Saving money and the planet at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

In June 2020, in the midst of the first COVID-19 lockdown, a KLM pilot realised that while he was carrying only half the number of passengers on his aircraft, he was carrying a full load of water, enough for an aircraft filled to capacity.

Extra weight on an aircraft means extra cost due to more fuel consumption, not to mention the impact on the environment from unnecessary fuel emissions.

The pilot posted the issue on KLM’s Flight Operations Yammer Community, an online community established for all flight operations crew. Normally, water loads on an aircraft would be adjusted to the number of passengers, but the pilot had recognised a glitch in the system.

The correct experts were tagged in the Yammer post, only to find there was, in fact, a bug in the system.

They updated the system that same day, meaning every KLM flight was suddenly carrying less water and using less fuel. This immediately saved the airline money and reduced fuel emissions.

Normally, issues like this go through a reporting system and would have eventually been rectified. But it would not have been addressed with the speed in which it was done by posting on Yammer, and would not have resulted in immediate financial and environmental savings.

“We see that via Yammer questions, ideas and feedback reach the right department quicker,” said Maud van de Vosse, a KLM pilot who also manages the company’s Yammer Community for Flight Operations, which has 2,400 interactive members.
“It goes to the right colleague on the same day and it saves money in the end. A great example of a YamWin!”

It’s also a reflection of the culture at KLM for employees to connect on Yammer. Unlike most workplaces, airline staff don’t have a traditional office in which to meet, connect and discuss issues.

Yammer becomes the company canteen

Every day, you’re working with a new crew, often with colleagues you have never before met. That’s where Microsoft’s enterprise social network Yammer comes in. It gives every employee a place to collaborate, connect and communicate across the organisation.

Jaap Lalkens, a cabin attendant and one of KLM’s Community Managers for Inflight Services, gives the example of a senior purser on a flight. There is only ever one senior purser on every flight so you can’t learn from each other by watching how your colleagues are operating.

But they can share their tips and tricks on Yammer.

“For those working up in the air, Yammer is often the only connection they have,” he said.

Jaap Lalkens, KLM Community Manager for Inflight Services.

“I call Yammer the canteen. When I am at the office and having my daily lunch, I talk with a lot of colleagues and I hear a lot of stories, experiences and a lot of new things which can help me in my work.

“As a crew member I don’t have that experience. A physical connection to the company and colleagues is often temporary. I just fly my flights, I come back after two days and return to my apartment. A few days later I will have another flight scheduled with a complete new team, new people, complete strangers to me.

“Yammer is where you can meet each other, share information and experiences, share your questions about new company procedures and connect with the colleagues working at our offices about new initiatives.”

Jaap manages KLM’s Inflight Services Yammer Community along with five other colleagues. There are nearly 8,000 KLM employees in the Yammer community and overall there are 27,000 KLM employees on the Yammer network.

Patricia Mars, from KLM’s Corporate Communications team, said Yammer gives KLM the ability to increase engagement, connection and online collaboration within the airline.

“We’re trying to connect colleagues with the office so they can do their work in the best way for our customers. Yammer really helps with creating that optimal working climate we want to build,” she said.

Who is using Yammer?

Patricia and her team use data from SWOOP Analytics to track exactly where people and departments are connecting and collaborating and where there may be gaps that need addressing.

Patricia Mars, KLM Corporate Communications.

She said while she has a “gut feeling” of how staff are engaging on Yammer, SWOOP provides the data and science to see exactly what campaigns are engaging employees, which topics are most talked about and where work as a community manager needs to be concentrated.

Data from SWOOP allows KLM’s corporate communications team to share a wide range of analytics with management, such as the Most Engaging Posts on Yammer, share the levels of interactivity as well as when employees are sharing and connecting online, and highlight Influential People on the network.

“I use SWOOP to make dashboards to inform my stakeholders of what’s been happening. It’s giving us that extra layer of insights that’s really important,” Patricia said.

Jaap said he tries to encourage KLM leaders to follow SWOOP’s 1,2,3 rule which, he said, has resulted in higher engagement across the community.

Leaders in Inflight Services are benchmarked using SWOOP to see what their collaborative persona is and how they can improve their online behaviours to encourage more employees to engage across Yammer, Jaap said.

“We send an overview including personal benchmarks for leaders showing them which SWOOP personas they are, showing who is active within the community, what other leaders have been sharing and what the team may have missed on Yammer,” Jaap said.

A place for social interaction during COVID-19

Patricia said SWOOP data showed a “massive peak” in Yammer activity and engagement in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to work from home and the travel industry was among the hardest hit.

“We saw all these new people that we had never seen on Yammer before,” she said.
“We saw a lot of new colleagues that we had never seen before asking questions online. It was a crisis situation, there was a lot of uncertainty and Yammer is the place where you ask questions. Colleagues were reaching out and letting us know that they could help.
“It provides that social interaction that we are not able to have offline.”

With airlines hit hard by COVID-19 restrictions, KLM has had to restructure operations, with about 6,000 employees taking voluntary redundancies or retirement, including Jaap.

Again, Yammer has played a big part in the restructure with a Yammer Community called Blue Heroes.

It’s a place where employees post that they’re leaving KLM and share future plans, photos and memories. In a world of social distancing, news doesn't travel as quickly and as a result many employees may not even know their colleagues are leaving KLM. Patricia said it’s become the virtual place to bid colleagues farewell. However, she said it almost works better than a farewell party because everyone in the airline can see who is moving on and can celebrate their achievements.

“People are coming across colleagues they worked with 20 years ago and they’re able to share some stories and say goodbye” Patricia said.

“During COVID, Yammer is really on the roadmap at KLM, Yammer is becoming more and more a part of our culture now at KLM.”

KLM - ROI and Sustainability