Spotlight Group centralises communication for 12,000 staff

Spotlight Group (SGH) has unified communication across its 12,000 large staff as part of its recent digital transformation through a central intranet.

The major retailer deployed four intranets, together titled ‘Central’ that enables employees to locate information and communications across SGH’s various brands.

It cuts the challenge of lost emails and the lack of cross-brand content sharing.

Brands under SGH include craft retailer Spotlight, Anaconda, Mountain Designs and Harris Scarfe plus its charity, the Spotlight Foundation

Built on Elcom's Digital Employee Experience and Intranet Solution, Central allows staff to communicate across brands while also allowing each to keep personalised marketing, news and documents.

It also marks a transition away from paper-based business practices as 200 sites switch to online forms and workflows.  

Central is also integrated into the payroll system and provides better access for more casual employees without email addresses.

SGH's learning and development manager, Melissa Adeson told Digital Nation, “The employee training experience was very department-based and there was lots of replication for delivery. 

“Because of this, the consistency of delivery and sharing of information made the employee experience disjointed and varied depending on who was delivering it and how,” Adeson said.

Adeson added Central forms part of SGH’s overall growth plans. 

“SGH has strategic business objectives and behavioural golden rules.

This new platform gives us the ability to streamline and optimise how the team members work together.

“Utilising key communication strategies, document control and ensuring there is one place to find information.

“This helps SGH achieve our strategic objectives while empowering employees to embody the golden rules,” Adeson said.

With the new system in place staff can deliver weekly operational communications and building team member social pages, Adeson said.

“Ensuring the team knows what needs to be done for sales and product delivery, as well as building their product knowledge to best help the customers find what they need. It is really about a better-informed store team. 

“Another example is in the last two months we have a focused on two community endeavours as well as delivering great value.

“With the help of the platform, these initiatives are known across the business rather than just inside stores,” Adeson said.