Let’s set the scene. It’s 2020. COVID-19 has spun the world into turmoil and the business landscape has changed beyond imagination.
In the face of this hardship, companies across the globe are bouncing back and responding with resilience.
Kingfisher is no exception. Employees have stepped up to the plate and displayed unwavering commitment to customers, local communities and their colleagues.
With many outstanding examples coming to light, Kingfisher asked a simple question: “How do we recognise and celebrate the global efforts of our colleagues during the crisis?”
Kingfisher employees were already highlighting the efforts of their colleagues on Yammer, with local recognition and collaboration taking place in small pockets of the company.
Tapping into this team spirit was the key to unlocking amazing stories. This was an opportunity to find out all the wonderful things going on across the local brands and bring it all together for a global celebration.
Employees were asked to nominate their colleagues on Yammer and share examples of their outstanding contributions to customers, colleagues and the community during COVID-19.
To keep things simple, employees in different markets could share their stories in existing local Yammer groups where recognition would happen organically.
We wanted to spark engagement and collaboration across all the Kingfisher brands and bring everyone together on Yammer for a global celebration.
Richard Perrett
Kingfisher
The Amazing Stories campaign was rolled out to employees across Kingfisher in seven countries globally.
A communications toolkit was created to help each brand promote the campaign through their local channels. The toolkit included launch videos, logos and poster templates, which helped to spark excitement and get everyone buzzing about the campaign.
Local ambassadors and champions were appointed to drive engagement in each market and inspire their colleagues to share the amazing stories.
For every story shared, a £10 charity donation was made to the local market’s foundation or charity partner as a token of appreciation for getting involved.
With stories being shared in different Yammer groups across the Kingfisher network, it was vital to have a centralized process for managing the stories on a local and global level.
Enter Sideways 6. The Sideways 6 platform was able to capture the stories from Yammer in the exact same way. Translation features enabled participation in local languages, making the campaign accessible for everyone.
A friendly chatbot, "StoryBot”, was set up to gather additional useful information about the stories and encourage submitters to upload photos with their nominations.
Finally, with the help of the Sideways 6 reviews feature, the local teams were able to identify the stories they wanted to share more widely internally and externally.
From managing the stories in a central place to sending updates and communications, Sideways 6 was invaluable in helping us run this campaign successfully.
Richard Perrett
Kingfisher
In four months, an impressive 620 amazing stories were shared across all Kingfisher brands, with over 2,000 employees engaging with the campaign.
Some truly inspiring stories have come to light, such as B&Q staff doing coastline walks to raise money for Shelter charity, Castorama Antibes staff supporting disaster victims in the Alps, and Screwfix staff going above and beyond delivering essential products to isolating customers.
Every single photo was captured in a digital mosaic where colleagues could explore all the amazing stories from across the whole of Kingfisher.
A picture of positivity in the aftermath of a crisis.
