurks within your workforce.

Whether or not you realize it, your

business needs an intranet. This

guide shows you why.

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We've had 124,007 visits since launch and 76% of users

are ‘active’. In the first two weeks, 70% of ASOSers said

they liked or loved ASOShome. One user said ‘ASOShome

has revolutionised the way we work at ASOS. We’ve now

got somewhere to see news and less emails, fab!’

“

Case study: ASOS

How to launch your intranet

Launching a new intranet can present

a number of challenges, even for the

most well-prepared of organizations.

When you’ve toiled to create a user-

ready intranet with everything your

staff need to ease and aid their day-

to-day roles, you need your launch

day to not only be a celebration of

what you’ve done but also a chance

for your staff to excitedly learn and

embrace the fruits of your labor.

However, with focus being diverted

to all areas of the business, there can

be a divide between your excitement

at the Big Reveal and your staff doing

their job.

So, how do you make your launch

day as fun as possible? While it’s

possible to celebrate project and

rouse the excitement of staff to make

it a successful day, you just have to

prepare carefully. A well-planned and

executed launch ensures users:

The launch also presents an

opportunity to be a little more

creative. Depending on your culture

and intranet objectives, there are

a number of different ideas or

approaches to try which will get your

users excited, engaged, and onboard.

The organizations that nail it on

Launch Day get to bask in the glory of

engaged users that value the intranet

and continue to engage with it

beyond day one.

Know what the intranet is used for, and how it will impact and

improve their day-to-day roles

Are excited and engaged

Are informed about what is happening, and when

Understand the value of their new intranet

Adopt and continue to engage with the intranet from day one,

and beyond

With an obsolete legacy intranet, an

overload of internal communications

tools, and a distinct lack of resources,

internal communications team at

online fashion retailer ASOS faced

an uphill struggle launching their

intranet. But after two long years,

ASOShome was ready to go – they just

needed it to be welcomed by a hard-to-

please crowd of employees. As Internal

Communication & Engagement

Advisor at ASOS, Asha Constanza

comments:

Although our intranet remains a

work-in-progress, we wanted the

intranet we launched to immediately

prove useful to the business, which

meant uploading a certain level of

comprehensive content before it went

live. It needed to be ready to stand up

to the critique of a community of tech-

savvy, retail experts with a thirst for

an intranet that matched our external

look and feel.

By adding the intranet logo on to email

signatures, filming a light-hearted pre-

launch video with senior executives

and forming a team of to champion

the intranet, they created interest and

anticipation for what was to come.

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Training

Businesses with ambitions to grow

should always have a focus on

developing their employees. Training

courses are extremely effective as

part of the onboarding process for

new employees and as a continued

resource as the worker progresses.

Having an effective training base

within the organization is key to this

and an intranet is the perfect portal

for learning.

With the help of online quizzes,

training calendars, easy to find

documents and online tutorials, your

intranet can help you create an online

school for every department and level

within the business.

Automated notifications

Monitoring Accessibility

Your software manages

training sessions, sending

out quick quizzes after

training sessions and keeping

employees up to date with

courses and assessments.

Features like Mandatory

Reads and quizzes are a

great way of monitoring

progress, status and

performance. Trainers

can track completion and

achievement rates.

Interact’s cloud-based

software and mobile app

enables staff to access their

intranet anywhere. This

means that learning can take

place at home and on the

road, as well as the office.

After replacing a legacy intranet

with software from Interact, global

tourism specialists Magic Memories

next challenge was to create a

virtual learning college for its 2500+

workforce. For the organization,

this was a big priority, knowing

that by creating a global learn

leadership program on the intranet

would not only connected their

employees, but also enhance each

role within the company. Over time,

a leadership development program

was developed, and their intranet,

Click, was transformed into a virtual

learning college (VLC) that proved

to be highly productive and cost-

efficient.

