Oak partnership, a ‘game-changer’ for employees 

The challenge

Cutting through the noise

Historically, Halfords’ predominantly deskless workforce operated on a paper-based system and would need to file documents, resulting in boxes of paperwork across every site, making it difficult to locate information. Prior to implementing Oak Engage, employees were also inundated with information that was irrelevant to them and Halfords had no way of cutting through the noise.

A combination of these factors meant that a lot of employee’s time was taken up by searching for things like policies, documentation and what they needed to provide services to customers. Claire commented: “Employees don’t want to see news or information that’s irrelevant to them. It’s disengaging.“

The solution - driving efficiency

Better Customer Service

Through Connect’s mobile accessible document management, all the information they need is in the palm of their hand. 

Claire said: “From an efficiency point of view, having it all in one place is life-changing compared to what colleagues used to have.”

Not only do these tools make employee’s lives easier, in turn they have improved customer service, providing a central information source to help resolve issues quicker, saving time and effort

“Before, a technician for example would need to call to get hold of somebody for information. Now we aren’t leaving customers standing by. Having all the information there means a quick resolution for the customer.”

Customised Comms for Better Engagement

Oak has enabled Halfords to deliver content that is personalised and relevant, to inspire action. By creating pages and user groups based on specific areas of the business, like commercial, fleet management, etc. comms are only seen by the desired audiences, which has a big impact on content engagement. 

“By being able to have specific areas, you’ll see what you need to see. I can reach every colleague from operations to apprentices, targeting comms to their role or where they sit in the business. It’s an absolute game changer.” 

Using the breaking news banner on the Connect newsfeed, updates are elevated depending on importance. Reporting capabilities show content reach and interactions to monitor the effectiveness of their communication. 

Building a Community

At Halfords, two-way communication is an essential component of their internal comms strategy. 

Oak allows Halfords to support meaningful two-way conversations and invite feedback. Not only has their instant messaging feature allowed employees to converse intuitively, they can also post and interact with social content and provide feedback to the business. 

“It’s not just us communicating to them, it's very much a two-way street. They can have their views, they can leave their comments. It’s important to us to listen to our colleagues. Getting that feedback through Oak helps us support them.” 

Halfords also run incentives and competitions on the platform (including naming the intranet), incorporating everyone in the business and it’s proving to be a real hit. The landing page for a recent competition attracted 46,000 views!  

“We do a lot of incentives to get employees going and getting those sales, as well as getting people onto the site. Every single user can have that opportunity to take part. We wouldn't be able to do this without Oak as a platform."

Supporting Halfords Through The Journey

Oak Engage’s simple configuration means Halfords have been able to customise their own intranet and pages to their requirements , reinforcing their brand identity and values.

Claire said: “Oak is simple to use and to pick up. You can customise your brand and to your needs. No one would know that it’s an Oak platform because it's totally yours.” 

Whenever they’ve needed support with Connect, their dedicated account manager and technical support team have been on hand to lend advice and walk with them on their journey.

“Anytime I’m unsure of something I can always turn to the support team or account manager. If it wasn’t for the support that Oak offers, we wouldn’t have been able to get to where we are now.”