“The year 2020 was full of surprises,” Eva Marševska, the HR Specialist, and Rūta Kovalioviene, the HR Manager of Via 3L Lithuania begin. “First, we started the year with a new family – group VIA 3L. Then, all this situation with the pandemic, new rules about communication and safety at work.”
“We wanted to have a certain channel for our entire team. This was very necessary, because not all employees in our company use email. Only 30% of our employees work with a computer, so we had some communication problems,” Eva and Rūta describe. “So first, we created a group on Facebook. It wasn’t a bad idea, but we saw that only 50% of colleagues have Facebook. Better than nothing, but that wasn’t enough for us.”
80% on Board in Just 4 Weeks
Via 3L joined the internal communication tool GuavaHR in September 2020, following the successful implementation of the Estonian branch of Via 3L in autumn 2019. Within 4 weeks, more than 80% of all their employees had adopted GuavaHR, and 98% of them were using it actively. All this was done with the support of GuavaHR’s online adoption and onboarding process, and the dedicated work of Via 3L HR department.
“Most importantly, we did a lot of homework before the onboarding to make all colleagues feel like a real team. We are very open and encourage employee openness. We repeated that Guava is the place where we can post good and bad news, ideas. I think that made our activity high,” Eva and Rūta believe.
Support of the CEO Has Been Crucial
The active participation and support from their CEO, Gintautas Čečys, also played a valuable part in adopting this new technology. “Our CEO is one of Guava’s most active members and a strong supporter of various HR initiatives.”
Gintautas is the person who updates the employees on information about the pandemic and the situation in the company, openly shares all the quarterly results, incomes or losses. “Our CEO is the one who promotes openness and trust among employees, so GuavaHR really helps him with that,” Eva and Rūta say.
A New Habit in Development
Compared to the previous solutions Via 3L had tried, they believe GuavaHR was the best idea for them and their warehouse team especially. “First of all, it’s great for us, as all team members can install the app on their phones, and they all know what’s going on in the company. We currently have about 90% of our colleagues on GuavaHR.”
GuavaHR became a very valuable communication tool for VIA 3L throughout the pandemic, when important information had to be shared as quickly as possible and had to reach all employees. “We shared all the information about the situation in the company, lunch schedules, new restrictions and since there is no opportunity to meet live, records of our quarterly results moved to Guava, too.”
Now, they use Guava for any type of communication that appears important. “Starting with birthday greetings and ending with videos about the quarterly results. To find out what’s going on in your organisation, you need to follow the news. At first, colleagues asked where this information came from. Now, everyone knows they should check Guava. It’s like a new habit,” Eva and Rūta assure.
After those 4–5 months of using GuavaHR, what have been the most noticeable and important changes among their workforce and its internal communications? “We are proud that now we have more comments, the number of people writing posts is growing. The most important aspects are activity and involvement.”
Employees are Involved in the Changes
But it’s more than just simply sharing the news, it’s the bigger picture that has changed a lot. “We can say that thanks to Guava, employees now know more about what is going on in the company, can easily find all the information from their news feed and are involved in the changes themselves.”
But there are more simple things to be proud of, too. “We have heard many good reviews about a very simple thing – birthday greetings in GuavaHR. Earlier, we had a calendar with colleagues’ birthdays posted on the notice board, but since we joined Guava, everyone has had the opportunity to wish someone a happy birthday virtually, yet personally, and this makes people happy.”
An Expression of Togetherness
“In the future, we want to encourage an even more active sharing of problems, events, gratitude and achievements via Guava by organising the Month of Kindness with different tasks or some competitions for employees – or maybe even their children.”
This year, Via 3L plans to open a new warehouse in Kaunas, Eva and Rūta share. “So GuavaHR will become a platform where all employees of the company will be able to communicate, meet colleagues from other warehouses and see or even participate in the changes and the company‘s growth. We think that Guava will be an expression of togetherness.”
Both Eva Marševska ning Rūta Kovalioviene believe the internal communication tool GuavaHR to be a tool worth considering. “If you have a lot of employees that are quite difficult to reach at once; if communication within the company does not work as good as you would like; if you want to involve all employees in your problem solving and increase their involvement and motivation – GuavaHR is definitely a tool worth your attention.”
