Employee Engagement at Schneider Electric and NOT SCHNEIDER or SCHNEIDERS!

Schneider Electric SE or Schneider, is a multinational organization specialized in energy management and automation solutions. It is headquartered in France, Paris also known as Le Hive with more than 160K employees.

Speaking of multinational organizations , Schneider Electric undoubtedly connects employee from different countries together through various programs and communication media, and this is the real definition of employee engagement in my opinion.

Schneider Electric as one of the leaders promoting Internet of Things IOT and connected devices in the Electrical industry business (The EcoStruxure Platform) has also taken the idea to the next step by engaging employees to share and brainstorm their brilliant ideas through connected systems by different communication platforms. SE intranet SPICE portal for instance!

The SPICE portal is a similar platform as Schneider Electric Facebook or Twitter page where each SE user can start a discussion on a particular topic by utilizing HASHTAG# plus the word or words related to the topic. This way subject matter experts can get notified and get engaged in the discussion and share their experience. Undoubtedly this whole experience will help to utilize the collective intelligence of the SE members and to generate an excellent outcome which could not possibly be obtained with efforts of one or an isolated group of people.

Utilizing internal communication platforms in every organization can save more than 10K hours a year for  work force of this magnitude.
Finding out who to go to by sending direct Email and waiting for an individual’s response may possibly lead to a follow-up email trails.In contrast, the innovative internal social media can help find a resolution or get an expert opinion by using a HASHTAG # and the topic word, and get feedback from all the SE people who are expert in that one particular subject.
The trails of discussion can be publicly open to SE users in case there is a need to refer to the discussed topic.

If you think through this process, you will find how amazing this process is as it can encourage subject matter experts to get engaged in the discussion as now there is visibility to their opinion knowing their voices are getting heard and it may get executed somewhere in the world to benefit some people. So their ideas are not kept to themselves where they may not have potentials for implementation, but other SE members can benefit from and help to shape new ideas for more innovative solutions and products for collectively better future for all people.

Social media has not only been used for exchanging technical information within Schneider Electric internal platforms but, to encourage employees to participate in fundraising and charity events which are an amazing teamwork phenomenon.

SE has been involved in these type of events to support people who are in need of help. Of course, the role of social media platforms can’t be denied in spreading the message, explaining the mission, engaging the employees who are willing to join and eventually gathering people together to accomplish this successfully.

One Walk was one of these activities that have been encouraged to the employees through the inter-organizational social media platform.

Deborah, the internal communication manager for Canada operation in Schneider Electric stated that ;

Surveys conducted each year tells us that there is a solid connection between sharing and learning information here about the company, departments, projects etc., having the ability to collaborate more globally, and how this tool improves their efficiency. Canada’s users have shown some great activity on Spice since the launch of this collaboration platform in 2013, but we still have a way to go.  Canada had a 60% target mark to achieve the first year, and unfortunately, it was not achieved. Key here is that all information needed by employees was made available here and we had to look at ways to show the benefits of the Spice tool to our employees and most importantly, how to use it. The average employee age at SE is 46. We noted that the global marketing teams, Safety, and younger employees around the world quickly adopted use of this tool and continue to connect with global employees. This made sense given use of social media tools by those who grew up with these tools…For our older employees, we had to physically show them how it works, how to use it, and the benefits. There continues to be improvement in engagement here. However, more is yet to be done and to make it more user friendly. As the blog outlines, some of the great uses for Spice, enjoyed by employees are:

•             To inform and be informed

•             To collaborate on projects, issues, ideas, and more

•             To network with colleagues in groups or individually

•             To share information across Canada and around the globe– making great connections, sharing our wins with content and photos for all to see, enjoy and to recognize achievements

•             To be more efficient

 

Lessons for Others

The more an individual feels listened to, the more engaged and interested that person will become. I believe the fact of getting heard is a reward that employers such as Schneider Electric are offering to their talented workforce and role of internal or external social media is really beyond what we can think of.

Let’s just replay life from 20 years back and imagine our life without the use of social media!

 

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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