Schneider Electric – Back to basics to boost engagement
Liza Emmanuel, Marketing Manager, Schneider Electric.
When Schneider Electric wanted to boost engagement in a Viva Engage community spanning multiple countries, it went right back to basics and asked members what they wanted from the community.
The employee communications team emailed a survey to all 5,000+ members of the H&D Viva Engage community, asking them what content they wanted in the community. Did they want to know about offer launches and innovation news, organisational change announcements, leadership news? And how did they want the content presented – videos, text-based articles, polls, infographics? This survey was also accessible within the Viva Engage community.
Liza Emmanuel, Marketing Manager, Schneider Electric, said that to get a feel for how people access employee communications, employees were also asked which platforms they prefer for their internal comms, with email, Viva Engage and Microsoft Teams group chats coming out on top.
The results of some of the questions asked in the survey to members of the H&D Viva Engage community.
With these insights, Schneider Electric transformed its Viva Engage H&D community to deliver the right content to employees, in the format they find most engaging.
Given the community’s large scale and global presence, various factors had to be considered to build a thriving environment that supported employees’ diverse needs.
The result of the revamp?
Shailesh Kumar, General Manager, Communications Performance Management, Schneider Electric.
Armed with data from SWOOP Analytics for Viva Engage, this revamped H&D community has recorded a 20% increase in employee engagement across Viva Engage in the past year.
Perhaps even more impressive is the increase in the number of posts, a sign that conversation is happening across the community, which can lead to innovation and knowledge sharing.
The number of posts initiated by colleagues has increased by 28%, and the number of reactions has jumped by 4%.
The percentage of interactive users (those that post/share, reply/comment or react) in the community has risen by 3% from 2024, although there is a slight decrease in the number of activities per user, in line with SWOOP Analytics’ overall findings in its 2025/26 Viva Engage benchmarking study.
“We started with a survey for Viva Engage to understand the comms channel preference (and) type of relevant content for the community members,” said Shailesh Kumar, General Manager, Communications Performance Management at Schneider Electric.
Shailesh said the survey identified “pain points” for employees – too much noise, no single source of information, the need for a reduction in communication, better audience targeting and “more information needed on what customers say”.
He said they also identified the topics people wanted to know about – offer launches, new company innovations, employee career paths, learning-based posts, market trends, competitions, face-to-face training, market insights, and links to Schneider Electric resources.
Through feedback, the employee comms team discovered that employees were especially interested in Schneider Electric’s global newsletter, leadership news, and best practice stories.
“We learned we need to organise content more, create a more centralised way of sharing all information whether it is offer launches, campaigns etc, and add more topics relevant to employees,” Shailesh said.
“Overall, we’ve had more visibility and higher interest from employees in joining the community.”
What does a Viva Engage campaign look like?
Based on the survey results, the employee comms team knew people were interested to getting to know their colleagues. Research from SWOOP Analytics shows stories about colleagues are some of the Most Engaging Posts on Viva Engage.
Schneider Electric did a series of blog posts published on the intranet and then shared the links to the blog posts in the H&D Viva Engage community, all with the goal of getting to better know colleagues.
A screenshot of an internet blog post about employees in the H&D community.
Screenshots of the blog’s cross-channel promotion in the H&D Viva Engage community, along with replies posted in Viva Engage.
More than 40 colleagues were featured in blog posts in 2025, with an average of 3,000 views, three comments and 20 reactions, according to data from SWOOP Analytics.
An example of SWOOP Analytics for Viva Engage’s Most Engaging Posts report which shows how many people have seen, replied, shared, engaged and reacted to a post. Please note, this is NOT Schneider Electric’s data.
Cecile Kozinski, Global Brand and Communications, Channel Owner – SPICE+ and Viva Engage, Schneider Electric.
“This is a kind of blog where we feature the stories of our employees to know them outside of their work,” said Cecile Kozinski, Global Brand and Communications, Channel Owner – SPICE+ and Viva Engage at Schneider Electric.
