Outdoor retailer consolidates discounts, career development into one hub to increase sales figures and improve customer service

What they needed

GO Outdoors had the same challenge felt by many in the retail sector – engaging predominantly part-time staff who work offline across multiple locations. The GO Outdoors HR team also had to deal with a lacklustre intranet and limited IT infrastructure.

The team ran an employee engagement survey and found that almost all employees thought working at GO wasn’t rewarding enough, an issue highlighted further by the company’s high staff turnover rate. They also identified that the biggest gaps in the current offering were the accessibility of employee development tools, keeping everyone up to date with company news, and being able to recognise people for their hard work.

With these gaps in mind, the team at GO decided to partner with Reward Gateway to provide an engagement hub which would be a one-stop-shop for everything which an employee at GO would ever need.

How we helped

When naming their hub, the team chose “GO for it!” and answered many initial questions from employees about what the new offering would entail by using the instructional tagline of “make life more rewarding.” With such a diverse workforce, the team at GO knew they would need much more than a name and a tagline, which led them to grow their engagement reach with a multi-channel approach.

This began with a flyer attached to each payslip, covering the key messages about the launch. The team knew in doing this they would also spread awareness to colleagues who were seasonal and due to come back at a later date. For the easier to reach employees in the Support Centre, a secret desk drop of save the date cards were placed on everyone’s desks. The team also placed posters, table toppers, and leaflets in key areas of stores.

To capitalise on the momentum, GO’s team used social media to create a teaser campaign with gifs, videos, banners, and competitions. This was combined with word of mouth promotion from brand ambassadors, store managers, and leadership team members who had early access to the new offering with the added bonus of money to spend in their discounts account.

As employee development was a key part to the platform’s success, the team used Reward Gateway’s single sign-on capabilities to integrate their e-learning offering and make it accessible from home. Colleagues were in the driving seat of their development for the first time and the use of gamification added an element of fun. The team also added the eCard product to their platform to allow for instant peer-to-peer recognition – allowing any employee to send a personalised “Well Done” or “Thank you” message to a colleague.

What they achieved

Through all of this promotion, the team successfully got across the message that “GO for it!” was more than the unbeatable discounts available – it’s a place for colleagues to develop themselves, further their careers, and feel more included in the business. This was echoed in the first two weeks with 42% of employees registering and a whopping 122% increase in the number of e-learning modules completed.

12-months post launch and the team have seen participation in their engagement survey hit an all-time high of 87% and their overall engagement score has increased. Staff turnover has gone down five percentage points to 36%, demonstrating an increase in employee satisfaction. On top of this, £200,000 has been spent through employee discounts with staff saving £20,000 overall, meaning each person is saving around 10% each time they use the offering.

GO has also seen how a more positive working experience for their employees has led to higher levels of customer service. This is reflected in sales hitting an all-time high and improved feedback from customers on how helpful people in-store are. To further improve on this, GO added Reward Gateway’s eCard recognition product to their hub and saw over 500 digital cards sent in only three weeks of launch.