Wilko Optimus: the Logistics of Successful Change
Change is inevitable, yet more than 70% of change programmes fail. Failure isn't an option for a household name like wilko, so every team member needs to embrace progress to keep a competitive edge.
So, what does this look like in practice? And taking it a step further, is it possible to achieve an ambitious transformation of your logistics function while in the middle of a pandemic and global supply chain crisis?
Change management and communication are the secret sauce in conquering these challenges and ensuring organisational change succeeds. Find out how this played out for wilko when it faced the most meaningful change in its 90-year history.
The Client
A high street hero for over 90 years, wilko embodies strong family values and has a loyal, long-serving team working front of house and behind the scenes.
Before embarking on a major transformation programme, the board brought Enthuse in to support all team members through the process and guarantee its success.
The Challenge
As its 90th anniversary loomed, wilko pledged to invest £60 million in transforming its logistics function over four years.
A wide-ranging change programme, part of the business’ 'Shape Our Future 2030' strategy would encompass organisational changes for wilko team members, a physical demolition and reconstruction of its two distribution centres – while keeping them running and serving stores – and a complete overhaul of its technology.
With two distribution centres largely unchanged over the past two decades, wilko understood updating its systems, equipment, and processes would be more cost-effective and forward-thinking than maintaining its existing infrastructure.
What's more, the investment would create a more comfortable, productive, and positive working environment for its valued team members.
With any change of this magnitude, challenges are a natural part of the process.
While wilko team members appreciated the need for modernisation and shared excitement for the future, there was a natural degree of apprehension over new ways of doing things.
And the challenges didn't end there.
In fact, the project's significant challenges were threefold:
How to pull off a project of this scale – essentially rebuilding an entire distribution centre - within a live working environment
Navigating major change management and change communications during a pandemic with limited or zero options for face-to-face communication (and with the first distribution centre in Wales, restrictions were often even stricter than in England)
Overcoming global supply chain issues facing the logistics industry
Fortunately, the wilko leadership team took a pragmatic and open-minded approach to recognising these challenges and implementing the support needed to mitigate them.
Thanks to our agile approach, we were able to adjust our communications plan along the way to accommodate the changing Covid-19 rules for workplaces.
Change management and change communication are a pivotal part of any programme of this size, so by our team joining the transformation team in its infancy, it allowed us to play an instrumental role in its ultimate success.
The Objective
In line with its business strategy, wilko understood the need to transform its logistics function if it were to prosper in a competitive retail landscape and protect its loyal team members' jobs in the long term.
wilko appreciated the urgency and necessity of this change and wanted every team member to feel confident and enthusiastic about the future.
There were three elements to this programme of change:
People – updating team members' contracts to align with industry standards
Infrastructure – modernising two distribution centres in Magor, Wales and Worksop, Nottinghamshire
Systems – introducing new technology to improve processes and productivity.
A previous case study details Enthuse's impact on the people and union consultation element of this change programme – read about it here.
In terms of infrastructure, wilko took the brave decision to keep its two distribution centres open while carrying out significant updates, including bringing the multi-level warehouses all onto one level and entirely stripping out decades-old machinery to introduce new technology and processes.
Beginning with the Magor site, team members continued to operate in these live working environments and serve wilko stores while adapting to the changes incrementally as they came into force.
To facilitate this, wilko required support in communicating and managing the many changes coming into play to ensure team members felt part of the future and alleviate any worries about new systems and processes.
The Solution
The wilko board made the wise decision to bring Enthuse in to lead change communications and change management before the project began.
Rather than opting for a quick fix, wilko allowed us the scope to communicate and manage the change properly by genuinely investing in this element of the programme.
As such, we were able to lay the foundations for successful organisational change from the outset, coming into the project in 2019 ahead of its February 2020 commencement.
Kicking off with the Magor distribution centre transformation, we worked with team members on every level to ease the transition.
There was no question the changes were improvements, and every team member would benefit from a brighter, quieter, less physically demanding working environment.
However, it’s natural some team members had reservations and anxiety about the changes, so we worked with everyone to mitigate their concerns, support their training, and lead the narrative of a positive future for all.
Initially, we created awareness among team members ahead of work starting in February 2020, so they understood what would change, why, and how it would benefit them in their everyday lives and safeguard their future jobs.
While face-to-face communication is always preferable, we adapted our approach when the pandemic hit.
Communicating change in a pandemic
Communication Zone
We created a dedicated Communications Zone for the project, so everyone on-site knew where to access the latest updates on the transformation of their distribution centre.
