PANDORA: Running a global intranet launch campaign (and winning three awards)

This hat trick demonstrates the undisputed success of PANDORA’s intranet and digital workspace project, acting as a textbook example of creating and implementing a digital workspace with an equal focus on 1) Development, 2) Marketing and 3) Training. We’re looking closer at the story to find out what makes it so special.

What were the business challenges PANDORA aimed to solve?

PANDORA’s signature jewellery charms are instantly recognisable across the globe. Sold in more than 100 countries on six continents through 7,700 points of sales, PANDORA is a world-leader for high-quality, contemporary jewellery at affordable prices.

With more than 18,000 employees in 50 countries, communication was a big challenge in 2015 with siloed tools and no platform to support global connectivity. The goal was to create a unified digital workplace on top of Microsoft Office 365 to underpin the business, easily enabling knowledge flow and empowering people to collaborate and share best practices across teams and locations like never before.

Main objectives of the creation of a global digital workspace:

• To support the accelerated global growth of PANDORA from 4,000 employees to
  18,000 in just 5 years as presence increases from 50 markets to 100 markets
• To enable global connectivity through communication and collaboration with 10,000
  outlets worldwide - there was no global intranet before this project
• Vision: To offer a vibrant digital workplace with a strong sense of Pride, Passion and
  Performance (corporate values), using the platform to empower individuals to work
  together

How did this align with overall business objectives?

To achieve a digital workplace that aligned with the company’s underlying business strategy, substantial research and planning was undertaken by the intranet project team.

During the initial planning phase over Summer 2015, interviews were carried out to establish employee expectations, with representatives taking part from countries across the value chain, staff functions and production facilities.

They also gained input from a PANDORA intranet advisory board and steering committee representing the business. Gaining feedback and approval early on in the project from senior stakeholders was imperative to the success of the project, with company leaders identifying the key business challenge and prioritising it.

The results of these activities helped to establish the business case, budget and requirement specification to drive the project.

How was the intranet designed to engage employees?

Based on Office 365, PANDORA’s solution named INFORA combines tools such as SharePoint Online, Skype for Business, OneDrive for Business, Yammer and more into a beautifully designed platform. In just 18 months, the solution was launched to 8,000 employees. The number of users is increasing as the platform is now also accessible for external sharing with PANDORA store managers, franchisees and other external partners.

PANDORA worked in partnership with BrightStarr to create a solution that has captured the inspiration of employees, boosted collaboration and sky-rocketed organisational productivity. INFORA is unlike most built on SharePoint. It’s elegant and clean design mirrors the experience PANDORA’s customers receive when visiting their external website. Its intuitive user experience emulates the platforms their employees use outside of the office. From card-style roll-ups for story and event content, to easy commenting and liking of content – when users come to use it for the first time, it already has a familiar and intuitive feel.
It was important to have this mirroring of personal and work platforms for employees, in order to help with the onboarding process. The more people that use INFORA, the closer PANDORA move towards their ultimate goal of global connectivity through a united and seamless platform.

Global roadshows to engage people worldwide

The need for the successful roll out of INFORA was high, especially as the two previous intranet projects had failed to gain traction. Instead of a ‘Big-Bang’ approach, the INFORA core team decided to launch INFORA gradually over a 19 month period beginning in Denmark, in PANDORA’s headquarters then across APAC, AMERICA’s and EMEA. This allowed the INFORA Team to add a personal touch and to learn and adjust go-live training from region to region when needed.

Marketing with gamification, music and cartoon universe

The global roll out was supported with an extensive marketing campaign creating a special ‘cartoon universe’, which remained consistent through all online and offline material – ranging from gift bags, informative literature, campaign videos, stands, posters and training material.

The ‘Cartoon Universe’ was populated with cartoon characters that served as INFORA ‘guides’. Each character was attributed to a key capability of PANDORA’s intranet, offering guidance to users within their specific domain (such as Communicating Charlie, Sharing Sharon, Collaborating Caroline etc). Go-live roadshows formed a major element of INFORA’s global roll out. Each roadshow marked the launch of the platform location by location, the combination of music, video and mobile quizzes helped to engage employees worldwide.

How to drive adoption?

Key stakeholders established a steering committee and advisory board early on in the project, including people from the organisation who understood the global business requirements of PANDORA. A central project team was appointed to lead the project; this included a representative from each region of the business.
Although Corporate Communications were responsible for intranet governance, the INFORA Team strongly advocated local ownership in content creation and management of specific business and service portals. This was achieved through simplified permissions and content personalization to ensure employees were engaged with timely and relevant content.

How were users trained on the new platform?

Training was of paramount for PANDORA’s central project team. Training for INFORA was delivered in two stages; first, 130 news editors and intranet site managers (known as super users) were trained around the world before go-live in each region. Additional training was then offered during each onsite roadshow. Post-launch, the central project team offered nearly 30 different targeted training sessions delivered via Skype for Business or in-person across 9 different themes for their global audience. These sessions covered best practices in utilizing Office 365 tools. In the future, PANDORA plans to offer recognition to users who have completed one or more training sessions in the form of a ‘Drivers Digital Licence’, indicating the number of training sessions they have completed.

And the results?

Impact of the campaign has been measured through Office 365 analytics and an employee engagement survey. Key highlights since launch include:

• 85% increase in visits to local and global news pages with 16,000 views in a month
• High adoption of Office 365 across the board with OneDrive usage increasing 335.6%
• 90% increase in global users with over 84countries active on the site
• Approximately 8,000 unique monthly visitors

As more results are collected, user feedback is incorporated into future Sprint plans, ensuring the intranet always hits the mark.

Summary

What we can learn from PANDORA’s intranet project is that creating a powerful platform is only one piece of the puzzle. For maximum impact, you must help employees to see the real-life benefits, training them on how best to use the platform to meet their individual needs. An impactful launch and roll-out campaign is critical to achieving this, generating excitement and participation from those employees who may have previously been disconnected.

For PANDORA, this is just the beginning of the mission for a more connected digital workplace. The next step is to continue to review feedback from employees, creating a roadmap of new features and functionalities to keep the workforce engaged.