The Challenge
Having spent 12-18 months developing a SharePoint intranet site which was very limited, difficult to use and presented a lot of challenges, Severfield needed a better solution. Something that was intuitive and allowed them to post content and engage their large audience with ease, so they came to Oak.
The workforce is split 50/50, between desk-based and deskless workers: many working in factories and construction sites, without any access to a computer. Deskless workers didn’t have instant access to company information and were receiving print-based communications, which were often out of date by the time it reached them.
It was clear they needed a platform to communicate digitally with all their workforce that could be accessed on desktop and most importantly mobile. They required more engaging content and a space where their remote workers could have instant access to important information and urgent company updates.
Planning and Implementation
Severfield decided they needed a better solution, and when research began, Oak immediately caught their eye. Not only did Oak offer the essentials they were looking for but exceeded their expectations of what could be possible for a digital workplace.
After being bowled over by the simplicity and ease of use, they were sold and chose to implement Oak as their new digital workplace platform.
Initially, they planned a 12-week creation and launch plan of their digital workplace, however with the launch plan being right in the middle of the Coronavirus Crisis, they were forced to put their plans on hold.
With their exceptionally large workforce (including office-based staff) now working from home, it was essential that they stayed in contact with their staff. Oak worked with Severfield to get their platform up and running as soon as possible so they could stay connected with their staff at such a crucial time.
“Given the time pressure we were under to create something from nothing, the support from Oak was fantastic at helping us get everything in place and up and running in the quickest time possible.”
Results
Within a week user accounts were made for all employees, with all their data synced and a dedicated homepage was created. Here, employees could get instant access to company updates and urgent announcements, interact with other members of staff socially and share content on the timeline. In the first month of setting up, they achieved 95% employee engagement rates of those that had logged on to the site, with key business messages sent to all staff and viewed within hours by 99.5% of those staff.
“The pure simplicity in creating content and building pages is fantastic. Content can be created within minutes.”
In such a short space of time Severfield, has managed to create a successful digital workplace to keep their workforce informed and engaged during such a crucial time.