Etex builds on family culture by supporting digital and frontline employees through Viva Connections

Communication breakdown

Etex’s global growth made it challenging to maintain a fully connected workforce. The company relied on physical bulletin boards, company newsletters, and other manual processes to deliver communications and foster community; but those measures were imprecise, costly, and slow.

Every location and business group tended to communicate in its own way, through texting, group chats, or written communications. Without a standardized tool to connect to employees, they had difficulty sharing information—especially during COVID-19. Etex needed a more comprehensive, less-localized way to connect and develop its people across the company.

“Aside from emails and newsletters, we had no real, holistic way to interact with our employees across the organization,” says Louise Cail, Chief Human Resources Officer at Etex. “As a very dispersed organization, with locally managed workflows, we really wanted to bring fairness and equity across the organization, so no matter where you are within Etex, you have the same employee experience.”

Bridging the gaps 

COVID-19 added urgency to Etex’s communications and connectivity requirements, particularly for its frontline factory workers. With Microsoft Teams, Etex already had a robust collaboration and communications tool to help office workers transition seamlessly to remote work; however, the company could not expect its factory workers, who make up 60 percent of Etex employees and are distributed across all its production sites, to run production lines from home. The company needed a single, comprehensive platform that could enable communications, collaboration, and the execution of key work scenarios for all its employees. “Our factory workers are absolutely essential to our organization’s success,” says Cail. “With Viva Connections, we’ve found a way to better connect and communicate how instrumental they are to Etex.”

A single experience for all

To access a holistic, intuitive, and singular workplace experience, Etex employees across the globe log into Viva Connections through company devices, kiosks, or personal devices. No matter how they log in, all employees can enjoy a personalized experience consisting of vital communications and work applications. “In the past, we had too many tools: Skype for chat or calls, Yammer, the intranet; it was unclear to many where to go for what information,” recalls Hans Bogaert, IT Training Officer at Etex. “With Microsoft Teams and Viva Connections, employees only need go to one place, and everything is there ready to connect, ready to start the day.” 

Employees use the Viva Connections application to access crucial organizational news and key communications strategically targeted to each user. The news feed filters news items to enhance the experience, and deploys Translator, part of Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, to ensure that any news or communications published at the division or group level is translated and delivered in local languages. Adjacent to this is a featured news component that pins one highly valuable strategic communications item, variable by location, to maximize readability.

Supported by Viva Connections and Microsoft Power Apps, the Etex Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) application helps employees to record safety issues, lost time, or medical accidents, and features safety-related communications. The application identifies the user creating a ticket and channels that user to the appropriate associated workflow. Safety is a huge priority, so its EHS application is helping drive data and safety results to support safety initiatives.

“With Viva Connections, we can capture and share companywide safety data through our EHS application instantly,” says Satish Chadha, Platforms Team Lead at Etex. “If there is a safety incident in Argentina, for example, everyone who needs to know across Etex is aware within minutes.”

One gateway to the organization

Through single sign-on, employees logged into Viva can seamlessly connect to the Etex SuccessFactors HR portal, where they can view personal information, see Etex career opportunities, request various HR letters, or find any other organizational information they might need. Through this interoperation, Etex helps its employees conduct more self-service scenarios and find more opportunities to engage directly with the organization—without having to wait on busy team leads to forward their requests.

“Now any Etex employee can just open Viva Connections themselves and access the HR and career information they need right away,” says Bogaert.

At Etex, the Viva experience also includes site cafeteria menus, a desk-booking application supported by Power Apps—vital for post-COVID return-to-work processes—and a holiday tracking tool. Viva has been a tremendous boon to office staff and frontline workers at Etex.

“With Viva Connections, we provide our employees with a single, central point of entry to all of Etex,” says Altgassen. “They can jump from the HR portal to book travel or claim expenses, reserve a desk, or report a safety incident, all from one place.”

Etex supports seamless authentication and authorization with Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). Through Azure AD, Etex authenticates and personalizes the experience by grouping employees for targeted content and languages.

Connecting, collaborating, changing

With Viva Connections, Etex simplifies processes, drives engagement, retains talent, and builds greater agility through centralization and integration. Instead of registering content, finding and sharing documentation, and communicating across different applications in different environments, Etex employees share a complete experience in one place.

Etex is already seeing higher levels of employee engagement, especially with factory workers who now have direct access to the organization. They can use their devices to access Etex services and offerings, stay informed on the latest local, regional, and organizational news, and engage directly as organizational citizens. Organization-wide employee engagement has gone up with the help of Viva Connections.

“Our factory workers have news and information at their fingertips, and they interact with us as well,” says Cail. “We saw a well-over 80 percent return rate from our factory employees on a recent survey—that shows how important it is they connect on their devices. Our active engagement has increased dramatically right across our employee population, from the low 70s up to 86 percent—all since we adopted Viva Connections.”

A global family

These changes help support recruitment initiatives and drive talent retention. With a consumer-grade employee experience, Etex can demonstrate to prospective candidates—both internal and external—that Etex is a progressive organization that's thinking about the future and putting people first. And with the ability to fully support remote and hybrid employee experiences, Etex can look for the right people anywhere.

“With Viva Connections, we can share career opportunities with people more easily and create more ways for people to feel that they're part of something bigger,” says Cail.

Today, Etex can better deliver on its core values to employees worldwide in a singular, intuitive solution. Not only is the experience broadly accessible and easy to use, it is available in local languages and personalized to each employee. Now, Etex employees have the information and tools they need to remain the connected and integral part of the Etex family they have always been.

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