{"id":13207,"date":"2018-08-27T11:00:14","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T19:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/08\/27\/news-6974\/"},"modified":"2018-08-27T11:00:14","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T19:00:14","slug":"news-6974","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/08\/27\/news-6974\/","title":{"rendered":"How Creating a Culture of Wellbeing is Helping Schneider Electric Build an Engaged Workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Guest Blogger| Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2018 14:17:07 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Written by <\/span>Eleanor Whitehouse<\/a><\/div>\n
This blog post originally appeared on PeopleManagement.co.uk<\/a><\/div>\n
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The multinational energy management firm crowdsourced its wellbeing strategy from its 142,000 employees<\/h4>\n
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Photo credit: peoplemanagement.co.uk<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

As Schneider Electric\u2019s employees commonly joke among themselves, it\u2019s the biggest company no one\u2019s ever heard of. But for an under-the-radar business, it has enviable credentials.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Boasting global revenues of more than \u20ac24bn in the last financial year (5 per cent of which is invested into energy research), the self-described \u201cglobal leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation\u201d counts the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and EDF Energy among its customers.Headquartered in France, the company has over 50 sites in the UK, and more than 100 others across six continents, together employing in excess of 142,000 people. With such a large workforce \u2013 all critical to the company\u2019s success \u2013 it\u2019s important that those people feel able to perform at their best.\u201cWe know there\u2019s a clear connection between employee wellbeing and company performance,\u201d says Colleen McKnight, VP of HR for the UK & Ireland\u00a0(pictured)<\/em>. \u201cSo when the company began work on its new five-year strategy back in 2015, we knew that wellbeing had to be front and centre. We\u2019d had various people initiatives in the past \u2013 some of which related to wellbeing \u2013 but this was the first time we\u2019d made it part of our core company strategy.\u201dWith the workforce spread from the Thames to Tahiti and Tokyo, putting together a comprehensive wellbeing programme suitable for them all was an unenviable task. \u201cThe idea of \u2018wellbeing\u2019 means different things to different countries and cultures,\u201d says Barcelona-based global wellbeing leader Diana Bacanu.\u201cSo we spent almost four months listening to people\u2019s individual needs across the globe in a \u2018bottom up\u2019 approach. It wasn\u2019t just a small team sat in an office deciding what wellbeing was \u2013 we took the time to analyse all the suggestions.\u201dThe resultant programme was designed to be holistic, covering not just physical wellbeing but its mental, emotional and social aspects too. \u201cFor us, wellbeing is a broader picture of everyone being able to make the most of their energy not only at work, but also at home,\u201d says Bacanu.<\/p>\n

The programme covers five \u2018pillars\u2019 of wellbeing: healthier behaviours, which encourages employees to make better decisions and take care of themselves; flexibility, ensuring a good work-life balance; the physical workplace, and how it supports wellbeing; overall culture, helping employees feel good at work beyond policies; plus a pillar designed specifically for leaders.<\/p>\n

While roughly a fifth of the content is common across the board, the rest can be tailored to individual countries and their specific requirements. At the programme\u2019s core is a 90-minute basic training session, covering topics including sleep, nutrition and mindfulness, delivered face-to-face in local languages by a team of 150 trainers. Countries that don\u2019t yet have in-person training can access it via a webinar.<\/p>\n

Stemming from the basic training is a catalogue of 71 other sessions, including a neuroscience-based series on tackling stress; basic and advanced mindfulness sessions; and webinars on sleep, nutrition and exercise. Employees also have access to an impressive range of benefits and services so they can take better care of themselves at home as well as at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire programme puts the individual at the centre and allows our people to take control of their wellbeing and look after their needs,\u201d says McKnight. \u201cSo far, over 30,000 staff across the world have taken the basic wellbeing module. While we don\u2019t want to make it mandatory, we find inspiring people to take it up is enough encouragement on its own, because the benefits are very clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

To complement the organic nature of the programme\u2019s design, the 2,000 most senior managers across the company took an extended, two-day version of the core session, giving them the ability to take the lead in embedding it into company culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s quite powerful,\u201d says Peter Hogg\u00a0(pictured)<\/em>, talent mobility and acquisition manager for the UK & Ireland. \u201cThis has been crowdsourced from the bottom up, but it\u2019s now being adopted by senior management and pushed from the top down as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside the curated resources, the company has also launched Wellbeing Labs, encouraging employees to take local programmes into their own hands and experiment (hence the name) with anything \u2013 big or small \u2013 that will generate wellbeing-related change.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone can launch a lab \u2013 they just need to have an idea that will help improve wellbeing,\u201d says Bacanu. \u201cAnything from a yoga teacher running sessions for colleagues, to trying stand-up\u00a0 desks. We have over 1,000 labs across the globe \u2013 it\u2019s something very special that people want to share their passion and contribute to everyone\u2019s wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helping embed this new culture is a team of more than 200 \u2018champions\u2019, whose job is to take an active role in bringing wellbeing to life for their own communities. \u201cBecause 80 per cent of the programme is at a local level, part of the champions\u2019 job is to translate the global content into more fitting local projects,\u201d says Bacanu.<\/p>\n

A handful of champions are full time, and the rest spend around a quarter of their time on wellbeing alongside their day-to-day roles. \u201cChampions can be from any function,\u201d adds McKnight. \u201cThis is a company initiative, not an HR initiative, so it is important that its champions are not just from HR.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three years on from its inception, the programme is making waves in the business, and has received 13 awards around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough it\u2019s early days, we\u2019ve already seen a 10 per cent increase in our engagement, which has in turn improved customer satisfaction and turnover,\u201d says McKnight. \u201cWe have a lot of qualitative feedback from people who used to struggle, but who say this initiative has changed their lives \u2013 we know it\u2019s making a massive difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s openness to flexibility is also helping it retain and attract talent. \u201cCandidates are starting to be more open around their wellbeing and flexibility needs, whereas it\u2019s been taboo in the past,\u201d says Hogg. \u201cThrough our job adverts and employer brand, we\u2019re helping make those conversations more comfortable, and using flexibility to retain employees and attract new ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the three-year mark, there\u2019s plenty of scope for wellbeing to get bigger and better, says Bacanu. \u201cAs well as strengthening our existing programme, we want to expand into new fields like financial wellbeing, and encourage collective behaviour change rather than just individual,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot to do, but it\u2019s part of our DNA now. As they say, healthy and happy people change the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/article><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The post How Creating a Culture of Wellbeing is Helping Schneider Electric Build an Engaged Workforce<\/a> appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.schneider-electric.com\/feed\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Guest Blogger| Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2018 14:17:07 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

Written by Eleanor Whitehouse This blog post originally appeared on PeopleManagement.co.uk The multinational energy management firm crowdsourced its wellbeing strategy from its 142,000 employees As Schneider Electric\u2019s employees commonly joke… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n

The post How Creating a Culture of Wellbeing is Helping Schneider Electric Build an Engaged Workforce<\/a> appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[12389,12388],"tags":[18053,12824,12672,14945,18054],"class_list":["post-13207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scadaics","category-schneider","tag-flexibility-at-work","tag-life-schneider-blog","tag-life-at-schneider-electric","tag-well-being","tag-wellbeing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}