The new digital workplace is changing

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The Volkswagen Group UK story

An engaging digital colleague workplace, while at work or at home.

Discovery

Volkswagen Group UK is the home to some of the UK’s most-loved brands. From Volkswagen to Audi, Seat, ŠKODA and more. Their workforce naturally needs to be energetic and passionate about the part they each play in helping customers to drive their cars.

Based at their Milton Keynes head office, Volkswagen Group UK wanted to improve their internal colleague platform from one that was perceived as tired, out-dated and slow. They wanted a digital platform worthy of their team who put their life and soul into their work. We called it ‘LIFE Online’.

By setting up focus groups and talking to key stakeholders we were able to understand two key aspects of the new platform: the business requirements; and the end-user requirements. It’s our belief that digital workplaces need to cater to, and deliver, both.

• Colleague feedback and interviews
• Focus groups and facilitation
• Strategic planning
• Insight and audit work

Define

In order to support the business case for the new digital workplace, we helped the internal communications and HR team create key documents that set out the colleague feedback, and our proposals for the new platform. These included technical, governance, measurement and content documents – which set out roles and responsibilities in advance.

This was crucial to secure buy-in and ownership from different parts of the organisation, who would benefit from, and be responsible for, their own corner of the platform once live. Once agreed, these reports are the foundation of the design stage.

• Industry research
• Technical reporting and governance
• Internal branding and style guides
• Expertise and insight

Design and content

We believe that seeing is believing. That’s why it’s at the design stage that things really start to come together. Through design visuals and user experience (UX) wireframes, we were able to illustrate how the new colleague platform would look, and how it would work on desktop, tablet and mobile. Clear navigation was designed in line with the content planning document, and key functionality highlighted and laid out in line with the end-user and business requirements.

The visuals were supported by comprehensive style and tone of voice guidelines, which were shared not only with the core internal communications and HR teams, but also key stakeholders who would own different product areas and help maintain the high-standards of quality and content.

• UX design and wireframes
• Tone of voice and content planning
• Design and style guidelines
• Editorial approach for ongoing news feeds

Development

By being a part of the initial focus groups, we were able identify key ‘super benefits’ for both colleagues and the business in general. Overall, there were roughly five key features that either needed improving, or creating: from generally improving site speed, to new brand-owned content areas, to specific processes and functionality.

By working with a specialist-development partner, we were able to share our research, focus groups, technical and design documents, and work on the development together in a robust and measurable way. This kind of partnership approach is a key differentiator for 44 Digital. Our partnership model means we are comfortable working in tandem with other agencies and partners who are already in place with our clients.

• Intranet development
• Microsoft SharePoint development
• 0365 digital workplace platforms
• HTML, JavaScript, CSS and PHP coding
• Learning and development sites
• Team development sites
• User testing and quality assurance

Launch

A further benefit to our work in the initial discovery phase, was that at the launch phase we were able to set out a campaign of activity that replayed all the ‘super benefits’ back to them in their own words.

We created assets around them and published them in turn each week for the few weeks since going live. This was done through email newsletters, digital signage, print posters and collateral, all advertising the benefits of the platform.

• Print media and posters
• Email newsletters
• Digital signage
• Digital assets and content
• Onboarding platforms

Ongoing roadmap

The LIFE Online platform has been a success for two reasons. Firstly, due to the work done in the discovery and define stages, we were able to ensure that it was built with the business and end-user needs in mind. Secondly, success has come through the weekly, monthly and annual planning and content production that has continued since launch.

Through these strategic content planning meetings, we’ve been able to suggest and deliver ongoing improvements to the site, its content, and its measurement. By becoming a trusted partner, we’ve become part of the Volkswagen Group UK family.

• Digital workplace metrics and analytics
• Strategic planning
• Insight and audit work
• Content planning and production
• Digital content strategy