For employees going through the

leadership program, the first module

is done in-house, where a program

can be custom-made for their

needs. The remaining modules are

completed through distance learning

at the user’s pace. All modules are

video episode learning and accessible

from any location via Click.

Case study:Magic Memories

We have essentially saved 50% by switching to Interact... when you get a great learning management system, you’re looking at a cost of 50 grand plus, but we don’t need that because we can drive our learning through Interact.

- Nick Holmes, Group Learning & Development Lead

According to statistics, companies

that incorporate e-learning

technology receive an 18% boost in

employee engagement. As employee

engagement is linked to higher staff

retention, greater job satisfaction

and improved productivity, the

importance of the learning program

is clear from the outset.

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Culture

Culture defines a workplace, and

happy employees make a great

difference to the bottom line. Part of

keeping workers happy is creating

a culture which nurtures, helps

and trains every member of the

workforce. An intranet can help build

a culture through the following ways:

The intranet can play a fundamental part by supporting the

communication, relationship-building, and advocation needed to

nurture a positive workplace culture.

Two-way communication – Businesses have learned

that a two-way exchange is far more valuable than top-down

communication. Discussions, suggestions, insights, opinions, and

knowledge-sharing can help employees work smarter and nurture a

culture of open communication.

Celebrate and recognize success – The intranet plays

a valuable part acting as a platform to shine the spotlight on a

colleague for outstanding work. When staff feel valued, they’re

more engaged in the business and inspire others to do the same.

Onboarding – The intranet is central to a new recruit’s experience,

not only through training but allowing the recruit to see how people

interact, communicate and behave with each other.

Updates – By notifying staff across the workplace, you’re delivering

regular news regarding the organization – important information

regarding office security, staff nights out, kitchen use and so on.

Peer-to-peer engagement – Breaking down the silos and

bringing staff together allows a stronger culture to form. Posting a

question about a work query in a forum can spark ideas and insights

from unexpected corners of the business, forming new relationships

and ways of working.

Case study: AO.com

With their quick growth, AO.com had

to work hard to unite their dispersed

staff working in logistics centers, on

the road, in call centers, video studios

and head office. Their intranet The

Fridge was a major tool in creating the

community we see today.

AO’s focus was to remove the

boundaries and distance between

workers to create a fun, rewarding

work culture. Designing the social

aspect of the intranet was key to the

pick-up of the intranet.

Dispersed teams unite via the Fridge,

whether it’s chats about Tuesday’s

Retail News (where users can check

out how the competition is faring, and

the performance of AO) or Something

for the Weekend, where people are

invited to bring ideas forward of what

to do at the weekend with friends and

family.

Creating a culture of relatability and

communication is something that

any large organization faces. AO’s

intranet provided a place where

employees reached out and connected

with each other – something that

didn’t happen before The Fridge’s

arrival. This instigated an increase in

social interaction and a boost in staff

engagement, which Laura observes,

“Engaging people is critical to our

success long term, and Interact plays a

big part in that.”

We have regular features on The Fridge every day to engage people and to promote social interactions between colleagues and teams. These include everything from fun GIFs to competitions to win tickets to Britain’s Got Talent, which we proudly sponsor.

- Laura Talbot, Internal Communications Manager at AO.com

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Remote and geographically dispersed workforce

While remote employees and a geographically dispersed workforce are

key to a business’s growth, it does pose some problems which include:

The impact on organizational culture & individual well-beingMany remote workers have fewer opportunities to connect and engage

with their peers, resulting in a lack of camaraderie, visibility of the

overall business direction, mission and values. This can link to lower

levels of reliability and retention.

Accountability and visibilityMany remote workers are conscious of wanting to appear visible

and proving their hard work away from the office. As self-managers,

remote workers also face difficulties in prioritizing work and gaining

insight into bigger picture business priorities or objectives.

Security - both physical, and digitalIn the office, there are protocols, procedures and policies covering

everything from virus protection to fire evacuation. Remote

employees, on the other hand, encounter an entirely different set of

risks when working in shared spaces, home alone, or even accessing

business systems on public networks.

