World of Books Deploys Staffconnect’s Mobile Employee Engagement Platform to Keep Its Deskless Workforce Well-Connected and Ensure Ongoing Employee Satisfaction

Established by a group of dedicated book lovers, World of Books specialises in selling quality books at competitive prices. The company, which serves millions of customers around the globe each year, purchases unsold inventory of books from UK charity shops and then resells them via both the World of Books website and other online sites, including eBay.com and Amazon.com.

The company’s expanding global reach to more than 190 countries has fueled its explosive growth, with book inventory ballooning over the past decade from 1,000 books to more than 4 million on its shelves. World of Books has also played a pioneering role in the recycling and reuse of nearly 80 million books a year—the equivalent of approximately 500,000 trees. More than 20 percent of its books find new homes and the company has donated 65,000 books to worthy causes, with goals of donating a million books and reducing carbon by 30 percent by 2020.

The company’s mission is to do good and have a positive impact on the planet. It is also committed to keeping prices low for customers, which includes free delivery for millions of used books annually. With such a massive volume of books in stock along with a wide customer base, the business needs to stay agile, and achieve strong internal communication across its dispersed workforce.

It was important for information to reach all team members while facilitating open communication and shared insights back to headquarters. This was particularly critical since more than 75 percent of the staff at World of Books—from the warehouse to sales to distribution—are part of the deskless workforce. “Two-way communication is vital to engagement,” said Patrik Öqvist, Chief Marketing Officer of World of Books. “Deskless workers need a voice to contribute to overall organisation’s views, rather than communication occurring only top-down.”

The company had been using email and intranet as its primary communication tool, but this was limited in terms of gathering valuable feedback from its distributed workforce. It was also not accessible to the many deskless employees who comprise most of its teams. World of Books wanted a mobile, two-way communication platform to share the company’s vision, critical business news and best practices. It was also important that the platform offered the built-in ability to gather feedback and opinions from employees while gathering key analytics to improve processes, productivity and overall satisfaction levels.

After exploring several options World of Books chose StaffConnect’s mobile employee engagement platform as its new internal comms solution. The comprehensive digital platform offered the company a single-point solution that helps it easily share key company news and status updates as well as receive feedback from individuals. It also makes it much easier to keep everyone in the loop about the important mission and vision that drives World of Books: to be the leading global seller of used books, while using technology and innovation to help people reuse and recycle less expensively.

“Having the ability to keep our collective mission top of mind with all people, regardless of role or location, has been a game-changer for us,” said Öqvist. “For a company that was founded with an ethos to do good, help charities, and make a positive impact, StaffConnect’s mobile platform was the perfect communication tool to help keep people both engaged and motivated.”

Öqvist added that people feel even more valued now because their feedback is requested through the platform to help make decisions. This serves as a continuous engagement booster that not only enhances the employee experience (EX) but also contributes to high levels of customer service, which boosts the customer experience (CX). “By helping to create a well-connected, well-informed organisation that always has our mission top of mind, our customers clearly benefit as well,” concluded Öqvist. “StaffConnect has helped us continue to enhance the experience for both our people and our customers—which is not only what our business is all about, but in turn helps us do good in the world.”

“Employee engagement allows organizations to flourish on so many levels – and usually the focus is on productivity, profitability and the bottom line,” said Geraldine Osman, CMO for StaffConnect. “While these are important benefits, It is very rewarding to see how it also impacts relationships, how individuals feel about each other and themselves, and in this case, how World of Books is better able to achieve its mission of doing good work and having a positive effect on the planet.”