Canadian HR Reporter

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Shoppers goes mobile, boosts engagement 'Going Mobile' projects lifted key employee engagement score by 21 points – and productivity, cost-savings metrics are next on the list By Tammy Van Eck T op employers under- stand the importance of engagement — including its direct link to the bottom line. at's why Shoppers Drug Mart has been on a journey over the past several years to better un- derstand how we can continue to improve our engagement levels. Opportunity knocked when em- ployees told us they were unhappy with the tools and resources we off ered and, more specifi cally, that the tools and resources weren't helping them to be as productive as possible. Market research was a great re- ality check that told us it was time to untether our deskbound em- ployees. We responded by making it easier for them to tap into teams and colleagues across diff erent lo- cations, access information from the fi eld and "offi cially" leverage their own devices. Several compelling studies in- dicate mobile devices make em- ployees more effi cient. And the proof was in the making when Intel announced savings of about 57 minutes per employee — or fi ve-million hours in 2012 — with its bring your own device (BYOD) program. e idea of going mobile was not a hard sell to our initiative management committee as they — like others — were already fi nding workarounds to more ef- fectively access information dur- ing meetings and on the fl y. So without much hesitation, the Go- ing Mobile project was brought to life, sponsored by Mary-Alice Vuicic, chief administrative offi - cer and executive vice-president of human resources at Shoppers Drug Mart. 4 key pillars Going Mobile was built on four key pillars: wireless, BYOD, Google and SDMi (our cloud- based intranet). Wireless: Wireless was the foundational element underpin- ning the success of many other program offerings. Providing wireless connectivity across our network of offi ces was a produc- tivity win unto itself. Employees can now eff ortlessly access the network anywhere in the offi ce without cables, and visitors can have virtually instant guest Inter- net access upon arrival. BYOD: Add BYOD to the mix and we now have countless tab- lets, notebooks and phones that can be used to facilitate secure and instant access to information, anywhere and anytime. Security governance is key here and tech- nology solutions coupled with sound policy ensure corporate in- formation is protected at all times. Google: Google has provided a whole new dimension to our email, calendaring and general information-sharing and storage system. Using Google, employees can instantaneously access work information from their personal devices — including their files which can now be stored in the cloud. is is a huge win for fi eld em- ployees who previously battled with remote network access. e extra storage was also a big plus for the broader employee population who were previously hampered by email inbox quo- tas — frequently getting stuck in "mail jail" where they could not send or receive information. at's a productivity killer. e ability to collaborate on shared documents in real-time across multiple locations, instant messaging and the use of sites and groups to exchange information are other invaluable advantages realized through the new system. SDMi: SDMi, our central com- pany communication hub, was the mechanism used to bring the Going Mobile project to life, de- livering important training, and operational and change manage- ment information. It's here that employees could share tips and tricks, fi nd fun contest informa- tion and celebrate project suc- cesses. SDMi is now our real-time, national, one-stop source of infor- mation for employees. While each pillar was a work- stream unto itself, the success was really in bringing together a core team comprised of IT, HR, communications and change management to deliver a seam- less offering to end users. In- depth stakeholder analysis, policy readiness and a change network of "Google Guides" were key building blocks to ensuring a successful rollout, as was a col- laborative, cross-functional team, ready to work across boundaries and find innovative solutions when barriers arose — and there were defi nitely barriers. Projects of this magnitude in- clude key success metrics upon which a business case is built. While engagement is not the only metric of success, it is a key metric and preliminary results show we have raised the bar signifi cantly. A "post-happiness" survey four months after the rollout showed a 21 percentage point lift in re- sponse to our standard engage- ment question around tools and resources helping employees to be productive. Employees have told us it is now easier to do their work. Improved talent acquisi- tion and retention are other benefi ts we are counting on as employees become more tech- savvy. We know many gen-X and millennial workers prefer instant messaging and social networks to email. Also, the average employee already has multiple devices of his own and the ability to use devices familiar to him is appealing. While additional metrics around productivity and other possible savings have yet to be analyzed and reported on, the re- sults were compelling enough for us to launch phase two of the proj- ect which includes a deployment to our store network in 2014. Going Mobile has been a phe- nomenal success for Shoppers Drug Mart and helped us validate we are on the right path in our en- gagement journey. Tammy Van Eck is director of HR business partnering at Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto. She can be reached at tvaneck@shoppersdrugmart.ca or (416) 493-1220 ext. 2935.

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