Pernambucanas: a Workplace case study

Founded in 1908, Pernambucanas takes pride in being a pioneer company. That attitude is reflected in its wide array of products, from clothing to electronics, the employment of women with guaranteed rights even before women’s right to work was enshrined, and its prestigious and cutting-edge image that led Brazilian municipalities to invite the company to open stores.

Pernambucanas was also the first Brazilian retailer to implement Workplace. When the tool arrived in Brazil in October 2016, the company saw in Workplace an ideal platform and decided to adopt it right away. Workplace was regarded by the Pernambucanas’ directors as a chance to evolve into a more open and collaborative culture inside the company, where communications were still highly hierarchical. Then, in April 2017, a strategic plan was announced to all employees during the #semanatamojunto event, where leaders traveled more than 21,000 kilometers in seven days to visit the company’s 350 stores in ten Brazilian states and the country’s Federal District.

During that event, Workplace was launched and made available to the 10,000 employees the company had at the time. During visits, employees were encouraged to download the app and post pictures and videos, while leaders made videos of their experience during that week and the IT team registered employees in record time - just three days, with Workplace’s communications plan expecting an already very quick implementation, in one or two months. Nowadays, all existing internal comms channels, which had previously been commissioned to communication agencies, have been migrated to the tool and are fed by a dedicated communication team.

Resultados

80%of employees joined Workplace during the first month of implementation

82.5%of users are currently active during the month

96%of those employees access Workplace from mobile devices

How Workplace helped

Results in real time and more effective logistics

The Results chatbot allows regional managers, store managers and sales representatives to check goals and daily sales in real time. In the past, this was possible only on an hourly basis, using email. Now leaders can also filter data by location and period, compare year-on-year growth and get alerts on low-performance areas, for instance. Thanks to this, Workplace allows the company to manage sales performance and review strategies as needed. This data also enables to guide the team based on forecasts against desired results and motivates sales representatives and stores to meet their goals every day.

Similarly, the Logistics chatbot allows store managers and sales representatives to track shipments (and the products being shipped), planned dates and allocations in real time, increasing the efficiency of new product requests.

Digital transformation

Workplace expanded the digital transformation that the company had already started and, by modernizing internal comms, improved Pernambucanas’ relationship with both employees and customers. New collections are launched every six months. Before adopting Workplace, HQ had to print leaflets with the new stock and Virtual Merchandising guidelines and distribute them among its 350 stores throughout Brazil twice a year. Now, all season catalogs and VM guidelines are delivered online and shared with stores in real time by posting them in the #TodosVM Workplace group on the same morning a collection is launched.

The same thing happened with all other internal comms vehicles, which were transformed into a single access channel: Workplace. Pernambucanas’ old printed magazine, for instance, is now digital and made available in the “Revista Nossa Casa” group. TV has also been migrated to the Internal Comms Group. Likewise, information that used to be sent through newsletters, notice boards and the intranet is now posted in specific groups on the platform. Even manuals and the like are shared on Workplace, as it integrates with SharePoint.

Another key transformation had to do with the “Figital” strategy, a sign of the relevance provided by Pernambucanas to integrating brick-and-mortar stores with the digital world. Using the Cartão Pernambucanas app, users can get exclusive discounts which are applied at checkout at physical stores. Pernambucanas believes that being recognized as the most digital retailer means grounding communications with employees and customers on the same principles.

An actively present leadership

CEO Sérgio Borriello has been an active Workplace user since its launch. His attitude set an example among the company’s entire leadership, and now directors, regional managers, store managers and those at HQ and the distribution center use the platform to engage, motivate and get closer to employees.

An example of engaging people by being actively present was the adoption of new uniforms. This was supposed to take place throughout an entire year, but it was accelerated when, during the #semanatamojunto event, a leader posted a picture wearing the new uniform. That post hit more than 1,200 likes and 105 comments, most of them asking to get the new uniform quickly, and the switch was completed in a few months.

Leaders share goals, results and institutional/business campaigns, recognize the work from both teams and individual employees, go live to make important announcements, broadcast store openings and tour their areas.

More strategic campaigns

Workplace has reinforced organization values and allowed for the creation of more efficient strategies through networking. Two campaigns showcase that transformation. The first one, Maratona Digital, aimed to boost downloads for two apps (Cartão Pernambucanas and Varejo) and foster employees to download Workplace on their smartphones through quick daily challenges the teams had to overcome and then post pictures and videos on Workplace. The goal: 6,000 downloads; however, apps were downloaded +50,000 times in just two days. The second campaign was related to the launch of a financial product called Banca Premiada. To raise awareness about the importance of that product for customers, employees were invited to share their dreams in a Workplace group. Strikingly, every employee from the store in São José dos Campos shared the same dream: getting a new smartphone. Why? They had a colleague who didn’t have a smartphone and couldn’t access social media and Workplace. This request went viral and right before Christmas, the company’s CEO gave the employees an amazing surprise - he showed up at the store and gave that employee a new smartphone.

Training exclusively via Workplace Chat

With every store opening, Pernambucanas offers courses to train and onboard new employees. In January 2019, the company’s operations team conducted the first training via videoconferencing, which took place exclusively on Workplace Chat. This new format helps optimize time and reduces commuting and accommodation expenses while still showing financial products and services, teaching sales techniques and posing challenges to exceed goals. Also, every question gets answered in real time.