A platform to connect and interact with leaders
Emily Heitman, President, Schneider Electric Canada.
When Emily Heitman was appointed to the role of President of Schneider Electric Canada in October 2023, she wanted to best leverage the available communication channels as part of her introduction to the role so her people could get to know her, quickly.
“She wanted to introduce herself to local employees as a priority,” said Laura Contreras, Communications Specialist at Schneider Electric, who worked with the new president.
“She wanted to be present, reachable and ensure everyone on the team knew how excited she was to take on the challenge of transitioning from a previous large team of around 2,000 people.
“She is a charismatic, sharp and very approachable leader who was intentional on connecting with her new peers.”
Laura Contreras, Communications Specialist, Schneider Electric.
Laura said Emily was comfortable with the idea of recording videos and agreed Viva Engage was the place to host conversations.
The employee comms team brainstormed a title for a series of conversations with Emily that would be recorded and posted on Viva Engage. They wanted something catchy, playful and engaging, and came up with the name “Plug N’ Play”.
“Plug N’ Play’s purpose is for employees to ‘plug in’ to thoughtful conversations, actions and advancements happening across Canada so we can successfully play better, together,” Laura said.
“People want to be able to connect with leaders and interact with them. They want to feel they are being listened to, and for senior leaders, Viva Engage provides a unique platform to do this, at scale.”
As the campaign evolved over time, it became less about getting to “know” Emily, with a shift towards what she and her leadership team had to say.
“Two years and 10+ guests later, the monthly Plug N’ Play videos hit 100% of our Viva Engage audience,” Laura said.
Viva Engage is the single point of contact for social exchange between internal teams at Schneider Electric in Canada.
“I encourage subject matter experts, leaders, peers to publish and take the lead in engaging as it is platform for employees to exchange and spark conversation,” Laura said.
“As a community expert, I am privy to the many capabilities of the platform, and I make sure that the intel I own is shared with my peers.
“I reassure them that the Viva Engage group is owned by all of us, so we should feel comfortable with the idea of posting, conversing and elevating the conversations.”
Laura has two “golden rules” for Viva Engage.
Make it flexible – Ensure governance guidelines are set in place, but the conversation should not be limited to what internal communications or leadership has to say. As an employee, you are expected to contribute to the conversations or start your own.
Make it known – leverage the different platform features and @mention colleagues.
Schneider Electric’s top performing community
Vidushi Rastogi, Senior Manager, Global Comms, Schneider Electric.
Schneider Electric boasted five communities in the top 25 in SWOOP Analytics’ 2025/26 benchmarking of 5,758 Viva Engage communities, based on measures of consistent activity levels, two-way relationships, connections between members, sentiment analysis of conversations, growth in activity and more.
One of these top ranked communities, called the CS&Q community, came in at No.19 in SWOOP Analytics’ ranking of 5,758 communities. It’s a community that thrives on conversations, asking questions and receiving replies and sharing best practices.
Vidushi Rastogi, Senior Manager, Global Comms at Schneider Electric, manages the CS&Q community and described it as a “vibrant global forum, consistently attracting 1.5 times more traffic than its member strength”.
This community brings together employees from diverse domains including sales, R&D, manufacturing, product design, operations, supply chain, engineering, lines of business and more.
“The community thrives on open dialogue and empowerment, where everyone is encouraged to share updates, ask questions, and exchange best practices,” Vidushi said.
“Regular nudges from leadership reinforce this culture of collaboration, pride, and peer learning.
“For many members, this community has become the go-to channel to celebrate everyday wins and stay aligned with the functional mandate of ensuring 100% quality standards and great customer experience across products and services.”
Vidushi said this community serves as a dynamic, daily bulletin board with analytics dashboards, podcasts on continuous improvement, videos on manufacturing innovations and training announcements, along with learning opportunities.
Screenshots of Viva Engage posts in Schneider Electric’s CS&Q community.
