Best SmartHub® Launch, Best Use of the Platform to Drive Business Strategy and The Grand Prix
Established in 1993, HomeServe have always had the
aim of being the first place people turn to for home emergencies and repairs. They have a diverse workforce based across all of the UK, including contact centre People based at three different sites, office based support functions and over 400 field based engineers.
Industry
Consumer Goods
Number of employees:
2,200
Average age:
36 yrs
Male to female ratio:
60:40
RG launch date:
December 2014
Platform features:
Employee discounts, employee recognition
HomeServe recognised the key challenges that were facing them – culture, fairness & consistency, and field based People. Having seen People engagement fall to a low of 56%, HomeServe wanted their culture to promote "A Great Place to Work" and encourage their people to appreciate each other by saying "Thank You."
Fairness & consistency had become a problem after multiple acquisitions led to inconsistent benefits. An example of what HomeServe needed to address here was that free gym membership was only being provided to People in their Walsall office.
In the past, field based engineers had not been easy to engage with the culture and HomeServe had found resistance when trying to implement new technologies to them. HomeServe recognised the need to improve engagement with an easy to use platform that would make their People feel valued, appreciated and offer everyone a consistent benefit.
HomeServe decided to engage their people with as much of the process as possible and formed a project group to get additional buy-in from the key areas of the company. A competition involving HomeServe’s People decided that their SmartHub® would be named ‘PeopleServe’, and the winner received a £50 voucher.
Knowing that they wanted to create a culture of appreciation, HomeServe decided to launch their SmartHub® alongside employee discounts and "Thank You Thursday" with Thank You eCards. There seemed no better time to communicate this than on Thanksgiving Day, 27th November. The official launch would then take place a week later on 4th December, and that didn’t give them much time.
Seven days prior to launch and the communications went out to HomeServe’s People. Posters went up at every HomeServe site and plasma screens in contact centres were changed to display the important "Thank You Thursday" message. To make sure everyone was kept in the loop, a copy of the poster was emailed to every field based engineer. People Team email signatures were changed to include the message "HomeServe says Thank You and you can too!" to support the launch even further.
With only two days to go, a brief message was sent to every HomeServe manager announcing the launch and providing them with FAQs about the upcoming changes and new SmartHub®. Employee Forum representatives, who would have a big part to play as advocates on launch day, were given early access to the SmartHub® platform to spot any potential issues.
On launch day, new posters, desktop wallpapers and plasma screen messages all went up to display the URL of PeopleServe. A banner was also displayed on HomeServe’s intranet that linked their People directly to the new SmartHub® platform. Members of the People Team wore red t-shirts with the URL written on the back and the message "Thank You" on the front too. Every engineer was sent a text message drawing their attention to the important email they would be receiving on the same day.
A message went out on their social network, Yammer, at 12pm to officially launch the PeopleServe SmartHub® platform. Volunteers from the People Team on each site walked the floors to help with registration to their new SmartHub®, answer any questions and, of course – hand out chocolates. A letter was also sent to tell everyone about PeopleServe and explain the registration process, just in case they missed everything that happened on the day.
Thanks to such an effective communication campaign, and the bundles of energy from the volunteers on their People Team, the launch was a huge success. This incredible effort did not go unnoticed by HomeServe’s People and even before the official announcement on Yammer there had been just over 300 registrations on their SmartHub® platform.
By the end of the first day, HomeServe had more than 700 registrations which is a sizeable 33% of their workforce, and more than 120 eCards had been sent. 67% of HomeServe’s workforce were registered as December came to an end to mark an impressive turnaround in such a short space of time.
Six months since the PeopleServe SmartHub® launch and 86% of the workforce are registered, including 60% of the field based engineers. Almost 8,000 eCards have been sent, £328,000 has been spent and more than £32,000 has been saved by their People.
Even after all of this, HomeServe launched a new recognition scheme which encouraged more than 120 new PeopleServe registrations. Their previous attempts to integrate a recognition scheme had failed, but a much simpler SmartHub® Reward & Recognition process drove engagement by making their people feel recognised and valued for the job they do.
of employees registered by the end of the first day
platform engagement only six months after launch