Time zone and communication difficultiesIf you have individuals working across different time zones or even

different countries, you have logistical challenges. What if your

employees don't speak the same language? Could political, cultural or

social differences cause difficulties or unforeseen divisions? If your

remote workers are based across different time zones, how do you

coordinate them?

With over 10,000 members of staff

spread across thirty countries,

one of Travelex’s main challenges

was uniting their vast and very

geographically dispersed workforce.

Their intranet, The Lounge, has

transformed the way the company

connects, communicates and

collaborates with colleagues –

wherever they are.

Travelex has spent a lot of time

creating different ways for uniting

their workers – their focus on video

to broadcast news from a senior

level is particularly effective and

their global RPM league which pits

countries against each other is a

huge hit in every country.

Their news section is another way -

focusing on news from all across the

business, highlighting news from

particular stores, interviews with

staff members and highlights from

the league.

This inclusive, trans-global overview

of the organization has seen an

increase of over 3,000 visits to the

site within the first month. When

staff in Malaga can read stories

from colleagues in Dubai who are

commenting on a blog from a team

member in Rio de Janeiro and learn

about their lives, culture and even

hardships, it creates a community

that transcends the traditional

barriers of time, location and

language.

Case study: Travelex

These are all issues that an intranet can help with. Overleaf, a multinational

company shows how.

The Lounge has done wonders for our business, bringing everyone together into one central place, breaking geographical barriers, and allowing for the free flow of communication in our organization.

- Tricia Scott, Global Intranet Manager, Travelex

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The window to the digital workplace

One of the burgeoning applications

of the modern intranet is its place in

the digital workplace. The average

employee uses around 12 apps to

communicate alone a day. This

application sprawl can be a threat

to productivity, so rather than have

workers jumping from one app to

the next, the intranet provides the

perfect launchpad to access all those

services indispensable to the job.

The workplace has changed

significantly in the past decade, and

with it has come a mobile, digitally

demanding workforce. While

technology has received a certain

degree of blame for disrupting the

workplace, if harnessed correctly, it

can enhance the way we work and

interact with colleagues, clients and

customers.

The modern intranet is the place

where we go to work: our entry point

to the digital workplace. It can be

the hub of a business, encompassing

every digital tool of the organization,

streamlining processes and meeting

the needs of a modern workplace. It

connects our discordant, dispersed

systems, engages the most remote

of employees and can deliver the

most unexpected of solutions, as

Waterstones demonstrates overleaf.

Consistency is difficult for any brand with multiple stores, and something UK booksellers Waterstones knows all too well. With over 300 stores and three head offices, they faced major issue keeping a consistent brand message. Headers and book displays were traditionally printed by third party printers and distributed from a central location. The lead times and costs were becoming a burden.

Their cloud-based intranet Watson allowed them to build a collateral area, which enables regional staff to print in-house. With this support, Waterstones, reduced its carbon footprint and paper wastage, improved response and lead times,

empowered staff and saved hundreds of thousands of pounds annually.

“Users in stores can browse, select and print the materials they need, saving on printing and delivery costs, reducing waste, and ensuring that all in-store marketing can be deployed in a timely way,” explains Suzie Robinson, Intranet Manager.

“As well as making us more commercially responsive, downloading and printing materials from our intranet in this way has reduced the cost of a high-quality print from £300 to just £15.That represents total cost savings of tens of thousands of pounds a year."

Case study: Waterstones

The intranet of today is seeing a new lease of life. Now, the intranet it not only relevant – it is a critical and integral element of any successful digital workplace.

- Simon Dance, CEO, Interact

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Search

Search as an attribute seems

unremarkable, but that’s only

because in this Google-era, anything

can be looked for and found online

in a split second. However, outside

of Google’s control, it’s clear to see

that its influence hasn’t stretched

across the digital workplace. In fact,

with many websites, networks and

applications, you’re experiencing

90s-era search capabilities. Search

can make a profound difference in

how your employees work and how

your intranet functions.

