Introduction
Leussink Retail Group is a food and retail company consisting of 7 Jumbo supermarkets, 2 Etos drugstores, and 2 Gall&Gall liquor stores. In addition, they are active in the hospitality industry with a restaurant and event company. By combining strong franchise formulas with local involvement, Leussink has grown into an award-winning organization, employing 1,250 employees.
We interviewed Thijs Meijnen, HR advisor at Leussink Retail Group, to learn how an Employee Experience Platform helped them to improve the communication and engagement with their employees.
The challenge
What Employee Experience challenges were you facing before using Oneteam?
We used fragmented communication tools, which in many cases were either unprofessional or not secure. As a consequence, the information provided was insufficient. For example, all communication with our frontline employees went via Whatsapp groups or their private emails (they don’t have a work email). However, during the corona pandemic, we had to communicate a lot and realized that our internal communication was insufficient and needed to be improved. For example, we had no idea whether or by whom our messages were read, which is of vital importance if it comes to crisis communication.
What impact did this have on your business?
We saw that there was no communication line between stores and between branches. Communication within branches went okay, but it mainly took place via Whatsapp. Many employees, especially department managers, became frustrated because they couldn’t maintain a healthy work-life balance. Often being part of ten different app groups, they were bombarded with texts 24 hours a day, regardless of whether they were working or had time off. You can imagine that this has a negative impact on employee satisfaction. Reason enough for us to look for a communication solution to professionalize our internal communication.
“Implementing Oneteam felt like creating a Facebook account. It was super easy and we could get started right away.”
The solution
Why did you choose Oneteam?
We investigated a few solutions and also requested references within our industry. The reason why we ultimately chose Oneteam was twofold. On the one hand, Oneteam has a lot of experience within the food and retail industry, and the solution is really tailored for our industry. In addition, the Oneteam platform is incredibly scalable. The costs are low, and considering all additional modules available, such as onboarding app, eLearning and surveys, the platform is very future-proof.
Who uses Oneteam within Leussink Retail Group?
All our 1,250 employees use Oneteam. From stock fillers at our Jumbos, the waiting staff in our restaurant, to the employees in our offices. The platform is ideal for communication between the desk and non-desk employees.
How did the platform implementation process go?
It went pretty smoothly. At first, I expected it would be quite a job to introduce a new platform. However, implementing Oneteam felt like creating a Facebook account. It was super easy and we could get started right away. When it comes to launching the platform across all organizations, you can only get it right once. We, therefore, involved all department managers in the process and invited them to our demo environment in advance so that they became familiar with the platform. Afterward, to ensure that all employees would start using Oneteam, we immediately arranged all communication for our digital Christmas market, where employees could choose their Christmas packages via Oneteam.
The results
How does Oneteam help you to keep your frontline employees informed?
Thanks to Oneteam, we have a central information point where we can easily communicate with the entire organization or different subgroups. As a result, our communication not only has become more efficient and more structured but also more advanced. For example, we now create and share rich media content such as photos and videos way more often. The improved communication has also led to increased collaboration among project teams and branches, with everyone increasingly challenging each other to improve the procedures. These kinds of initiatives are a direct result of the better provision of information to our frontline workers.
How does Oneteam help you improve employee engagement?
Oneteam has helped us make each other proud to be part of Leussink Retail Group, and it helps us create tangible results. A great example of this is our store in Goor. In Goor, we recently opened the most sustainable supermarket in the Benelux. It was an insanely big project. During the renovation, we shared updates on the platform to keep people engaged with the project. For example, just before the opening, we shared videos with tips on how to improve customer experience. Shortly after, during the Christmas months, we saw that employees started making pea soup for the entire team and shared this on the timeline. Or when it was super busy in a store, employees were proudly sharing pictures of the store. Are initiatives like this that make team cohesion skyrocket.
What other results have you seen so far?
We see an adoption rate of 98.6%, for which we are truly satisfied. Furthermore, we noticed that 92% of our employees are active in the app every week. The engagement rate within supermarkets is even 95%. Undoubtedly, these numbers show that the use of Oneteam brought our communication and engagement to the next level. I don’t have insights into whether Oneteam has ensured that we have sold more bottles of cola. But, I know that a satisfied employee does everything he can to optimize customer experience and sell that extra bottle. Oneteam helps us with that.
What are your following plans for Employee Experience?
We are looking forward to using the survey module. This will provide us with a reliable and consistent measurement tool to help us achieve our goals regarding employee satisfaction.
“We see an adoption rate of 98.6%, for which we are truly satisfied. Furthermore, we noticed that 92% of our employees are active in the app every week.”
Try Oneteam and achieve similar results
Are you looking for a solution to improve the employee experience of your frontline workforce?
Try Oneteam for free, or plan a product demo with one of our Employee Experience Experts.