Because of the pandemic-induced lack of face-to-face contact, noticeboards became even more important, and we placed floor markings and posters around them to allow team members to absorb information safely.
On the boards, we displayed a variety of information, including health and safety guidelines, key project dates, and answers to team members’ questions.
Importantly, we also used the boards to share stories about team members who showed a positive and welcoming attitude to the changes, which helped ease anxiety in more nervous members of the team. After all, we’re social creatures, so if we see others are embracing a new idea, it influences our own feelings about it.
However, we didn’t shy away from sharing those anxieties, as sharing relatable stories is a powerful way to inspire change. For example, many team members felt nervous about the prospect of driving a low-level order picker (LLOP). We reassured drivers it was just like driving a car – yet for non-driving team members, the nerves remained. However, following their training, the newfound confidence they discovered driving the LLOP motivated some of them to take up driving lessons.
The storytelling element of the Communications Zone also fed into our communications strategy for the second distribution centre, in Worksop. With the modernisation programme there due to begin in February 2022, team members had much longer to ruminate and feel anxious about looming changes.
However, sharing stories from Magor has been an important part of our communications at Worksop: seeing how their counterparts in Magor have adapted to the changes and flourished has reassured and excited the Worksop team.
Communication Hub
To maintain a strong level of communication within the distribution centres, after our time working with the teams, we created a Communication Hub where team members can access information and hold huddles.
This is supported by a now regular drumbeat of communication, spearheaded by Enthuse as a legacy of our work on the wilko Optimus programme.
From January 2022, all team members will be updated on everything they need to know in a clear, engaging and accessible way.
Video Content
In the absence of huddles, we created explainer videos to break down the process and benefits to team members at every step of the way.
These videos brought plans to life for team members struggling to see the bigger picture and understand how their roles would look following the changes.
Virtual Orientation Sessions
While first-line managers were on-site as keyworkers throughout the pandemic, we couldn’t physically bring them all together in a room to run engagement exercises.
Due to the nature of their roles on the warehouse floor, many of the first-line managers didn’t have laptops, and only logged onto email via a shared computer.
It was vital to fully engage first-line managers in the changes, so they could lead their teams with confidence and positivity.
Therefore, we organised online sessions everyone could log into via their smartphones from home, ensuring meetings were accessible to all.
We ran several online sessions with the first-line managers to fully engage them in the three elements of the programme, giving them a chance to ask questions and receive all the answers they needed to move forward with confidence.
Listening
From hearing the outcome of leader-led listening groups with team members, we clearly understood their anxieties. A key concern was the nervousness around driving new low level order pickers, part of a new suite of manual handling equipment, which would make it quicker and easier to move around the distribution centre than transporting heavy cages to multiple floors in lifts, on foot.
So, wilko on-site trainers were made aware of the concerns, and were briefed to take a patient approach, giving team members ample opportunities to adapt to the new ways of working.
Facilitating smooth communications across the business, listening groups provided operational leaders with actionable feedback from team members. We encouraged leaders to conduct regular walkarounds to chat with their teams and understand their feelings.
A Focus on Fun
To generate excitement around new software, we created a fun atmosphere in the training room with bunting, posters, branding, and a Blue Peter-style totaliser showing the number of people trained on the new technology to date.
The totaliser served as a driver for team engagement, as it showed team members that their employer was investing in their development: wilko was committed to training everyone properly, and this was a physical representation for all to understand.
Day in the Life Of
As part of the change programme, it was important all team members understood every detail of how their jobs would change. We had to give them absolute clarity on what was expected of them.
So, we worked with the wilko team to document all changes and put them into a format and style team members would find engaging.
The result was ‘Day In The Life Of’ booklets – we circulated copies to every team member as part of their full training on their new responsibilities.
Go Live Comms
All team members were properly trained in the new ways of working ahead of go live, and we created a series of communications around the launch day itself.
We wanted team members to walk into work that day feeling like it was different and special, so we filled the reception area with balloons and bunting to build a sense of positivity and excitement.
In reception, we also displayed communications reminding team members of key messages:
To be patient while everyone learns the new way of working
Who to ask if they have a question
Reminders of how important it is to follow the processes.
Team members also received a pull-out credit card-sized leaflet (z-card) to refer to as an aide-memoire, reminding them of the new words they had to learn so they could quickly refer to it if needed.
A Word of the Day campaign was run before, during and after go-live until everyone could remember the new words and had stopped using the old terminology.
Tailored updates for all
We also introduced an update for all first-line managers.
