Why your change processes need to be tailor-made and not copy-paste

EY Belgium helped Carrefour develop a change and ambassador strategy to support its employees during digital transformation.

In brief

• The implementation of ‘Forecasting and Replenishment’ at Carrefour requires a behavioral change and mindset shift from employees.
• Change processes rely on human feelings and need a step-by-step and tailor-made approach, with various communication moments.
• Ambassadors can play an important role in creating involvement, together with training and coaching.

People are the heart of every organization. When you change the way of working, you cannot focus only on technology and processes. “During a transition, employees undergo an emotional journey, and you need to provide them with tailor-made support,” says change manager Lynn Mottie. She supervises digitalization projects at supermarket chain Carrefour for EY Belgium.

With more than seven hundred stores and four formats, Carrefour occupies a unique position in Belgium. The retailer has a network of hypermarkets, supermarkets and local stores, supplemented with a diverse e-commerce offering. In line with its vision, Carrefour is strongly committed to digitalization and automation. By doing so, it responds to customer demand while ensuring that employees have more time for customers.

Behavioral change and mindset shift

The implementation of F&R is a long-term effort for a broadly branched organization like Carrefour, both on a technological and human level. “The store employees have to learn a new way of working, which requires a change in behavior,” says Mottie. “They also experience a loss of control and have to learn to trust a system. They move from managing their own offerings to checking them. That means a serious change in mindset.” The employees also lose a bit of their status”, Michiels adds, “because from now on the computer decides what they should do.”

“Change management is a crucial part of business integration,” confirms Davy Van Ingelgem of EY Belgium. “We first define what can be digitized and then we draw up a plan. The most important thing, however, is to see how the change is incorporated into the organization. A digital transformation can only succeed if employees believe it adds value to their job.”
 

Communication creates support

Mottie warns against implementing change as a big bang. “Change processes rely on human feelings. You have to capture and manage this properly. That is why we always opt for a step-by-step and tailor-made approach. The implementation of F&R was a multi-year process with a long pilot phase. We started with tests in two stores and a limited product segment, and gradually expanded to more people and more products.”

Michiels points out the importance of ambassadors. “Especially in a large organization like Carrefour, you have to start at the top, with the management. Patrons must support the change, from the Service Center to the store managers. A cascade of people have supported this project. Naturally and simultaneously, we started working with colleagues who used F&R first. As ambassadors, they explained to their colleagues what the benefits were for themselves.” To this end, Carrefour and EY Belgium developed a well-thought-out change, stakeholder and ambassador strategy with various communication moments.

Michiels concludes that sponsorship from management is essential, and at the same time he emphasizes the importance of training and coaching. “Colleagues in the store must feel that it is a solution made with the experience of their colleagues from the service center and from the store and that it makes their daily work better and easier.” Mottie supported the design of an extensive training program for F&R. “We make a distinction between the trainer and the coach. Perhaps a strange nuance, but the trainers come and fully explain the tool at the beginning. The coaches – often well-known faces from the region – will return later to see whether the implementation is going smoothly.”