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Background
MediamarktSaturn is the leading consumer electronics retailer in Europe with more than 1000 stores spread over 13 countries in Europe. We started to rollout Yammer as one of our first Microsoft 365 apps to office workers in May 2018. In March 2020, we continued to roll it out to first line workers in Germany and Spain, two of the largest customer markets.
Initially, we had slow adoption of Yammer and did not see the network effect take off the way we knew it could. We needed to focus on making sure our employees knew and understood the purpose of Yammer, and we decided to focus on four strategic initiatives:
- Specific use cases and connecting the store employees to hq departments
- Consistent community management
- Shifting the focus of conversations from selling used goods to using Yammer for CEO Communications
- Communities app in pinned Microsoft Teams deployed to all employees
Store employees now get information from Yammer
One tactic we implemented was to include store employees in our Yammer communities to connect to other stores. Now, they can ask employees at headquarters questions, and give feedback like never before. The ability to ask and answer questions has been a huge driver of adoption. Our store employees access Yammer on their own time, and they will have access to company mobile devices with Yammer installed for them.
Now, our employees are better informed, and contribute their involvement in Yammer communities and conversations to their learning and growth at MediaMarktSaturn.
What does consistent community management look like?
We have created the same story about why and how employees are using Yammer in order to bring awareness to different department and use cases. Yammer enables our employees the ability to connect with the right people to find answers, and now, we can measure progress and share our success stories with communities to encourage participation. Previously, we had heard rumors and the grumbles about employee dissatisfaction, but now we have a way to react and educate our employees about what’s being shared, all out in the open where any employee can contribute.
CEO Communications in Yammer
Leadership connection on Yammer has been key for us. Our CEO Ferran Reverter Planet, now shares regularly on Yammer. And most recently he shared about a new strategy, which really showcases some of the reasons behind the shift in strategy. This two-way communication between the leadership and the associates allows for open dialog about these upcoming changes, and empowers employees at every level to ask questions and get answers.
Our CEO is also very active in starting, replying and reacting to conversations.
The Communities app in Teams
Microsoft Teams officially rolled out July 2020, with early adopters taking to it as early as March when many began working remotely. Prior to the official rollout, we pinned the Communities app in Teams on June 1st for all MediamarktSaturn employees in the Teams side-bar, including firstline workers at the stores.
Corporate communications worked with IT to start a campaign in Yammer highlighting the new possibilities of using Yammer in Teams. This campaign focused on the benefits of having all communications (1:1, team, 1:many, and all employees) in one place.
Additionally, we communicated to employees “when to use what?”, providing them with suggestions and guidance on when to use which tool and best practices for each tool.
What we’ve learned and what’s next
We learned that the Communities app in Microsoft Teams is a great driver for adoption. As additional Yammer features become available in the Communities app many existing Yammer users may primarily use Yammer in Teams as they find it to be the most convenient solution to interact within their communities. In just one month almost 25% of Yammer users have already shifted and we anticipate more to follow.
We have also uninstalled the Yammer Desktop App on all computers in the headquarters. Employees who used to see Yammer in the morning now switch to Microsoft Teams for a similar experience.
Furthermore, we are working on rolling out to the rest of the organization. We know with more people gaining access to Yammer, the more knowledge and opportunity our employees have to ask questions, get answers and provide feedback. Additionally, we are expanding our leadership engagement by encouraging every Country Manager to share and have a voice on Yammer.
Finally, we are working hard to rollout our new intranet and will be using Yammer to help facilitate communications about the changes. Within the intranet we will also be using the new Yammer SharePoint conversations webpart.
Looking back we realized giving everyone a voice helped moved the needle on important conversations and strengthen relationships and communities from the retail stores back to headquarters. Yammer has helped us improve processes and listen to feedback so we can react to employees in new ways. We can’t wait to see what is to come for us in the future.
More about Enrico Dreher
Social Collaboration & Corporate Community Manager, MediaMarktSaturn
Enrico is responsible for project management, implementation of Yammer; he is Corporate Community Manager for Yammer; Project management, conception and realisati-on of a social intranet based on O365 + Powell 365; Enrico also writes an internal company blog about Community & Collaboration and works with the business departments in using communication and collaboration tools
Connect with Enrico Dreher on LinkedIn.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
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