Our client, a well known high street department store, was undertaking a five year transformation programme across process, systems and people to achieve its vision of becoming customer-centric. 

The business required support with change management and communications as it embarked on its transformational journey.

Challenge

• Despite having an extensive network of stores, there was no internal communications function, which was essential as the business had embarked on such large scale change
• The business identified that it needed a centralised change capability to allow change to be centrally planned and governed. This “Change Hub” would help facilitate, coordinate and control a streamlined business transformation journey, helping to maximise adoption and benefits realisation
• We were engaged to help our client mobilise an internal communications workstream and develop and implement an internal Change Hub

Approach

• Our priority was to launch the internal communications workstream so we started by running a series of surveys and interviews to understand the current culture and communications
• We used the findings to shape a communications strategy and approach that included:
  • Creation of short film featuring the Chief Executive and other Execs, outlining the vision and transformation programme, that was distributed to all stores
  • Launch of a quarterly internal newsletter
  • Launch of an intranet site for the latest news on the transformation
  • Creation of ‘communications champions’ to ensure a two flow of information between the programme and the business
• We then set about creating the internal change capability. Firstly, we undertook a Transformation Control project which allowed us to articulate and plan the change journey across functions, to enable successful communication and safe delivery of transformational change across multiple departments
• For each programme we ran “change assurance” projects to help functional teams understand exactly what interventions were required to achieve successful change and join up change impacts across projects and programmes from a departmental perspective
• Secondly, we developed and implemented a bespoke change methodology, approach and toolkit, in order to document and share the new change processes across the enterprise

Outcome

• Significantly improved awareness and understanding of the transformational change programme, particularly in stores and warehouses
• Improved executive-level sponsorship and understanding of the importance of change and the desire to see it implemented across the business
• The scope of the change team broadened to cover all business change, not just transformation programs, allowing a joined up approach to change