The Challenge
Connecting 30,000+ employees across 49 chains, 883 locations — and keeping them engaged every single day.
Massmart operates one of Africa's most complex retail employee environments. Frontline staff across Game, Builders Warehouse, Makro, Cambridge Food, and dozens of other chains span every province in South Africa — from hypermarkets in Gauteng to neighbourhood stores in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The challenge of reaching, engaging, and informing this workforce at scale was compounded by several critical realities:
— A geographically dispersed workforce with varying degrees of digital connectivity and personal data access
— The need to manage Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programmes consistently across all 49 chains
— Leadership development and culture-building initiatives that had to feel relevant to both head office teams and in-store staff
— Internal communications that needed to reach every employee, regardless of chain, location, or device
— Enterprise-grade security requirements — with Microsoft Azure Entra ID as the authentication standard across the Massmart group
The platform also had to solve a fundamental access equity problem: many frontline retail employees cannot afford to use their personal mobile data to access internal company platforms. Any solution that required personal data spend would systematically exclude the very employees it was meant to serve.
"When you have 30,000 people across 49 retail brands, 'internal communications' isn't a newsletter — it's a full technology infrastructure problem. We needed a partner who could build something that worked for a store assistant in Limpopo the same way it works for a manager in Sandton."
— Massmart People & Culture Team
The Solution
A white-label Employee Experience Platform — enterprise-grade, data-free, and built for Massmart's scale.
Social Wiiv designed and deployed a fully white-labelled Employee Experience Platform on a custom Massmart domain — integrated with Azure Entra ID for secure single sign-on, and enabled with Reverse Billing so every employee can access the platform without spending a single megabyte of personal data. The platform has evolved continuously since its 2015 launch, growing alongside Massmart's business to accommodate new chains, locations, and employee experience priorities.
Azure Entra ID SSO · White Label · Custom Domain
1. Platform Foundation — Azure Entra ID & White-Label Identity
The Massmart platform is built on a fully white-labelled foundation — custom domain, custom branding, custom navigation, and a fully custom UI that reflects the Massmart visual identity rather than any Social Wiiv product. Access is gated through Microsoft Azure Entra ID (Active Directory) — ensuring that only verified Massmart employees can log in, using their existing corporate credentials, with no additional passwords or registration steps required.
Azure Entra ID (Active Directory) Integration — employee access is managed entirely through Massmart's own Azure Entra ID — single sign-on, enterprise-grade security, no separate credentials to manage
Fully White-Labelled UI — custom logos, favicon, homepage layout, navigation structure, footer, menu sizing, custom CSS, and custom font uploads — the platform is 100% Massmart-branded
Data API — 30,000+ Employee Records — a secure Data API manages the full Massmart employee dataset across 49 chains and 883 locations, syncing continuously with the HRS system to add, edit, update, and deactivate employee accounts in real time
Custom Organisational Structure — custom locations, branches, divisions, departments, teams, and sub-teams mirror Massmart's real organisational hierarchy — enabling precise content targeting at every level
Platform Features
16 employee-facing features — each configurable, targeted, and trackable.
The Massmart Employee Experience Platform is built on Social Wiiv's modular addon architecture — giving Massmart full control over which features are active, who sees them, when they appear, and what actions they reward. Every feature includes targeting, scheduling, an audit trail, points allocation, categories, comments, social actions, and global search — configured directly through the admin CMS.
Profile Completeness
Employees earn points for updating and completing their personal profile — driving data quality and initial platform adoption.
Banner Ads
Static and animated banners — up to 6 carousel slides with custom URLs, open in same or new tab, and full click tracking on all links.
Sentiment Check-in
Daily or weekly sentiment check-ins to monitor employee satisfaction, mood, health, and cultural ethos across the workforce in real time.
Documents
Secure, targeted access to important internal documents — policies, toolkits, HR resources, and operational guides.
FAQs
Build and publish custom FAQ sections — allowing Massmart to manage common employee questions centrally across all chains.
News, Articles & Videos
Corporate news, leadership updates, vacancy postings, benefits communications, and wellness content — all publishable in rich media.
Polls
Quick employee opinion polls — lightweight engagement to capture sentiment and preferences without the friction of a full survey.
Submit Your Story
Employees submit company stories for publication — with moderation and custom points awarded for quality submissions.
Surveys
Custom survey builder for employee feedback and insights — quick, easy, and fully configurable by the Massmart team.
Custom Pages
WYSIWYG page builder for custom content pages — DEI toolkits, leadership resources, campaign landing pages, and more.
Take Me To
Tracked internal and external shortcut links — with full click tracking analytics on every destination.
Internal Messaging
In-platform chat between users — configurable as open messaging or limited to support chat only, depending on Massmart's preference.
