About Glory Global Solutions

Glory is a global organisation with a varied workforce. From field-based engineers and sales people to operations, finance, logistics and customer service staff, the workforce needed a way to stay more fully connected across time zones and functions.

With the focus on supplying cutting-edge technology to its customers, Glory needed an employee engagement platform to better reflect their external excellence for internal audiences. Glory has modernised and transformed their employee intranet, including the launch of their digital workplace app for field-based colleagues to stay connected on the go.

The transition from a locally hosted SharePoint site to a modern cloud-based, flexible, intuitive intranet and employee app has breathed life back into employee communications and engagement. It has transformed their digital employee experience to more closely align with the high-tech quality of their solutions.

Glory is an advanced technology company, which was looking for a modern, secure, enterprise-wide solution that would establish itself as a trustworthy, intuitive source of information and bolster employee engagement, motivation and pride among the workforce. 

Colleagues who worked primarily outside of the office were at a disadvantage when it came to information access, having fewer opportunities to check for updates or resources while on the move. This risked the possibility of important or urgent information failing to reach them in time and a potential impact on operational standards.

Toby explains how the previous iteration of their intranet was a local network-hosted SharePoint solution. It was nearing end-of-life support and updating the required infrastructure didn’t align with their IT roadmap or who they are as a business.

Glory had three key objectives from this project:

• Create a centralised launch pad from which all employees could access the tools and resources they need 
• Empower colleagues with a better understanding of the latest company news, executive communications, policies and processes 
• Provide opportunities for two-way communication and expand colleague networks to facilitate cross-group projects 

When the time came to explore new solutions, Toby recalled a presentation by Oak at an event a few years previously so was ready to explore what we had to offer. Glory’s employee focus group workshops had demonstrated strong alignment with our solution and the scope of requirements for a new intranet. 

With security front and centre, the IT team ensured the new employee engagement platform met all of Glory’s requirements. Ahead of launch, their old platform was closed down which created anticipation around the launch of the new intranet, branded Connect 2.0.

Toby explained: “With a gap between switching the old platform off and the new one on, lots of people were asking when the new intranet would be arriving, there was naturally a lot of enthusiasm around it. It really got people intrigued as to what was coming next. There was a natural hunger to have something to fill that space.”

Each day during the first week of launch, the team focused on training around different aspects of the intranet and actions that employees could take to make the most out of Connect 2.0. All training content was made available for users to revisit at any time if they needed a refresher beyond those first few weeks.

The mobile intranet app launched as phase 2 of the project and Glory used the desktop version of Connect 2.0 as a key part of the communications plan to introduce and demonstrate how to access it via work-authorised devices. Within the first 6 weeks of launch, more than 900 employees with work-authorised devices had downloaded and accessed the digital workplace app, which is a great starting point.

Toby comments: “The Oak platform is absolutely essential. It is a fundamental part of how we get information to people and how we engage with them on a higher quality level. This has enabled us to build stronger relationships across the organisation.”

By partnering with Oak, Glory has created an intranet experience that not only keeps colleagues better informed, more connected and more engaged, but also reduces the time spent on intranet-related tasks and activities. With a modern, intuitive employee engagement platform that reflects how people work today, Glory can communicate more effectively, give employees faster access to the information they need and mirror internally what it strives to deliver to its own client base: releasing staff time to focus on creating value by delivering the best experiences to their customers.

A launchpad for employees

Connect 2.0 is the go-to starting point for colleagues, allowing them to easily access toolkits and resources. Toby explains how “it’s very easy for people to access those toolkits. We have maybe had one or two questions come through the feedback mechanisms but that’s all, which is such a transformation. Connect 2.0 just makes sense for our users, the structure is so intuitive that our people have just picked up how to navigate around the space.”

The new intranet keeps colleagues informed and ensures better visibility of company news, initiatives, new launches and product updates. Employees are more aware of  what’s going on in the company, it’s also easy to search for older updates if they want to refresh their memory, rather than trawling through emails.

An engaged workforce

Encouraging two-way communication provides diversity in voices and empowers others to share their wins. People-related stories get the best engagement, from internal award winners announcements to new starters and more because people are pleased to see people they recognise doing well.

Toby explains: “I’ve certainly observed more of an uptake in employee-generated content as people’s confidence using the intranet has grown. At first, nobody wanted to try and fail in front of thousands of colleagues but I’ve been able to coach and remind them that they can do these things themselves. We’re seeing more people step forward to share their own social updates as confidence in the platform grows. It’s the people stories that really land, because, let’s be honest, we’re all a bit nosy and like to see what others are up to.”

A global network of content creators

Regional contributors across key regions have been trained to manage local comms, ensuring that content is relevant at the local level while global group-wide communications still cut through.

Now that each region is able to move away from local SharePoint reliance, there is more confidence that key documentation across the organisation is uniform and aligned. Analytics also provide accurate insights for the Global team. 

Toby adds: “We can give specific people access to parts of the system they need in order to upload or create their content. I’ve trained a good number of people up and once they’re pointed in the right direction, they’re eager to run with it. Of course, some level of control needs to be maintained so that we can amend things if required, but it’s great to have those different levels of access in the system.” 

Showing appreciation with employee recognition

Moving the Stars of EMEA recognition programme on to Connect 2.0 has been a game-changer for Glory, with employees nominating their peers and winners awarded on a quarterly basis. 

A bespoke digital nomination process contained within Oak enables toggling between languages to ensure accessibility and maximum engagement from colleagues no matter their language preference. This initiative continues to grow from strength to strength, with the latest quarterly awards nominations sitting at 20% higher than last year.

Toby explained: “In our EMEA region, we work across five core languages and it was important for each of those to be equally prevalent within this recognition process. The Stars of EMEA recognition programme has worked so well in generating engagement. The process we’ve developed within Oak makes it so easy to nominate people for their contributions. It’s equally user friendly for those who judge the submissions – they can find the information they need and take it through to their decision-making.”

Cutting through the noise

Toby reiterates how Oak has enabled Glory to segment audiences in order to deliver relevant comms at the right time to the right colleagues. The ability to cut through the noise with tailored information direct to each employee has overhauled and modernised the digital experience, sustaining engagement and buy-in as time goes on.

Digital workplace app to connect field service staff 

The launch of the mobile intranet app has transformed the digital employee experience for field-based colleagues.

One of the key challenges Glory wanted to solve was building a stronger connection with the field service community and all their other employees who work remotely. Now, that has really changed.