How do you connect the 90% of a workforce that works remotely, has no access to a work phone or a computer and doesn't have a business email address? Questions that Emilie helped answer on the Flow 2018 stage in October.

"90% of our workforce are beauty advisors in store", Emilie explained to the Flow audience. "The initial idea with Workplace was to create a two-way communication. To connect with all these people without sending a printed communication or having a series of conversations with various area managers."

But following the deployment, the Workplace effect exceeded these expectations. It's already breaking down silos and improving communication much more broadly than anticipated.

Turning companies into communities

"It went well – it's magic!" Emilie says. "The Workplace effect has been incredible – we've given people a voice and they've absolutely jumped on it."

"The Workplace effect has been incredible – we've given people a voice and they've absolutely jumped on it."

That's no understatement. It's still early days, but Clarins has an engagement rate of 87% with over 80% of Clarins UK staff using Workplace every week to post, like and comment, and be an active part in the company conversation.

"It's created peer-to-peer communication – and that's something we didn't expect", Emilie says. What does that look like? Well, it looks a lot like a community.

"For example", explains Emilie. "You've got one beauty advisor on her own who only sees the area manager once a month. But now with Workplace, she's sharing what she does."

"And she's seeing what someone else does in Brighton or Manchester – and she feels part of a community. It's been win-win all round for us."

Reducing staff turnover

Even set against the current situation in the UK retail sector, Emilie thinks that the Workplace effect extends to helping Clarins retain staff.

"We only deployed Workplace five months ago, but we've seen a reduction in employee turnover by 2% since launch", Emilie says.

"We only deployed Workplace five months ago, but we've seen a reduction in employee turnover by 2% since launch."

Engaging everyone

"I've had so many comments saying that they love Workplace and using it has changed their working lives", says Emilie.

"Whenever [Clarins UK Managing Director] Debbie Lewis likes or comments on someone's post it makes their month! There's something really magical about it."

"We feared that the engagement would drop. We thought, how long is this going to last? But every week it goes up."

And as Emilie and her team shift their focus to embed Workplace throughout the Clarins Head Office, we hope that engagement continues to grow.

With thanks to Emilie Maunoury at Clarins UK