One way Schneider Electric is achieving gender equality is by expanding its talent pool of women leaders, with a focus on hiring more women in sales and technical roles, says Chief Human Resources Officer Charise Le in a report published by Capgemini.
The report, Conversations for Tomorrow, provides a forum for leading voices from business, academia, and government to come together to discuss the major strategic imperatives that are shaping the future of business and society.
Impact of the pandemic on Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric's Charise features in the latest edition that focuses on the future of work and examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the business landscape, accelerating the digitalisation process and revolutionising the way that we work.
In the report, Charise explains the impact of the pandemic on Schneider Electric’s people strategy, virtual ways of working, and talent management.
"We empower our employees and leaders to make decisions that benefit the local community. For example, when it comes to our product offerings, we empower our teams to customize and personalize our services and solutions, recognizing that each customer in each of our markets is unique," says Charise in the report. "We also took this approach to managing our people and ways of working during the pandemic. Our multi-hub model and local focus works very well – particularly during this crisis – and it ensured our local teams were empowered."
Enhancing a flexibility at work policy
Charise also discusses how Schneider Electric is working towards a hybrid working model following the pandemic. The company started by enhancing its “Flexibility at Work” policy, making two work-from-home days a global standard across the company.
"It is not easy to take a global decision like this and apply it to all the countries we operate in because of cultural resistance, which is quite strong in certain countries. Culture change takes time, but I strongly believe the future way of working is hybrid, so we must prepare for that," says Charise. "It is also important to note that we are not a “work from everywhere” company. While we support work from home or work from “somewhere” modes, we also deeply value face-to- face connections with colleagues and customers to drive innovation."
Adapting to new ways of working
In terms of adapting to this new way of working, Charise shares how Schneider Electric is training managers to engage employees with more empathy and care and to adjust their leadership and communication style. "And employees are learning that empowerment comes with responsibility in this new hybrid model. For example, our playbook lays the expectations for managers and employees in this new hybrid mode," she adds.
"We ask our managers to have ongoing conversations with their employees to agree on how they will work operationally in terms of remote versus office- based and to set goals for their working relationship so no one misses the opportunity to connect physically with colleagues."
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Disclosure: Where Women Work researches and publishes insightful evidence about how its paid member organizations support women's equality.