Studiu de caz · Toy and hobby retail · Budapest, Hungary
Modell & Hobby’s roughly 130 employees work in stores, a 7,000 m² warehouse and offices – with another 160 or so seasonal colleagues at Christmas. Internal communication used to be one email address, a phone and an intranet reachable only from a desktop; today HR and management reach everyone through CHEQ, which runs in-house as M&H Connect.
„If I put our current level of communication on a ten-point scale and say we are at a nine, then before we were at a one.”
Valorile marcate „estimate” sunt estimările proprii ale clientului, nu date măsurate.
„I was afraid people would not answer honestly, thinking we would find out what they think. Instead, many stand by their opinion openly, and many trust that it really is anonymous.”
Since 1994 Modell & Hobby has grown from a small shop selling remote-controlled models into a toy wholesaler, a store chain and a web-shop group present in several Central European countries. Its roughly 130 employees work in many places: the head office, the 7,000 m² warehouse, the hobby store and mall stores – an estimated 60–70% of them in blue-collar roles.
HR now rates the company’s pre-CHEQ internal communication a one on a ten-point scale. There was an email address people could write to, and a phone someone could be called on – if they had a phone, were available and the number was right. An intranet came later, but it only reached those sitting in front of a computer: the majority working in the stores and the warehouse were left out.
Surveys were made on paper and dropped into the idea and opinion boxes placed at each unit; processing them was manual work. Sending out training material and totalling the answers ran the same way, by hand – taking hours of HR’s time every day.
The company’s seasonality adds extra weight: at Christmas around 8,000 orders a day have to be fulfilled from stock, and some 160 seasonal colleagues join the 130-strong team – all of them carried by the same small HR team in November and December.
Three HR processes before CHEQ and today. Training material: before, sending to each store by hand, collecting answers, manual processing, totalling – 3–4 hours a day, up to a day and a half across all stores (estimated); today, upload and send in CHEQ, ready summary – two clicks. Surveys and idea box: before, paper surveys, idea and opinion boxes at each unit, collection, manual processing, report; today, anonymous survey on the phone, report to management at one push of a button. Sick leave and certificates: before, phone or email to HR if someone was reachable, bringing in the paperwork, manual recording; today, reporting from the app, the paperwork as a photo, the certificate requested in the same place. In total, several days of HR working time saved a month (estimated).
At Modell & Hobby CHEQ runs as M&H Connect, and with it HR gained the channel that reaches the stores and the warehouse too. Over the past two and a half years, together with management and the employees, reach went from 85% to 95–99% – today only one or two colleagues are missing, typically because they do not use a smart device.
Adoption was not forced: the people in the stores realised for themselves that this was an information network through which news from HR and management reached them that otherwise would not. In the regional stores management used to appear once a year at best – today it updates colleagues by video every quarter or half-year.
Shared games helped a lot too: the advent calendar – organised together with the CHEQ team – was a big success, and the Formula 1 game accompanies employees all year, with many playing along. HR’s fear about anonymous surveys was that nobody would answer honestly – instead, many stand by their opinions openly, and others came to trust that the survey really is anonymous, because HR demonstrated at several sites how it works.
Today CHEQ is HR’s everyday working tool: onboarding, probation, training, sick-leave reporting and certificate requests all run on it, and HR can answer management’s questions with a report at the push of a button. As the interviewee put it: HR is more up to date and has far more information about its people.
„CHEQ gave us a capability that every HR person should have in their holster – because without it I no longer know how I would answer the questions coming from management.”
Reach is not a one-off campaign but shared work. Getting from 85% to 95–99% took HR, management and the employees together – and those joined too who saw they would not get the same information anywhere else.
Anonymity has to be proven, not just claimed. HR demonstrated at several sites how the survey works, and no answer was ever followed by a reprisal – that is what made the surveys honest.
The savings are largest where the work was manual. Training material, surveys, idea boxes: what used to take hours every day is now two clicks or a one-button report.
„I don’t think you can do quality work in HR any more without it. It is well worth what it costs.”
Cu CHEQ ne putem contacta angajații în câteva secunde. Conducerea noastră a ținut pe toată lumea informată despre o situație în schimbare rapidă și a explicat deciziile de mai multe ori pe săptămână.
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