EMPOWERMENT AND TRUST IS THE WAY FORWARD : SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC'S CHARISE LE

In a workplace dramatically changed by the pandemic, trust becomes key to empowering employees: giving them autonomy over business decisions, career choices, and how they manage their own work. Charise Le, CHRO of Schneider Electric, tells People Matters how her company is advancing a strategy of trust and employee empowerment

- Mint Kang

Emphasize the employees: that's a distinct characteristic of the post-pandemic future, one underscored by the noticeably better performance of companies that focused on workforce well-being over the last two years. One critical bridge between the employee-first strategy and high performance is empowerment: the idea that employees are trusted to make decisions for the benefit of the business and stakeholders alike.

People Matters asked Charise Le, Chief Human Resources Officer of global energy and automation firm Schneider Electric, about SE's employee empowerment strategy and how she sees the employer-employee relationship evolving in 2022 and beyond. Charise has been with Schneider Electric since 2007, leading HR teams across various segments of the business. In 2020 she was appointed CHRO, taking on the responsibility of building a progressive and engaging people strategy that could sustain through the pandemic and beyond. Here's what she shared.

Q. Schneider Electric has been working on employee empowerment for quite a few years now. Could you share a bit of the background behind this philosophy?

A. Our leadership and culture transformation was launched in 2017 with a focus on high performance and empowerment and we've made visible progress in this while delivering results.

Trust is instilled both culturally and behaviourally and starts at the top. In all our communications with employees, our top leaders reinforce trust and empathy. We drive certain behaviors from both our employees and our managers which is supported by our guidelines and culture. We also have a clear employee value proposition that focuses on the empowerment of our people, an inclusive and equitable company, and meaningful, purposeful work.