Creating the Environment to ‘Be Your best’

Family brand wilko employs nearly sixteen thousand team members. With strong core values to “be better every day, pull together, respect each other, show that we care and make it fun”, wilko places a strong emphasis on supporting team members to be free to be at their best and free to belong.   

Organisations like wilko use technology as a tool to help empower individuals to develop professionally and personally. So, when it came to launching ‘Be your best’, a new digital learning system, wilko had to create the right environment for its team members to embrace the change. Find out how we made sure 'Be your best’ landed successfully.   

Inspiring development for all: the brief  

The old learning management system at wilko was outdated and didn’t support team members to be free to be at their best. It was slow, clunky and focussed on compliance training; team members were spending too much time achieving limited levels of training.   

Using the old system, managers would sit with team members and walk them through the process of accessing and completing online training modules. Not only did this take people away from the shopfloor for longer, which isn’t great for customer service, it also discouraged team members from continuing their development via non-compulsory training modules.  

Powering up to its 100-year anniversary in 2030, wilko is focusing on freeing all team members up to be their best.  

To achieve this, wilko needed a new online learning experience platform that would be easier, faster and more intuitive for team members to use when learning and developing in their roles - the result was ‘Be your best’, named in line with the brand’s values.   

Having completed a number of successful change projects for wilko over the past few years, Enthuse was called upon to help support the change and embed it across the business, taking into consideration the different approaches needed to support team members operating in each area of the business – Support Centre, Retail and Logistics.   

Making sustainable change stick: the challenge 

As drivers of successful communication and change, our brief was to successfully support launch the new learning experience platform into wilko by diligently implementing change management best practice.  

Crucially, we had to ensure the change would stick.   

To be sustainable, everyone had to be fully involved and engaged, so that team members at all levels would adapt to and embrace the new ways of working and take control of their own professional development.  

Stimulating a narrative and vision: the process

Our work began by conducting qualitative research on why the wilko team was making the jump to a new learning experience platform, analysing and measuring how the change would affect individuals in each area of the business.   

From here, we could put a communication plan in place to support the project at each stage and establish a strong narrative and vision statement to enable the internal project team to communicate effectively beyond our involvement.  

We worked closely with the supplier and project team to create easy-to-follow video navigation guides and an engaging trailer to share across the wider business to create awareness of the forthcoming changes, build understanding of the benefits for team members, and generate excitement about the new and improved way to learn and develop in wilko.  

Through digital channels such as emails, digital signage and Microsoft Teams meetings, we used the established drumbeat channels to communicate messages to all team members.   

Across a large organisation like wilko, team members access information differently, depending on their role, technical capabilities and needs. Therefore, we customised our communications to ensure the message was accessible, understandable and digestible for employees in every part of the business.  

For example, for team members with limited access to digital content, we created posters, pull-up banners and table talkers to help them understand the change and its implications for them.   

We worked alongside the project team to create various communications for leaders to support their teams in transitioning to Be your best.   

As always, we encouraged two-way conversations among leaders when communicating with their team members about how and why the new technology would be implemented. 

Embracing change, enhancing growth: the outcome

The project launched in three phases with unanimous success.   

Within a week of the first launch in the wilko Support Centre, 75% of users had accessed Be your best, making it one of the most successful launches the supplier had ever seen of their product.   

We didn’t let up, tailoring the communications to benefit every audience whilst considering lessons learnt.   

During the project, we were operating within a climate of change and we had to be agile in our response to this challenge. Despite this, Retail and Logistics teams also saw incredible results.   

Launch two focused on rolling out Be your best to the Retail team over three days.   

Within four weeks, 83% of all Retail team members had logged on and used Be your best.  

We concluded the launches in Logistics, with an incredible 61% of Logistics team members logging on within a month.    

Within six months, 93% of all team members had accessed the new platform.   

These figures demonstrate the readiness and appetite of all wilko team members to prioritise mandatory online learning, as well as be curious by voluntarily exploring non-compulsory learning modules to upskill and enhance their personal and professional growth.  

Further to the uptake statistics, wilko also conducted a time and motion study, which revealed the new way of working was saving team members up to 4.35 minutes per session compared to the old system.   

Shaving time off the online process will invariably allow teams to be more productive, as well as empowering team members to work more confidently and efficiently.   

To achieve results like this, a project must be planned and implemented carefully, anticipating obstacles and facilitating the right blend of communication methods, platforms and approaches to reach and connect with every team member across an organisation.   

Strengthening your project’s success  

Enthuse excels at working within agile professional environments to provide the best service to internal and external teams and support your project’s success at every stage.  

The wilko ‘Be your best’ project team fed back that Enthuse was a “great team - hopefully you will still be around delivering great communication in wilko!”   

Another team member commented: “Enthuse were professional, efficient and delivered to timescale.”   

Overcome your challenges with expert support

Are you preparing to implement a new system, procedure or organisational change? Do you need some help nailing your internal communications to improve employee engagement, productivity and morale?  

Enthuse works with organisations of all sizes to communicate effectively, ensure projects accomplish their targets and spearhead successful change. Whatever you or your leadership teams are struggling with internally, we’ll support you through it with the tools, experience and management to drive transformation in your business.   

Contact us to discuss your challenges and learn how we’ll help you navigate them with ease and confidence – call 07812 343310 or email hello@enthuse-comms.co.uk