This was largely due to the pandemic - because the Head of the Distribution Centre wasn’t able to bring them together face-to-face and brief them – and also because we know, from a change and engagement perspective, how critical it is to have this audience engaged.
So, we introduced an update just for them – a slide deck that told them what had happened over the last two weeks and what was coming up over the next two weeks that they could quickly flick through. This was a visual pack with a minimal amount of text to read, making it quick and accessible to absorb the key messages.
Initially intended to be about the changes, it became a useful tool for the leadership team to share important updates and Covid-Safety reminders.
This will be a comms channel they continue to use, part of our lasting impact on the way team members communicate for the better.
Surveys
To monitor how the change was landing with team members at all levels, we used a change readiness survey.
While it showed people believed in the case for change, it revealed reservations among team members that they’d receive proper training – so, it was clear we had to make our commitment to training explicit. In doing so, we built trust between team members and leadership, which promoted the belief that the change would be a success and that wilko had a bright future they wanted to share in.
Distanced engagement
This was a large-scale transformation programme, so it was important to also keep the members of that programme team engaged, especially as they had to work from home during the pandemic and were based all around the UK.
We set up a WhatsApp group for them to share photos and videos of their work in an informal way. This enabled the programme team to connect and keep up to date on the changes on-site, even when they couldn't travel into Wales due to Covid restrictions.
To let off some steam, we organised an online Christmas party for 2020, allowing everyone to have fun together, play games, enjoy competitions, and celebrate the end of a challenging year as a team.
Driving positive engagement
While our role was to manage the change elements of the programme, we also worked with the wilko team on how they engage team members.
After all, to engage employees in change, you need to start from a decent base level of engagement: if people are disengaged with work generally, they won’t engage with a change.
As the pandemic took hold, we realised that, if not handled sensitively, there was a chance previously engaged team members could become disengaged. We knew wilko team members had to know and understand that their leaders cared about their safety and wellbeing, living the wilko value of ‘show we care’, through their words and their actions.
To demonstrate this, we supported wilko in sourcing and implementing its pandemic communications for the distribution centres, including posters, sanitising points, stickers, floor markings, and communications around on-site temperature testing, and regular lateral flow testing.
The nature of the pandemic meant we adopted an agile approach to modifying our techniques as the programme progressed, using every available communications channel to promote key messages.
Managing the change
The fact is, more than 70% of changes and transformations fail, because of a failure to engage the people and help them transition from an old to new way of doing things.
In this programme, we led the change management aspects, as well as the change communications. Our strength is in putting people at the centre of change, and seeing everything through their eyes. Without this insight, you can focus too sharply on people engagement yet overlook how to communicate with them.
Therefore, we believe the success of this huge change programme is a result of us placing equal importance and focus on change management, and change communication.
That plan needed to start with a vision. Tapping into the minds of 150 members of the logistics function – representing 10% of the entire team - we carefully crafted a detailed vision that put people at the heart of this enormous change, told a clear story and painted a real picture of how the future would look and why.
Subsequently, everyone could appreciate what we were working towards.
This led us to manage monthly online leadership events with the top 40 leaders in the function. Inspiring them to keep people at the heart of the vision for the future, we challenged them to become better leaders who could support and advise their teams through the transformation, making their contribution to the future of the wilko story.
We discussed culture and explored change tools, examining what needs to happen to change an organisation's culture - sustainably - for the better.
Stakeholder management is a big part of change management, so having a stakeholder map and plan in place was essential. Meeting monthly to discuss and understand any issues, we could make interventions where necessary to ensure our stakeholders continued to advocate the change.
As part of the change management, we also needed to ensure the actual programme team remained engaged and optimistic about the process. To achieve this, we performed regular health check surveys and acted on the results to maintain a high performing programme team.
We began by talking through our approach with a small change team made up of the programme leads and representatives from the dedicated people and training leads, as well as the programme manager, so we could build a plan together.
The Results
Phase One is now complete, with the first distribution centre going live in January 2022 and all team members working confidently with new equipment, systems, technology and processes.
A focus group led by the Supply Chain Director revealed team members thought the change communications at this time were the best communications they had ever had.
What's more, in the recent organisation-wide employee engagement suvey, the Magor distribution centre increased its engagement score by a significant 6%
Mark Leonard from Boxchain Associates, a logistics transformation expert who has supported the programme lead, said:
"Spearheading all internal communications and change management aspects of the £60m wilko Optimus Logistics programme, the work of Andrea and her team on this campaign has been described by the client as "the best change management and communications ever seen on a transformation programme".