Cristina Mancas, Schneider Electric: Wellbeing initiatives & Open Talent Market

A Speaker in All-Star | Employer Branding panel at BR’s recent Working Romania HR Conference, Cristina Mancas, HR vice-president at Schneider Electric, explained how her company has transformed and adapted in the last year, while also honoring its organizational culture „Together is better”, with a strong focus on employees and their wellbeing.

Wellbeing initiatives

For Schneider Electric, Cristina Mancas, SEE HR vice-president, says that the company had a wellbeing committee even before the pandemic and they had done many activities almost monthly, supporting and emerging their people as a team.

“We went online on the 11^th of March 2020, and all the wellbeing activities we used to do at the office needed to be done differently. Our committee, which is formed by creative volunteers, came up with a lot of ideas related to the books last read, seen movies, even cooking. Our colleagues started to post them online, on Teams, and the winner was selected by the number of likes, gaining a one-to-one session with our Country General Manager, Lucian Enaru.”

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With the help from their General Manager, but also with the involvement of their management colleagues, the employees have had guided assistance and many initiatives that improved their connection and gave them meaning during these tough times. Also, she mentioned: “Even though we have a policy implemented that would’ve let us meet face to face, we’re still in a work from home system because we care about safety, and we spiced up the digital interactions a little bit, by introducing courses on diverse topics, such as financial or parenting, which were really appreciated.”

Open Talent Market

The entire group of Schneider has a focus on developing the digital platforms, besides the Open Talent Market. Cristina Mancas, SEE HR vice-president, mentions that “many of them have been launched during the pandemic, but they were on the anvil and in development before the pandemic. The learning platform is made for our colleagues to access courses on all the topics they can think of, the recognition part for the international team of Schneider gives points, prizes, or just a simple Thank you for the colleague or the team who they have worked with on a project, and now it is available for the colleagues that retire.”

Regarding Open Talent, it is a new program aiming to break old paradigms in which employees must have done the same job for months or even years to prove their contribution and liability, giving them the possibility to apply for a different position or even as a mentor here, in Romania, or anywhere across the world where Schneider activates.

Cristina Mancas continues: „Open Talent brought possibility and transparency in everything that concerns open positions at Schneider Electric, from long-term, permanent jobs to temporary or volunteering projects, on Marketing department, sustainability, and many other fields.” This program is also aiming to offer flexibility and inclusion, for the people working at Schneider, but not only, and it is a step up in the process of globalization.

The most wanted benefits the employees expect

When it comes to what employees expect from their job is not a specific thing, but a whole benefits package, or, as Cristina Mancas puts it: “an employee value proposition that attracts and holds the people in the company”. Moreover, she explains Schneider Electric’s organizational culture in Romania: „Our program’s culture is Together is better, thus we’re all about a strong connection with our employees, we have a unique selling proposition as a company in order to have our colleagues motivated and appreciated, but also we care about them feeling like Schneider is actually doing something good for them. For me, the flexibility of the schedule that Schneider offers is the thing that helps me the most. The fact that my managers understand that I need time in order to deal with my personal life, because I have two children, and now working online, from anywhere, is what helped me, and also my colleagues. More than this, I am proud of Schneider that does another thing differently, such as a work from home allowance.”