10 Good Things Workplace Does For Retail Organisations

by Daragh McGrath
Published on May 21, 2019

Working in a retail organisation means there are a lot of differences between your headquarters, the colleagues working in the shops and the colleagues who work in between. Not only are there different shifts, you will often be working in different time zones. Employees working at HQ mostly are bound to their laptops, while shop floor employees don’t spend that much time facing a screen regardless of whether it’s in the staff break-rooms or a mobile device.

Enter Workplace from Meta. We are currently seeing a huge amount of interest from retail organisations in understanding more about the value prop of Workplace, and how it can help you tighten that big distance between several teams in vastly different roles. We are really excited to see Walmart, not just the world’s largest retailer, but the world’s largest private employer embracing Workplace. Here’s what it can do for retail organisations.

1. End of silos All employees collaborating on the same platform means Workplace removes boundaries. Shop floor employees will be more understanding for decisions made in other teams, why some products aren’t available or why services change for example. Also, instead of reading a plain email from the HQ management team, all employees now can interact on that update. And that’s for those retail organisations who provide email to their employees!

For many, the only way to receive communications is from an email that has been printed and pinned to the notice board by the store manager. Suddenly, shop floor employees feel heard. And why not let employees of all different teams contribute to a new product or service?

2. Employees easier engaged With large numbers of employees working in shops, they are not likely to check the intranet or their work email on a desktop. With the Workplace apps having a familiar Facebook interface, every employee can easily check or share updates on their smartphone.

3. Sharing knowledge and experiences Store managers can reach out to other store managers from across the country. Shop staff can ask others from all over the organisation for help if they have a question. But also tips and tricks on how to do things in a better way, or experience how to increase daily sales are super relevant to share. Just maximize the benefit of the common knowledge!

4. Gaining customer insights Given the large amount of contact with your customers that shop or customer service employees have, it’s a no brainer that these employees have the best insights. Workplace makes it easy to share feedback, gain ideas or quickly check what the sentiment of the customers could be, listening to their knowledge and experiences.

5. Onboarding made easy Welcoming new employees is one of the most fun moments for an organisation. Having a seamless and fun onboarding experience will make the newbie feel at home from day one. Let your HR department welcome him or her with a personal welcome message in Work Chat. And, of course, create a Warm Welcome Group, where you can show newcomers the way around.

6. Notice dissatisfied employees quicker This one’s for your HR department. As we all know, dissatisfied employees are likely to leave your company sooner than satisfied employees. We cannot emphasize enough that it’s really important to listen to your employees. But having a big distance between you and the employees is not making that easier.

With our Survey Bot, you can quickly, easily and regularly check-in with your staff. With just a few short interactions, you’ll know how the employee is feeling and thinking. This gives you input to improve his or her work situation.

7. Employees This might be a no-brainer for many of you, but we’ve seen it happen: good news and achievements don’t only come from the HQ. Celebrate successes from all of your employees, team efforts as well as individuals. Employees will feel valued! Utilising our Employee Recognition bot allows employees to recognise outstanding contributions from colleagues in a simple, but formal way.

8. Stimulate personal growth Employees working in shops who love the company might want to grow at some point. Not only in the shop itself, but maybe to a whole different team in the organisation. With Workplace they can profile themselves and get in touch with other teams easily. And the job vacancies? There you’ll share in a job announcement group, so that every employee can see it right away!

9. Reduce stress By shifting the work-related conversations from ‘private apps’ such as Facebook Groups or WhatsApp to the work-related Workplace apps, there’s a clear separation between those two. When employees are off work, they’ll really feel like having some time off. As much as we all love our jobs, some time without it is beneficial as well!

10. More efficient training & developing Of course, we see the big benefits of face to face training sessions. But it is somewhat time and money consuming, right? What if you post how to’s of new products or processes in a training group on Workplace? Sharing this type of online training content makes information shared faster and can decrease the amount of training meetings.

Oh, and did we say that all of the above will increase the chance that your employees will become real committed brand ambassadors? Guess we don’t have to explain the value of that.

Curious on what Workplace can do for you? Please get in touch. The team from Enablo have a vast amount of experience working with retail organisations and we cannot wait to hear from you.

Meet the Author
Daragh McGrath
I’m CEO and Cofounder of Enablo and have been fortunate to work for, or partner with, some of the worlds most widely recognised technology companies to help customers digitize their world of work.

Switch to a better way of working.

Enablo digitises the world of work to help businesses across the globe build the best workplace experience for their employees. We help drive connection, communication, collaboration, and productivity for everyone, anywhere, and we support your vision every step of the way.

Make the switch to a better way of working today. Get in touch today.