With poor Search, you risk a decrease

in the number of employees getting

the right information to be effective

in their jobs.

One of the ways Interact has honed its

search capabilities is by introducing

Best Bets, a feature which allows you

to override the normal weighting

in the intelligent search. We

introduced Best Bets as an effective

way to stop the majority of bad search

experiences and have designed it to

perform better than simply using

keywords and other metadata.

The chain of US convenience

stores had major issues with their

legacy intranet before approaching

Interact. With the old system, 36%

of employees spent over an hour a

day trying to find content to do their

jobs (20,000 users). Many employees

instead called Store Support because

they couldn't find the answers they

needed to do their jobs. As one

Sheetz employee told us before the

introduction of our software, “I often

don’t know everything that goes on in

the office or even in my department”

This time spent searching resulted

in 7,200 hours across the company

wasted daily, and with the U.S.

minimum wage being $7.25/hr,

this meant a minimum annual loss

of approximately $19,000,000 of

revenue for the company.

Case study: Sheetz

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Sheetz’s replacement intranet, Bob,

quickly became the place where

quality issues, questions, and

experiences were shared online. This

saved time, expanded the audience

and increased awareness, as well as

encouraged knowledge sharing across

teams. The new system has allowed

issues to be quickly identified and

resolved – all saving time and money.

Find the right results

Save time Save money

Boost productivity

Reduce admin demand and frustration

Reduce workload on other departments

Sheetz's intranet allows workers to search for information regarding product issues speedily.

Great Search helps a business:

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Finding expertise

If you’re a large organization, you’ll

understand all too well the hardships

of not only connecting your dispersed

staff but also securing the full

engagement of your workforce.

But the remedy may be closer

than you think. Many of our retail

clients found part of the solution

to these problems by tapping into

the knowledge and expertise of key

members of staff.

By monitoring users on their

intranet, our clients were able to see

those members of staff who were

providing feedback, sharing ideas

and taking part in discussions on

forums.

As we’ll see overleaf, these key

members are invaluable to a

company who is eager to keep open

channels of communication across

the workforce, help staff and create a

more unified community.

Some tips on spotting your internal influencer:

After a massive intranet overhaul, an

active member of the Mattress Firm

intranet forum, Randy, was beginning

to attract attention. He was regularly

providing great answers to queries

as well as fresh insights into ways of

working.

His reputation got the attention of

management and they made him

a power user, coaching him on his

communication tone, giving him

guidance on stock answers and

connecting him with managers who

could assist with the questions he

needed help with.

As Randy was seen as “non-corporate”,

he was able to create effective and

valuable discussions with all members

of the organization. At the same time,

colleagues knew that when they

wanted to voice an opinion or push

an idea forward, they would be heard,

and their feedback was receiving

proper attention from senior levels.

Case study: Mattress Firm

Polish your newly found gem by giving them the recognition they deserve and the training they need to provide the most helpful

knowledge possible.

Connect them with the right people that can provide support and

escalation points when they do not know the answer. This helps

them maintain their place of authority and solidifies their role as

the go-to employee among their colleagues.

Use your intranet to find your very own star employee who already

shares the answers to what he or she knows with the community.

Encourage all potential internal influencers across your

organization. Your hard-to-reach, non-desk, and remote employees

will benefit from genuine answers and advice from someone within

the organization that has the ear of corporate and fully understands

their circumstance and role.

This hasn’t only helped the people on

the shop floor, but also depot workers,

delivery drivers and colleagues in

the office who all need advice and

help on the range of Mattress Firm

products every day. Staff like Randy

help to leave authentic and relevant

content to stay on the intranet,

making it beneficial for your internal

communications team (saving them

15-20 hours per week in intranet

maintenance), as well as existing and

prospective members of the team.

Randy in action, helping a colleague sort out an urgent issue.

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