A new way of working transforms Foodstuffs South Island’s digital services

When Shayne Tong took up the role of chief digital officer at New Zealand supermarket co-operative Foodstuffs South Island in 2022, it was clear there was opportunity to modernise and reset how the team worked.

The organisation had conducted an independent IT capability review in the months prior, which found that the digital services team was technically strong, but that the structure of the teams and ways of working meant engagement and retention rates were lower than other parts of the co-operative.

“I was so lucky to join a talented IT team of 180 permanent staff who were strong as individuals and expert within their technical domains,” says Tong. “The opportunity that got me excited was to use the findings of the capability review to reset our approach to digital services, modernising our ways of working and refreshing our team culture to make us stronger than the sum of our parts.”

Tong says the goal was to create a team with a great culture and environment where people feel cared for, supported and could grow.

“We knew that if we could place our people at the centre of everything we do, then our engagement and retention rates would take care of themselves.”

“We also wanted to add in more control and process in some places, such as demand management, delegated authority and decision making but we had very talented people, who were delivering some very strong digital outcomes,” he says. “They were very customer and member-centric and delivered high-quality results and innovation. So, I had to come in and not break everything but make sure to maintain service operations and overall stability, while resetting some of those underlying structures, behaviours, and ways of working in the organisation.”

Tong says there was support from the executive team, the Board, and the team to reset the function to meet the needs of the organisation’s digital business strategy into the future.

“I knew I had the mandate and support of Mary, the Chief Executive Officer, as she’d conducted the independent IT capability review before I joined.”

So, he turned the findings of the capability review into an opportunity with the leadership team, saying he wasn’t looking for perfection but an opportunity to turn constructive feedback into a positive, which is what happened.

New ways of working

The first step was to put in place a range of initiatives to focus on a reset and an uplift in IT capability. That focus included adding more investment to the team, mapping career pathways and putting in place the learning and development opportunities needed to get there. A skills assessment was conducted, and learning development plans were put in place.

“We did the SFIA skills assessment, trying to get a full view of all the skills across the team, and then we put in learning development plans,” he says. “We started to invest more heavily in our people and that’s still filtering through. People always appreciate it when someone is interested in their skills and putting learning and development pathways in place to help them grow and develop.”

They also updated job titles and position descriptions to make them clearer and in line with the wider industry.

The most significant part of the reset was working on a new digital operational model, accompanied by quarterly product planning and a shift toward agile methodologies.

“I worked initially with Deloitte who provided a high-level operating model and then we started to look at how to implement moving to modern best practices around products, customer-centred products, and product teams, as well as platform centres of excellences.  So, we went through a period of time refining that with support from the DataCom business transformation team.”

Through that process they created 20 new roles as well as establishing a new digital services leadership team and teams based around a product, platform, or centres of excellence.

“We’ve done a lot of work around culture and behaviours,” he says. “We’ve rebranded ourselves from IT to Digital Services and that was co-designed with the entire 180 strong team, with a smaller sub-group leading it.”

Tong says the team came together to create their mindset for the digital era and be clear on their purpose, guiding principles, and values.

“We’ve really reset our whole approach,” he adds. “We’re empowering our people and teams to make more decisions and we’re starting to see that filter down quite successfully.”

Moving to cross-functional product teams and agile ways of working has also given the team and internal customers more visibility on what the team are delivering and what’s planned for the next quarter.

“People are just amazed to see all the work,” he says. “No one really appreciated the volume of work in its entirety or understood how it fed into the overall digital services roadmap and what we’re delivering. They couldn’t see how it aligned to strategy. So now, there’s a much stronger focus on what we’re working towards and then bringing our customers in, making sure we’re working on the right things for the right quarter, and giving more visibility than ever before.”

A change of environment

Another part of their team transformation was a redesign of the physical space they were working in. The reset wasn’t just around changing an operating model and new leadership, but also involved revamping the physical look and feel.

The work area was completely gutted, with old cubicles removed and a flexible, modern workspace put in its place. What were once offices for middle management were converted to breakout or team meeting rooms.

“We’ve got an amazing environment where there’s fluidity of people moving around,” he says. “I don’t have an office, which is cool because I’ve never liked offices and now there’s enough breakout and meeting rooms.”

Tong says the changes have been embraced by the team and he’s hoping to see that reflected in their next engagement survey with an increase in people’s happiness levels at work.

“In the space of 12 months we’ve increased our engagement score by 11% and are getting some really positive comments about our culture and environment in our engagement surveys,” he says. “I’m proud of what we’re seeing in terms of diversity and inclusion too. The number of women in our team has increased by 76% and members of the team have setup a Women in Digital Services community to support our women to succeed and grow in their careers, networking, discuss career paths, and workshops to build skills. Our diverse team speaks over 20 languages and all our meeting rooms now have frosted glass with the name of the meeting room in 17 of those languages.”

Reflecting on the journey he’s been on; Tong says in hindsight he probably should’ve gone faster with some of the changes.

“I came in August 2022, and it wasn’t probably until February that we really nailed the operating model and the detail to be able to start to do a change process,” he says. “It almost felt too long, because everyone knew there was going to be some change but didn’t quite know what it was going to be, so that created uncertainty and anxiety. If I was doing it again, I’d probably try to do the operating model a bit faster, and just get into it.”

But Tong also adds that understanding the largest grocery retailer in the South Island also took time.

“Our 200 members own and operate all the South Island’s Four Square, New World, On the Spot, PAK’nSAVE and Raeward Fresh stores, employing over 14,000 Foodies across the South Island.  I was trying to build relationships all around, both in digital services, the executive, the board, the members,” he says. “I was on a really steep learning curve, even though I’m an experienced CIO having worked internationally and in many different industries. But still, it’s a sector and industry I haven’t worked in before. And culturally, all organisations are different, and it was an interesting place to walk into.”

Support of CEO ‘critical’

Tong also credits the organisation’s CEO, Mary Devine, who joined the co-op in late 2021, for undertaking the review and supporting the changes that enabled the digital services team to reinvent itself.

“The support through Mary and at the wider executive level was critical,” he says. “We spoke about moving to cross-functional product teams and working more agile, and I think it became clear once we started this journey that we’d see what happens with digital services, and then see whether we can expand out of that organisational wide. I’ve moved teams to agile ways of working in a few places before, so had the experience and while the full results are still coming through, we’ve had a positive outcome with the operating model and are in a great position for long term success.”