How Leroy Merlin employees are boosting their work efficiency with new mobile social network

Their DIY network features an internal corporate portal widely used for managing vacations, business trips, and cafeteria designs along with other administrative purposes. However, with an aim to inform employees of company news, share work experience, and interact with HR, Leroy Merlin has now launched its own social network for employees.

One could discover that about 80 % of Leroy Merlin’s workers are sales floor employees, cashiers, and logisticians, or, in other words, specialists without a stationary work computer. But everyone has a smartphone. For this reason, True Engineering has developed a special social network in the format of a mobile app for the iOS and Android platforms.

The social network allows people to do everything they are used to doing all in on one:

• post news, photos, and videos on walls
• read your friends’ and groups’ news feeds
• search and find the people, documents, and groups you need
• write private messages to other employees and add them to your friends' list
• leave likes and comments
• message and exchanges files
• work on documents together
• communicate in thematic group

 

Image

How Leroy Merlin employees use the social network

It turned out that the most convenient way to work together is through groups – of which there are several thousand on the social network. There are groups on particular malls, professions, departments, social programs, and even hobbies. There you can quickly find the answer you are looking for, whether that’s a showcase decoration or a typo in the VMI policy. Groups that are no longer popular or relevant get archived.

All the info you might need are visible in each group’s header: how many people there are in the selected group, how many people have liked it, comments, and the media files posted in it. Each group also has its own moderator.

 

Image

On group walls, just as on personal page walls, employees publish posts with photos, links, and documents.

The five tasks that the social network resolves most effectively:

1. Sharing experience

Colleagues from all over Russia share their professional experience as well as useful documents, for example on the best way to sell excesses of a fabric or what a weird inscription on a cork base means. Some creative consultants also record training videos right on the sales floor and upload them to the social network.

2. Quick information sharing

The social network has become a direct source of information on the company and a resource for employee development, whether it's a sketch of a new office or a program designed to support young leaders. In the comment section, experts answer all the questions people have and provide the necessary clarifications.

3. Fast and direct communication with HR

Through the social network, you can contact HR directly in a group or a chat. An employee can receive all the documents he or she needs in his or her personal messages.

4. Teaming up with colleagues from different cities

A social network is an opportunity not only to share work experience but also to have a bit of fun. One of the most active groups is devoted to the funny situations in communication with customers.

5. Organizing joint recreation

Employees can also agree on leisure and hangouts together. Later on, the social network publishes a report on the activities they completed: photos, videos, the participants’ experience, and the impressions the given activity left on them.

Thus, the social network helps Leroy Merlin bring together colleagues from different cities and spread valuable information as well as promote the sharing of knowledge and personal work experience.  

The technical side of the social network

However, in order to complete the social network as a full-fledged work tool, it still called for some not-so-trivial technical solutions.

Authorization

The corporate social network is available solely to Leroy Merlin employees. We have set up a comprehensive end-to-end authorization system so that the user login and password are the same for the Leroy’s entire ecosystem: the portal, social network, cafeteria benefits plan, and other useful modules. 

Identification

The social network is integrated with HRM "BOSS-Kadrovik" so that each profile is automatically filled out with users’ basic information: their name, position, and work experience at Leroy Merlin as well as the specific mall and department. The employee can optionally add his or her personal contacts, indicate previous work he or she has performed, and post links to other social networks.

Search

Leroy Merlin employees can search for specific colleagues and groups just like in any other social network. Setting up the search proved to be a challenge: the catch was we needed to look for data that is closed to the outside world.

Integration with the corporate portal

Before going on a business trip, you can find your colleague in your destination city on the social network and see what they look like, what department they work in, and what they are interested in. Most importantly, you can check whether or not your meeting coincides with their time off. All this became possible due to integration with the portal and its "Business Trips" and "Holidays" modules.

The Bottom Line

The corporate social network helps Leroy Merlin employees effectively solve the company’s HR tasks and improve internal interactions: communication and the sharing of experience between colleagues all over Russia. It has become a convenient and safe collaboration platform. Employees' internal data and confidential information are securely protected.

True Engineering has been cooperating with Leroy Merlin for 6 years now. We are developing the retailer’s corporate portal and have developed services for booking business trips and holidays, planning meetings, and booking meeting rooms. The services are used for ordering and accounting for office equipment, requests for changes in business processes, store auditing, and employee surveys, as well as media content management services, certificates, and general administrative expenses.