Wawa is one of those heritage brands on the US east coast that people genuinely care about – 900+ stores, 30,000+ people, and a strong culture of "servant leadership" where in-store associates are at the centre of every decision.
But when Colleen Labik took on internal communications in 2019, she faced a familiar problem: their SharePoint 2010 intranet had become a decaying archive where content went to die. Information was technically there, but associates couldn't find it. The structure no longer matched how the company actually worked.
The groundwork that made all the difference
Rather than just launching a new platform, Colleen did something smart – she involved leadership and staff from across the business from day one through focus groups to help shape the project.
The content audit was massive: 20,000 pieces of content. She enlisted an army of business champions to tackle it, giving them ownership over deciding what to migrate, update, or delete. These champions became advocates for the new intranet, promoting it day-to-day and receiving early access to new features.
Launch and adoption
The original April 2020 launch was postponed due to COVID, which actually gave them more time for pilots and communications. When MyWawa (their Fresh intranet) finally launched in July, people were ready for it.
Colleen made a deliberate choice not to run formal training: "One of the reasons we chose Fresh as our intranet product was that I didn't think people would need any training – it is so intuitive to work with."
Three months in, the recognition feature was driving the most usage – fitting for a culture that puts people first. The intranet was already overtaking email as the primary source of information sharing.
What worked
The business champions proved invaluable. By involving them early, giving them ownership of the content migration, and building them into the governance structure, Wawa created a network of advocates who helped colleagues adapt and engage.
The bigger lesson? Getting the cultural and change management side right matters as much as the technology. Colleen invested heavily in that groundwork, and it paid off in adoption.
The challenge they're still working on
Interestingly, some associates struggled to trust the excellent search functionality because the old intranet's search had been so poor. Breaking old habits turned out to be harder than building new ones.
For organisations with large deskless workforces
If you're managing internal communications for retail, logistics, healthcare, or any organisation with significant numbers of deskless workers, Wawa's story offers some valuable lessons about involving people early, building advocacy networks, and choosing intuitive platforms that don't require extensive training.
Read the full Wawa case study
What challenges are you facing with reaching deskless or frontline workers in your organisation?
