Modernization of HR processes: how not to lose contact with employees during the growth of the retail network

Файно маркет

Fayno Market is a chain of stores from a counter-type format to supermarkets, which has been actively developing in the Kirovohrad and Cherkasy regions since 2009. The slogan of the network is good neighborliness.
For the third year in a row, in the popular vote, the network receives the Brand of the Year award. In 2020 and 2021, the company received a distinction from the city authorities as the Best Employer of the Year and became one of the largest taxpayers in the Kirovohrad region in 2022.

  • Industry: Retail
  • Employees: 2225
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Website: fayno.market
Software and services SmartPoint Intranet

Fayno Market is a progressive retail chain of convenience stores that is growing rapidly. More than 100,000 buyers visit the stores daily. In the conditions of stable growth and expansion of the chain’s geography, high responsibility and observance of the principle of good neighborliness remain unchanged. Today Fayno Market is represented in 15 cities and 30 settlements of Ukraine.

The company develops its own trademarks: Vyhidno, Myla Pani, Luxberi, Fayna Marka and has 155 stores, own production and culinary – 31 bakeries, 17 pizzerias, 54 grill zones.

Despite the war and difficult business conditions in 2022, the chain entered the TOP-10 largest chains in Ukraine in terms of the number of outlets. And during martial law, the company has opened 27 new stores.

What was the reason for changes?

The rapid development of markers for neighbors – both in terms of the number of staff and the number of points of sale – has become an impetus on the path to full digitalization and automation of core business processes.

The company’s management has always paid great attention to the development of employees and the continuous improvement of working conditions. No wonder, therefore, that for several years in a row the chain received the Brand of the Year and Best Employer of the Year awards.

“With the expansion of the network, we began to think about how to keep in touch with employees of all departments. We understood that we needed digital tools for establishing internal communication and smooth operation within the network”.

Tetiana Pravda
Director of the Human Resources Department
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In 2022, a decision was made to implement a Ukrainian solution SmartPoint Intranet, developed by SMART business based on Microsoft technologies, which was the first step in the company’s global digital transformation.

Beginning of the transformation 

The main request that the customer turned to us with was to build a single ecosystem for managing the staff of the entire network with the possibility of strategic planning. Of course, automated tools were required to solve this task. The management of Fayno Market chose Microsoft as a unified vendor to automate business processes and increase the productivity of staff and the company as a whole.

“We chose secure software and a reliable Ukrainian company to implement our strategy. In addition, Microsoft provided free licenses for 4 months for Ukrainian businesses, which was a nice bonus. We were faced with the task of a global transition to the Microsoft 365 infrastructure”.

Dmytro Sarvadi
Director of Information Technology Department

Opportunities opened up by SmartPoint Intranet

Centralized access to all Microsoft 365 apps

Using SmartPoint Intranet, the customer got free access to Microsoft 365 tools in a single environment: Office 365, Azure, Power BI, Yammer, Teams, SharePoint, Planner, Sway.

SmartPoint Intranet provided a single, secure entry point for all users: using Microsoft Azure AD, the customer has access to all Microsoft 365 accounts.

New digital applications and revised and improved business processes have created a convenient and modern employee workplace.

Now all internal communication processes take place in a single window thanks to seamless integration with Microsoft Teams. That is, after installing SmartPoint Intranet, a tab appeared in Microsoft Teams for quick access to the corporate portal. Employees can work with the portal as an inseparable part of the Microsoft Teams functionality.

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Collection and systematization of corporate information

It was important for the customer to consolidate corporate information in a single environment in order to provide employees with quick access to it.

Company news, events, standards, corporate culture documents, templates and instructions (for example, onboarding) – all this became available from a single window.

Due to synchronizing the portal calendar with Outlook and Teams calendars, employees do not need to switch between different applications to view scheduled appointments and upcoming company events.

To provide employees with access to document templates or answer common questions such as “how to take a vacation” or “how to get a certificate of employment”, the customer can use the content page builder. This is an easy-to-use CMS tool that you can set up yourself without the involvement of external specialists.

Convenient viewing of the multi-level structure of the retailer network

Since the trend of constant development continues in Fayno Market, which leads to an increase in the number of outlets and, accordingly, staff expansion, it is important for top management to see an organizational structure that reflects real changes.

For convenience, the customer uses a horizontal organizational structure on the portal with the ability to filter employees and departments. In the organizational structure, it is possible to find the needed department or branch, subordination and contact details of employees.

For communication, Fayno Market also uses employee directory, where, in addition to contact details, you can find information about the birthday, department, position, corresponding tasks of a colleague, and even the date of the first working day in the company.

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Saving and recording important events

The management of the chain had a request to create their own media library to save such important events as the opening of new supermarkets or corporate events.

Upon implementing SmartPoint Intranet, the customer received an environment for saving photo and video reports broken down by albums with easy navigation due to the branched folder hierarchy. This made it possible to sort events and quickly find the necessary files.

Automated process of opening a new point of sale

Opening a retail outlet is a multi-level, highly complex process in a retail company. Previously, to perform tasks within this goal, the customer used Bitrix24, but it did not fully meet the customer’s requests in many regards. Therefore, in addition to improving the processes of opening outlets by automating procedures, we were faced with the task of painless and quick migration of the customer from Russian software with the preservation of historical data.

Having analyzed the process of opening a new outlet, the SMART businees team is currently conducting workshops for the customer to help simplify and reconfigure procedures using Microsoft Power Platform tools.

“Thanks to the systematic approach of our specialists to process automation and the modern platform from Microsoft, we can increase the efficiency of the customer’s current business processes. The use of convenient tools for a comprehensive solution of automation issues makes it possible to create a single ecosystem that harmoniously combines digital technologies and the productive work of all employees”.

Volodymyr Moskalenko
Product Owner in SMART business
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About the plans

To implement the customer’s further plans for the transformation of HR processes and the role of HR in general, it was decided to integrate the SmartPoint Intranet portal with the SMART HCM & LMS HR management solution. Now, through the portal, you can already assign training in LMS and track the result. Full implementation is just being finalized.

After project completion, a full-fledged HR environment will start operating in Fayno Market, which will cover all the most important processes for improving productivity and interaction between employees, as well as HCM and L&D processes.

Fayno Market has a modern and energetic team committed to change, innovation, and growth, so the company’s next steps will be further digitalization by expanding the functionality of the SmartPoint Intranet portal, Microsoft Power Platform and introducing an innovative meeting room with built-in AI (artificial intelligence) technology.

“Our country is going through a severe ordeal, many have lost their jobs, lost their homes.

Therefore, it is impossible to overestimate the importance of developing Ukrainian business, which not only creates jobs, but also gives hope for building the Ukraine of the future.

We are very pleased that we were able to help Fayno Market in the digital transformation of the HR function. After all, the implemented solutions will help in informing, educating, supporting, and creating a safe corporate environment, and therefore in the development of a business that plays a crucial strategic role in the food retail industry”.

Natalya Onyshchuk
CEO of SMART business
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