Melissa: When I arrived our communications function wasn’t particularly mature – we had an over-reliance on email, minimal opportunities to drive two-way communication and found it hard to effectively cascade information and connect with our teams around the world, particularly those who didn’t have access to email because they were working in vineyards or in production roles. 

It was also an interesting time because COVID-19 was emerging and some of our teams in China were already facing lockdowns, we were preparing for a transition to a new Chief Executive Officer and had just announced a review of our business in the United States.  However all of these provided great opportunities to re-imagine how we could be communicating and engaging with our teams across the world. 

Melissa: I had used Workplace in a previous organisation. If you think about the nature of our business – vineyards in stunning regional locations around the world – and great wines, Workplace was a natural fit for TWE. 

COVID-19 was a real catalyst as it highlighted our overreliance on email and top-down cascading of information, as well as a lack of two-way communication. 

Some of the other drivers included: 

• Nearly half of our workforce are millennials and Gen Z who are digitally literate. 
• Lifting the visibility of our leaders across the business 
• Breaking down silos across the business
• We also needed to reach those hard-to-reach team members who are in production facilities, packaging centres, logistics facilities and working in the vineyards. 
• We also needed to break through language barriers given the geographical nature of our business
• Targeted communications that were efficient and effective, and more importantly drove strategic alignment and improved the employee experience.

We started by being clear about the communications problem we needed to solve and then explored a range of different platforms – including speaking to organisations that were using the tools to understand their experience – that had the potential of solving those challenges and addressing the key business drivers.

That initial research allowed us to shortlist two platforms with Workplace the preferred choice because of its functionality.  We then formed a cross-functional working group who considered the shortlisted tools, validated Workplace as the platform of choice, helped develop the business case and the Blueprint for Workplace.  We worked through a very methodical process, collaboratively, to develop the business case.

This group was critical to our success and included representatives from different parts of the business, including IT, and geographies – the diversity of this group was critical and they became probably the greatest ambassadors for this project and helped lead the change effort. 

We also spent a lot of time talking with key members of our executive leadership team, in particular our CEO and Chief People Officer, to help them understand the opportunity and how this investment could help improve the employee experience and drive better business outcomes.

Whilst we had large pockets of support, we did have to address concerns around the change addressing work practices and safety (particularly in vineyards and production facilities), how Workplace fitted into the technology stack, controlling the sharing of information, as well as security and privacy.

Melissa O’Neill, Global Director Corporate Affairs, Treasury Wine Estates

“…Workplace is giving frontline teams a voice within the organisation and affording the opportunity for greater participation in decision making at both a local and global level. We’re already seeing this is contributing to a greater sense of inclusion across the business.. “

Melissa O’Neill
Global Director Corporate Affairs, Treasury Wine Estates

Melissa: Firstly, Workplace can be a real gift for corporate communications teams!  Channels like Workplace allow you to unlock the creativity of your communications teams and give them the opportunity to focus on higher order activities such as how to help leaders drive better connections, collaboration and more meaningful conversations that drive strategic alignment and mobilise their teams around the priorities that really matter.

We want our leaders to be able to communicate with confidence and in a way that is authentic to them – Workplace provides that channel.  From a communications perspective, that means we need to ensure leaders have the capabilities, skills and access to the right tools and information to be as successful as possible on the channel.

On the issue of transparency and respectful conversations – I think transparency on the platform is important and it can change the nature of conversations within the business, and open up those conversations to a broader audience. In my experience, people being disrespectful on the platform or not behaving in a way that is consistent with your business’ values or expectations is incredibly rare. In most cases, teams will self-moderate language, behaviour and tone on the platform. What is more important, is that you create a safe environment for a range of conversations to take place – often the same conversations that are happening ‘offline’ – so that you can tap into them, understand those perspectives, and use those insights to strengthen culture and organisational trust.

Melissa: At TWE, we believe in taking our business very seriously but not ourselves. We make premium wine that is meant to help celebrate those special moments with friends and families, and this includes everyone who touches our business, including our team members.

Bringing our whole selves to work is part of our DNA and that is certainly alive and well on Workplace – the platform helps drive connections and conversations amongst our team globally from attending product launches, sharing their favourite wine and food match, travel destinations, being in a restaurant and seeing one of our wines on the menu, supporting our communities – all of these and more are important to creating a sense of belonging within TWE.  That belonging and acceptance drives us to deliver together, recognise our achievements, collaborate on shared challenges and continue to push the boundaries for our consumers.

Melissa: For our frontline team members, Workplace will give them the opportunity to get quick and easy access to information about the business as well as a range of operational information including health and safety, HR information as well as a range of site and work practice details.

It will also allow them to connect with team members around the world, and access more information about the business and the products we make and sell.

Workplace is giving frontline teams a voice within the organisation and affording the opportunity for greater participation in decision making at both a local and global level. We’re already seeing this is contributing to a greater sense of inclusion across the business.  

Melissa: Enablo brought to the table a proven methodology, the expertise we needed to determine how we structured Workplace in a way that makes sense for TWE, as well as experience in training and engaging team members across the business. This helped us launch the platform in a way that ensured we achieved our account claim and engagement objectives.