7-Eleven Conference: Reframing Workplace Culture

Case study - 7/11

 

In 1976, 7-Eleven opened the doors of its first Australian location, in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburb of Oakleigh. Since then, the company has grown to become Australia’s third largest private company. With over 700 stores spanning this great southern land, 7-Eleven make it their mission to turn the ordinary moments into something great.

Whether you are grabbing your 6am coffee before the gym, stocking up on fuel on your way to work or popping in for a donut or Slurpee, 7-Eleven is there, as part of the ebb and flow of their customers’ daily lives.

 

The Challenge

As part of our ‘Care on Every Corner’ culture-change program, Interchange designed and delivered a conference for 7-Eleven corporate staff. The purpose of the conference was to encourage participants to consider the current culture, behaviours and practices surrounding employee safety and wellbeing, and to think of ways in which it can be improved.

By commencing the Discover phase of our work prior to the conference, we were able to use the findings to glean further insight from staff that, in addition to their thoughts on safety and wellbeing, extended to how to improve the overall business. We asked staff to identify innovative and left-of-field ways that 7-Eleven could make improvements – across both the corporate and store environments – and to pinpoint the impact that corporate staff have on the store network.

 

The Solution

To design and deliver the most engaging and advantageous conference for 7-Eleven, Interchange entered a comprehensive discover phase, consisting of focus groups and 1-1 interviews with staff. From these conversations, Interchange was able to get a better grasp on how wellbeing and safety could be improved throughout the organisation and instilled further within its DNA.

In addition to their thoughts on safety and wellbeing, staff also put forward some innovative and left-of-field recommendations to improve the overall business- across corporate and store environments. It was also important to understand the impact that corporate staff have on the store network. Our findings from the Discover phase went on to inform and guide the direction of the conference design.

To best engage the 7-Eleven workforce during the conference, we purposefully designed it to be facilitated and delivered in the most energising way possible. Our aim was to provide an environment where participants could relax and have fun with their peers, allowing them to think outside of the box.

We created a stimulating, round-robin set of activities, encouraging participants to use design-thinking to collaboratively brainstorm additional ways to improve safety and wellbeing at 7-Eleven. This process further cemented the findings from our Discovery report and provided valuable suggestions that could only come from those affected by the issues.

By the end of the conferences, a total of 400 people had participated, across 4 different sessions.

 

The Outputs

Like all Interchange programs, our conference sessions deployed the most relevant assets to encourage discussion within the groups.

In the case of 7-Eleven, we designed five separate activities, some of which included:

  • A virtual reality experience
  • Quiz questions
  • True or false statements
  • Brainstorming session targeting the improvement of safety and wellbeing initiatives.

Participants also had the opportunity to reflect on how corporate staff impact the safety and wellbeing of 7-Eleven stores and generate innovative ideas for improving these aspects of the business.

 

The Results

Our program generated a plethora of innovative and relevant ideas to help steer 7-Eleven towards an impactful cultural transformation with a sharp focus one employee safety and wellbeing.

  • Over 250 ideas were generated providing useful insight and a starting point for the 7-Eleven Leadership team.
  • Rich discussions were held, detailing the impact corporate staff have on the safety and wellbeing of workers at 7-11 stores.
  • Staff identified that overall business performance could be improved, as well as safety and wellbeing, through flexible working arrangements and the availability of workplace wellness facilities.
  • Discussions frequently highlighted the key behaviours requiring attention from 7-Eleven to drive cultural change.
  • Participants made suggestions for around changes to systems and processes, which were then considered for piloting.

 

With the abundance of ideas generated by those actually affected by the culture, behaviours, policies and procedures, 7-Eleven is now strongly positioned to embark on the next phase of its culture change journey.

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