Coop Norge: Turbocharging collaboration through change management and Microsoft Teams

“We had 23,000 employees in 52 different cooperatives communicating with each other via a combination of social media, apps, SMS, and email. It was clear we needed to radically change the way they communicated. The challenge was: what can we do to change it, and how do we make sure everyone has access to the same solution?"

Marianne Sandmæl, Change Manager at Coop Norge, is describing the frontline communication challenges that her company had faced for years and the technology rollout that's helped to tackle them.

"Coop Norge is the second-largest grocery retailer in Norway with millions of customers whose needs we have to serve day in, day out,” she says.

“That requires an empowered workforce who can communicate and collaborate efficiently and securely."

Coop Norge found that solution in Microsoft Teams, which has allowed them to consolidate everything in one app, streamline communications, and launch a change management initiative that's transforming the way the workforce operates entirely.

"The point of embracing new technology is empowering people to do their work to the best of their abilities and in the easiest way possible, and that's exactly what we saw in Microsoft Teams and its rollout: a project that was 10% technological and 90% cultural."

“So, we set out to transform our way of working for everyone in the organization—with only four people driving the change and a newly created Rollout Factory to support it.” Together with Martine Kaxrud, the Product Owner, IT Consultant Babak Tabrizi, and Change Manager Anders Pakkanen Henden from partner Puzzlepart AS, she initiated this nearly year-long endeavor."

An organization in search of unified communications

Coop Norge is a major player in the Norwegian grocery market, serving 2.3 million co-owners.

While its 5,000 office-based employees had already been part of a migration to modern workplace solutions, the frontline employees lacked a consistent approach to communication tools—which were instead left up to individual outlets.

“Each store had its own way of doing things,” explains Martine Kaxrud, Product Owner for Digital Collaboration. “We discovered this after doing interviews across the whole organization to research the overall communications and collaborations needs.”

“What we found was store managers today must deal with many different apps and tools to stay up to date and to communicate and interact with colleagues. They didn't have one place to reach out to all their employees, who in turn didn't have a place to communicate with every single colleague in the store. So, we needed to find one common system.”

This didn't just pose obstacles to effective communications, but it could also be a threat to privacy and information security, with employees typically using social media to communicate sensitive company information.

But there was an obvious solution at hand, as Sandmæl explains: "We needed a platform that would work as a single location for all communications happening inside the company. A tool that provided protection, ease of use, and could be used on the employee devices, so it wouldn't require huge amounts of work in rollout and implementation. Microsoft Teams was all of these and more.”

Microsoft Teams as the logical choice

“We had already been using Microsoft Teams in our offices and were really impressed by its simplicity and ease of use. So, it was a no-brainer that we should continue using it for the frontline too."

“We did pilots, and employees were positive about using Teams from the very beginning. But soon after that, we were faced with a new challenge: how do we roll this out to 23,000 employees located in 1,300 different stores?"

“It was important for us that they all could see the value of Teams, start using the new solution, and change their way of working,” comments Kaxrud. “Later on, other work-related tools will be added to Teams, making it a hub for employees, minimizing the amount of apps they need during the workday.”

Coop Norge SA has prepared an innovative implementation process called "The Rollout Factory" to develop the adoption of Teams. This is offered to cooperatives to help with the rollout of Teams in the stores, as well as ensure uniform and optimized use of the platform in line with the store's needs.

To ensure success, the Rollout Factory includes a proven toolbox for the journey that takes into account training, change, and culture.

The participation of Microsoft was also important. “We have a close relationship to Microsoft, and they were a good team player and always worth having a discussion with. And those discussions were essential to the successful planning of the rollout,” Kaxrud explains.

The Rollout Factory

Coop Norge decided to host a masterclass in change management to encourage the uptake of Teams. “The whole project was run by methods from Prosci ADKAR, making sure both stakeholders, leaders, and end-users were well-informed, motivated, and able to use Microsoft Teams as a tool,” says Anders Pakkanen Henden, Change Manager at partner Puzzlepart AS.

“During our Rollout Factory of Teams in stores, only three of us trained around 200 ambassadors across the cooperatives,” comments Kaxrud.

"These individuals each went on to train other shop managers, who in turn trained the workers. It’s been a big success, and we should complete deployment soon."

“To optimize the process, we have developed different templates adapted to each store concept. The standardized templates will help ensure the same user experience across the stores, create a common understanding of what Teams in-store is and how we want it to be in Coop. This means that when a new store adopts Teams, they will get the same experience with channels already in place right out of the box. The standardization also makes it easier to extract opportunities from new functionality in the future."

“We created guidelines of how to use Teams and distributed e-learnings about best practice, focusing on culture and how to keep things structured and in order. We see now that all those users who followed these suggestions have been really happy with the outcome and are sticking with Teams,” Henden explains as the key mechanics of the training program.

The foundation for further evolution

As of the time of writing, the rollout of Teams across the entire organization was almost complete, actually two months ahead of schedule.

“The following step is to implement Viva Engage as a part of Teams. We're starting with a pilot for one of the cooperatives in less than a month. The plan is to migrate all the users from a huge Facebook group with 5,000 members,” explains Sandmæl.

“We’re moving them all to Viva Engage. Starting off with one cooperative and follow them for the next month and see how it works."

“It’s a better, more streamlined, and inclusive way to let workers share their stories, build culture and excitement so we can power our way into the future.”

A warehouse manager expressed their enthusiasm for a wider rollout, saying: “When everyone is onboard, I will only communicate via Teams because you only need to go to there to catch up with what is happening.”

A culture shift for improved communications

“Working together, good relationships, and great communication were essential to the Rollout Factory,” affirms Kaxrud.

“Now, we are developing a standardized communication structure across the organization that will essentially allow us to do more with less: better information sharing and collaboration."

“And whenever we have a change of management or personnel in a store, that outlet can adapt much quicker and more efficiently.”

As a large Nordic organization with 28,000 employees, this project plays a huge role for Coop Norge—taking it one step closer to getting all its employees connected. "This way, we’re more like one big coop instead of 52 different ones,” she says.

“Microsoft Teams allows us to do that by empowering the most important employees of all—those in the frontline—by giving them the tools to get the information and learnings they need, as well as ensuring they improve their work-life balance. And they are also closer to their colleagues working at head office.”

“As a tool, Teams in-store is a fantastic communication platform. The stores which will implement Teams get a complete roll-out package they can present in staff meetings. I think that is an advantage,” commented one District Manager.

The rollout has also been popular with store staff, with one commenting: “I like that you can share information easily with all employees and could talk openly.”