5-star housebuilder Persimmon lays foundation for better communication

One of the UK's leading housebuilders, Persimmon, has completely transformed its information management, internal communication and collaboration using the Omnia platform. The new solution improves employees’ access to relevant and business-critical information and boosts the transparency of information and organization. It leads to higher efficiency, improved knowledge-sharing and a more united company.

“We have launched a major digital transformation project to modernize our workplace and ways of working. Implementing a new Omnia-based intranet has been instrumental to this improvement. The new communication platform has significantly improved process efficiency and the searchability, accuracy and transparency of both internal information and our organization”, says Charlotte Ling, Head of Group Internal Communications at Persimmon, and continues:  

“In addition to easily reaching the entire workforce through a common platform with relevant, consistent and urgent communication, it has also increased knowledge-sharing and our organizational cohesion.” 

Headquartered in York, housebuilder Persimmon Plc operate from 29 regional offices throughout the UK, trading under the brand names of Persimmon Homes, Charles Church and Westbury Partnerships Persimmon. Founded in 1972, the company is today one of the UK's largest house builders, achieving a 5 Star rating in the British Home Builder Federation’s annual customer survey. Persimmon has three off-site manufacturing facilities and employs around 5,000 people and sells about 10,000 homes annually.  

Until recently, Persimmon didn’t have a group-wide intranet or a similar unified communications platform. Communication and information searches were conducted in different ways and through different channels depending on the division and region you worked in. Much of the information was channeled through email-based newsletters, without any adaptation to the role or interests of the recipient.  

“Because our workforce is so diverse – half of it working in the office and the other half out on construction sites – we needed a common platform to connect everyone in an efficient and consistent way. And because finding and sharing information and internal knowledge was also a challenge, we had to create a new structure and processes for finding, accessing and keeping information and documents up to date”, Charlotte describes. 

One of their first actions was to implement SharePoint to create company-wide file sharing spaces. Together with intranet strategist ClearBox Consulting, Persimmon then mapped its business and communication needs with standard cloud-based intranet platforms. Charlotte explains why Omnia was their first choice:  

“Omnia stood out among competitors as the best option since it can meet our current and future needs efficiently. With its many features for creating a multi-layered groupwide intranet, such as advanced content governance and lifecycle management, targeting, gamification, and communities, we knew it was a perfect platform on which to build the new unified Persimmon.”  

Charlotte and her team's next task was to create a solid structure and plan for the implementation of the new intranet. They also brought in Omnia Coach Jacob Udby Olesen to help them steer the project.  

“Bringing in Jacob as an external project manager was a brilliant strategy! Knowing the Omnia platform inside out, he was able to easily match and customize the solution to our needs and requirements. We have been working with Jacob and other Omnia Coaches for more than a year now and they have been invaluable to us. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without them”, Charlotte points out. 

Charlotte and her team of editors had to create most of the content from scratch, including the scrubbing of documents and the creation of a new information and navigation structure. A lot of time was also invested in training and user adoption campaigns. Overall, the implementation took almost eight months.  

“Considering that we went from having virtually no shared digital information, collaboration and communication spaces to a fully modern intranet, eight months is not a long time. We also had to put a lot of emphasis on informing and helping people understand the new ways of working and communicating. Now that the intranet is a natural part of the working day, it's hard to understand how we managed before”, says Charlotte and adds: 

“There are so many aspects of improvement and new opportunities that the intranet offers. Most of our communication is now channeled through the intranet and targeted, freeing users from irrelevant information and an abundance of emails. And finding information or a colleague using Omnia's intuitive search features has really made a difference. Previously, we had to call around to search for a specific job role or internal skills. Now it's just a few clicks on an organization chart.” 

According to Charlotte, the improved findability and transparency of Persimmon's internal information and organization will have a huge impact on organizational and operational efficiency, as well as employee engagement. Each division and region has its own pages on the intranet, making it very easy to understand and navigate throughout the company, and different areas of work and expertise have been organized into function hubs. Like, for instance, the Construction hub which contains standard guidance documents, key performance indicators and other tools and resources related to construction.  

“Having every resource and item of information easily accessible in one place and knowing it’s the only and latest updated version boosts efficiency and reliability. We have also integrated the intranet with Teams, enhancing its accessibility. To further improve the efficiency and control of operations, we have implemented Omnia’s request and sign-off functionality, creating what we call Emergency Alerts. These are messages that contain tasks or things that need to be done or checked”, Charlotte explains. 

In addition to providing employees with easier access to information and better tools for communication and collaboration, Persimmon's goal with the intranet is to strengthen engagement and cohesion. Increased transparency and keeping everyone in the loop of both local and corporate news are key factors in achieving this. Persimmon has also launched a praise reward system, communities, events and training modules and a branded mobile app that will both enhance employee engagement and bring the organization closer. 

Just the fact that the intranet is named My Persimmon sends a strong message: It's personalized and everything in it is tailored to the user’s needs and interests.  

“Our goal is to increase engagement by creating a stronger sense of belonging and curiosity about the rest of the company. With our Praise Wall leaders and colleagues can encourage and give each other a public pat on back. So far, we have also launched an LGBTQ+ and a Womens Network community, with more in the pipeline.

Although the intranet has only been live for about seven months, we can see that both engagement and efficiency are on the rise”, Charlotte concludes.