Universal Content Controls — Applied to Every Feature
Targeting — public, all authenticated users, or filtered by country, location, branch, user type, gender, or specific tags
Scheduling — start and end date/time for every piece of content, no manual publish/unpublish required
Audit Trail — full log of who created, edited, and published every content item
Points / Credits — reward any action: read, watch, complete, or download
Categories — sub-categories with optional images/icons for every feature module
Social Actions — like, dislike, love, share, and comment on any content item
Admin CMS
Enterprise administration — email campaigns, SMS, analytics, and multi-role access control.
Behind the employee-facing platform sits a full-featured admin CMS that gives the Massmart People & Culture team — and their designated moderators, content creators, and analytics viewers — complete control over every aspect of the platform, without needing developer support for day-to-day operations.
Business Logins & Role Management
Multiple admin user types: Administrator, Moderator, Content Creator, Content Viewer, and Stats Viewer — each with precisely scoped access to ensure the right people can see and do only what they need to.
Terminologies — Rename Any Feature
Every platform feature and function can be renamed to match Massmart's own internal language — creating a seamless branded experience where the platform speaks the company's terminology, not generic product labels.
Email Campaigns — Bulk SMTP
Bulk email campaigns from a custom Massmart email address, using custom email templates with merge fields and full audience segmentation targeting — the same precision targeting as the platform's content engine, applied to email communications.
SMS Campaigns — API Relay
Bulk SMS campaigns sent via API Relay with merge fields — reaching employees directly on their personal devices regardless of app usage, ensuring critical communications land even when staff are not actively on the platform.
Platform Statistics — Real-Time Analytics
Real-time graphs and stats across every feature and addon — filterable by branch, location, or date range. Full data export to Excel. Google Tag Manager integration for advanced analytics tracking. Every data point accessible to the right stakeholder at the right level.
Secure Data API — 30,000+ Employee Records
A secure Data API manages the complete Massmart employee dataset across 49 chains and 883 locations — syncing continuously with the HRS system to add, edit, update, and deactivate employees in real time, ensuring the platform always reflects the current workforce.
Mobile & Access
Native apps, push notifications, and data-free access — the platform works for every employee.
Mobile Applications — Android & iOS
The Massmart Employee Experience Platform is available as native applications on both Android and iOS — giving frontline employees access on the devices they carry every day, without requiring a desktop or laptop. Push notification campaigns allow the Massmart People team to reach employees directly on their phones with targeted, time-sensitive communications — whether for a culture initiative, a policy update, or an urgent operational message.
Android & iOS Native Apps — full platform functionality in a native mobile experience, available for all Massmart employees
Push Notification Campaigns — targeted push notifications to all or specific segments of the workforce, driving re-engagement and timely communications without requiring email or SMS
Data-Free Access
Reverse Billing
Employees access the platform on their mobile devices without using their own personal data. The data cost is reverse billed directly to Massmart — ensuring every employee, regardless of data affordability, can participate fully in the platform.
Zero cost to the employee — every byte is on Massmart
"The data-free access was non-negotiable for us. We have cashiers, stockroom staff, and drivers who couldn't justify using their personal airtime for a company app. Reverse billing changed everything — suddenly the platform was truly for everyone."
— Massmart People & Culture Team
What the Platform Powers
From DEI toolkits to leadership development — a single platform for every employee experience priority.
The Massmart Employee Experience Platform isn't a single programme — it's the infrastructure that powers Massmart's entire employee experience strategy. Since 2015, the platform has been the delivery mechanism for some of Massmart's most important people initiatives, evolving continuously as the business grows and as new employee experience priorities emerge.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programmes — toolkits, strategies, and content designed to embed DEI values across all 49 chains. Custom Pages deliver DEI resources directly to the right employee segments.
Leadership & Team Dynamics
Leadership development content, team building resources, and culture-shaping communications delivered through Articles, Videos, and Custom Pages — targeted to the right leadership tiers.
Wellbeing content, mental health resources, and daily Sentiment Check-ins give Massmart real-time insight into workforce mood and health across the entire organisation.
Internal communications that strengthen Massmart's employer brand and Employee Value Proposition — showcasing benefits, growth pathways, vacancies, and company culture to every employee on the platform.
Supporting growth, restructuring, and cultural transformation with tailored EX strategies — the platform's content and targeting architecture enables Massmart to deploy change communications precisely and measurably.
Employee Voice & Feedback
Surveys, Polls, Submit Your Story, and Sentiment Check-ins give every employee — from store assistant to regional manager — a structured channel to be heard and a reason to engage daily.
Platform Scale — Massmart by the Numbers
30K+
Employees on platform