Home Depot fine tunes internal communications

ATLANTA - Pointing to the power of technology to improve communications to frontline employees, Home Depot Executive VP of U.S. Stores Marvin Ellison described a tool called "My Success" during the company's recent investor and analyst conference.

Ellison pointed to an example of how it will work in the store, once a department supervisor logs into the system: "If I were a hardware department supervisor, I would get a daily communication from the hardware merchant, making me aware of any product or promotion ideas that were coming online."

The daily note will also push out key sales and profit measurements specific to the department, and specific daily projects that might be required by the operations team.

"In the past, the only method for getting a message to the frontline hourly associates was to send a blanket e-mail or to push a report to them," Ellison said.

The My Success tool is an example of the company's effort to leverage technology to improve efficiency and service, he said.