Operationalizing the role of IT to create a loveable employee experience

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Trust is at the heart of what we do at Schneider Electric. It is the backbone of our customer and partner relationships and further emphasized by our ‘Customer First’ core value. However, the key to our success lies in our ability to also treat employees as customers and partners. We aim to create an enjoyable employee experience bolstered by earned trust through exceptional IT and Business endeavors.

Today, gaps between IT and Business relationships result in dead-ends for transformative initiatives. Here at Schneider Electric, we’ve set out to bridge this divide by creating organizational synergies that further engage employees, remove roadblocks, and simplify internal activities to improve employee satisfaction.

How do companies move from passive participants and into the high-speed lane to achieve this change? The first step includes operationalizing the role of the CIO by thinking beyond traditional IT activities to further drive deeper collaboration with internal business counterparts to win in the market. A win for the business is a win for IT.

The second step is greenlighting agile experiments and innovative programs aimed at supporting employees, automating processes, and developing more avenues for collaboration. Specifically, an improved Tech Partner model, a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) team, and enhanced training and communications have put Schneider Electric on the expressway to achieving this loveable employee experience.

Crossroad for Talent and Support: A New Tech Partner Model

Positive change is not achieved on a one-way street. To enhance our workforce’s well-being and performance, it’s pertinent to provide a lane for reliable support.

Recently, our Employee Experience Leader has been working to improve our Onsite Tech Support role, referred to as ‘Tech Partners’, which have been deployed across the region at our facilities, both front and back-office. As opposed to outsourcing this role, these Schneider Electric Employee Tech Partners are empowered to take ownership of their sites and support employees with any digital challenges. Beyond the troubleshooting of individual assets, they assist site leaders with resolving technical issues, spanning from AV and Wi-Fi issues to connectivity on the shop floor.  

Perhaps most importantly, Tech Partners act as a single guide for our employees to navigate the vast global IT organization while gaining valuable business exposure and broader training in systems and applications. This role allows early career talent to expand their skillset and grow within Schneider Electric. The net result of this relationship is front-line engagement between the IT organization and the rest of the business, giving employees the convenience of an onsite partner dedicated to helping them resolve any IT issues. 

The Intersection of IT Capabilities and Business Performance: RPA and the Business

At Schneider Electric, we’re paving the way to a more digital future through automation for our customers, internally and externally. One such example is our North America IT RPA team. The mission of the team is “to enable job-enrichment by minimizing repetitive, mundane tasks through leveraging Robotic Process Automation”.

Proper support paired with streamlined operations leads to tangible gains across the business. In the first half of 2023 alone, the team has worked to drive millions of dollars in productivity savings and revenue expansion.  This value delivery is derived from only 15 use cases across the region. With plans to expand the team’s reach, the intersection of business goals and IT applications creates an overpass between domains while increasing employee fulfillment and modernizing our internal processes.

Entering New Lanes: Enhanced Training and Communications

As the digital workplace rapidly evolves, it’s our responsibility to ensure employees not only have access to the latest and greatest tools, but also have the knowledge to leverage them for efficient collaboration.

A crucial aspect of our Employee Experience strategy is offering training, specifically around workplace productivity. For Schneider Electric, a dedicated North America trainer offers countless opportunities to every employee to upskill on tools and technology. Each year, new training is held around various innovative tools such as Microsoft’s Power Automate, opening lanes for employees to explore the possibilities for smaller scale RPA-like integrations.

In addition to training, we’ve ramped up communications around IT improvements throughout the region. We aim to share our learnings and celebrate our successes, while exposing our employees to new tools and best practices, so they’re not stuck spinning their tires with outdated practices.

Avoid Potholes: Put it in Practice

An improved IT and Business alliance and business enablement is achieved through trust, digitization, and effective change management. These easily replicable efforts outlined above eliminate some of the potholes that cause traffic on the way to a loveable employee experience. Moreover, operationalizing IT improves employee engagement and collaboration through increasing the credibility of the IT organization, clearly establishing it as a trusted business partner and margin driver. This positive internal effect sets the tone for external relations, freeing up our employees’ energy to continue placing the customer first. But we must remember, this is a continuous process, and we will always work to improve.

Find out more about digital roles at Schneider Electric! Visit our careers website!