Workplace Pioneers are the most sophisticated and forward-thinking Chief Workplace Officers in the world. In this new series, we'll learn why they chose Workplace and the impact it's having on their organisations.

This week, Maria Purcell of Workplace talks to Line Lauvsnes Oddekalv who led the team behind the Workplace deployment at Elkjop – the largest consumer electronics retailer in the Nordics.

"The start of our story," begins Line, "is known for a lot of companies..."

It is known. Line recounts a familiar tale packed with a cast of characters that we've seen many times before: The old-fashioned and out of date Intranet. The young, vibrant workforce hungry for better tech. And the ongoing disconnect between people across 400 shops.

But it was a tired plot device that Line and her team were determined to bring up to date.

"Being a technology company with young people, we really needed to freshen up," Line continues. "And I was thinking which companies are really great at communication? Who engages employees and are good at building culture? One of those answers was Facebook."

And in a fortuitous piece of timing that you just couldn't write, Line heard about Facebook at Work (which became Workplace by Facebook). They were ready to get started.

Transforming communications

The impact has been immediate. And it's helped Elkjop transform its approach to communications and collaboration. "Workplace is our main channel for communication. We use it for everything."

Including using Workplace to finally shut down its out of date Intranet. "We turned off our old Intranet when we introduced Workplace. Basically you have to be there on Workplace to know what you can do at work."

Fast access to knowledge and quicker problem solving

This decision has led to an increase in the ease and speed of knowledge sharing across the business.

"Our biggest use case is knowledge sharing. We have so many competent people spread around geographies. Before they didn't have any way to communicate together."

Using Workplace has changed all that. "Now, all these people who know so much about the stuff we're selling, the things we're doing and how to help the customers – they can use Workplace to interact and help each other and share this knowledge."

"Store employees tell me that they have customers next to them in the shop – and if they need to know something, they use Workplace – they ask their peers and colleagues and the get answers this way."

Making leaders more visible

Using Workplace is also connecting the top and bottom by making leaders much more visible to the rest of the organisation.

"Our CEO started some years ago and people didn't know who he was. And when he travelled around, he met a young girl working in one of the shops in Sweden. And when he introduced himself, she was like, "Who are you?!"

But that was before Workplace enabled people to build stronger relationships – a sense of community – that wouldn't have been possible in traditional situations.

"So now when he travels," Line laughs, "he gets people wanting to take a selfie with him! He's becoming a bit of an internal celebrity. And he uses Workplace a lot. He's really open to it."

The future of work at Elkjop

The world of work is changing. And that's something that Line and her team worked hard to understand. They identified some of the key trends and mobilised to help Elkjop understand the new reality of work – and the need for change.

"We talk a lot about work of the future," says Line. "Well – the future is here! In Elkjop, we have people who are 20 years old."

This is a generation used to having social media as an everyday tool and higher standards when it comes to technology. "They have different demands on the tools that they use," she says. "And openness – to be able state their opinion and be heard."

How do you maintain good communication with part-time and shift workers? With Workplace we can.

When you add shift and part-time workers to the mix, the stress on a retailers' ability to stay connected becomes even greater.

"How do you maintain good communications flows with them all?" asks Line. "Well, with Workplace we can..."

And that's a cool story. Which is why we've made a sequel...

Join us for part two of this interview next week to learn how Elkjop is using Workplace to connect frontline and part-time workers – and why she thinks retailers everywhere should deploy Workplace.

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