Resources > Success Stories > The Warehouse Group
Reimagining communication
In 2020, The Warehouse Group introduced Workplace from Meta to connect its 12,000 employees across five brands in stores, distribution centres and head offices throughout New Zealand.
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The Warehouse Group (‘TWG’) is one of New Zealand’s largest retailing groups, driven by a vision to be the country’s most sustainable, convenient, and customer-centric retailer.
Responsible for delivering that vision is its 12,000 dedicated employees spread across five brands, working in stores, distribution centres, and head offices throughout New Zealand.
In 2020, TWG introduced Workplace from Meta to connect its five brands and harness the collective knowledge, experience, enthusiasm, loyalty and pride of its diverse workforce.
A solution for everyone
The leadership team at TWG had a clear objective: to establish an efficient and effective means of communication that allowed them to talk to their people and for their people to talk to them (and each other).
Fast forward three years, and Workplace has become an integral communication channel at TWG, with employees at all levels recognising the value of connecting on the platform.
In an organisation like TWG, where nearly 80% of its 12,000 employees don’t have email addresses or laptop access, a mobile-first platform like Workplace has become vital for communication.
By the people, for the people
While the Communications team provides some curated content on Workplace, most content is employee-generated.
And that’s the power of Workplace. TWG employees can openly express their thoughts and concerns, whether they’re happy or frustrated.
“We’ve chosen to give our teams a place to communicate and share, and that applies to both the good and the bad. The important thing is that they can engage in genuine two-way communication with anyone across the business, from their peers to our leadership team.”
– Dina Gharbo, Chapter Lead – Corporate Affairs, The Warehouse Group
This open dialogue is clear to see on Workplace. TWG employees are deeply invested in the business, demonstrating their care for the company and their vocal commitment to driving improvements, especially when it comes to sustainability and pricing.
The leadership team is also very active on the platform without being prompted by the Comms team, as is so often the case in large-sized organisations. Leaders initiate conversations, participate in discussions, share selfies with store teams, proactively comment on team member posts or answer questions, and drive messaging – just as everyone else does.
TWG is a people-centred organisation, and Workplace plays a crucial role in nurturing that culture by giving everyone a voice.
Knowledge sharing across stores
Over 50% of TWG’s live video and video content is created by its store team members.
Many teams capture their morning huddles, featuring updates from managers. Anyone who misses the live session can catch up by watching the recording. This ensures that every team member stays in the loop, no matter when their shift begins.
In the lead-up to major trading events, store teams use video to showcase their displays and preparations. This builds excitement and inspires other stores to do the same.
Similarly, teams throughout the business, including Head Office, use video to excite and engage their people about upcoming initiatives. For example, the operations team creates handy explainer videos for store teams on innovative ways to set up grocery aisles. The videos are shared on Workplace, alongside fun competitions to encourage more stores to adopt the improved set-ups.
TWG’s retail teams take immense pride in their stores and distribution centres and the exceptional service they provide to customers. Workplace gives them somewhere to express their passion and learn from one another.
A hub of information
Before introducing Workplace, each of TWG’s brands operated its own intranet.
But rather than creating a new Group intranet and further complicating employee access to essential company information, they chose to use the Knowledge Library on Workplace.
Now, employees can access all the information they need without leaving Workplace, and this information is accessible from anywhere, including on mobile.
This approach benefits both employees and the Communications team. While traditional intranets are usually managed exclusively by Comms teams, Workplace empowers anyone in the community to manage pages in the Knowledge Library, giving different departments control over their specific areas and freeing up TWG’s Comms team to focus on what they do best.
But wait, there’s (opportunities for) more!
The success of Workplace at TWG is clear, but the story is far from over.
We’re working with the team to explore opportunities for continually boosting Workplace engagement, encouraging even more teams to share their voices and actively interact with the fantastic content available to them.
We’re digging into engagement reporting, taking a closer look at which content resonates best with teams. Plus, we’re exploring integrations and how they can streamline the use of Workplace alongside TWG’s various applications and systems.
The future looks bright!
If you want to learn more about how Workplace helps nurture culture and maximise efficiencies, get in touch! We’d love to work with you to help solve your communications challenges.