Co-creating our fossil-free future
Climate change is reshaping the world, directly and indirectly, as countries, corporations, and energy producers scramble to “go green” and phase out fossil free fuels. With digitalization both enabling and fueling the rapid need for change, Vattenfall decided to take on its most challenging goal ever: To enable fossil free living within one generation. All they had to do was get its employees onboard – with the activation program “Unlock our future”, they did just that.
Case description
What we did
“Accelerate change and engage all employees in the transformation” – that was the task at hand. For a company with over 20,000 employees in various markets, that’s no easy challenge – especially when employee engagement is average, at best. Vattenfall contacted us at Gullers Grupp to help.
Together, we created a program of activation tools and a brand-new internal campaign that addressed all 20,000 Vattenfall employees across Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, and the UK. The purpose was to guide and inspire the whole organization, to build pride around the challenge that lies ahead and the prospect of leading the transition towards tomorrow’s energy system.
We centered the program around a digital platform, allowing for smooth and effective distribution of exercises, as well as relevant monitoring and tracking functionality. The setup provided managers and employees with everything they would need.
We started working with Vattenfall in 2016, and the activation program and the internal campaign, called “Unlock our future”, was launched the following year. Throughout 2017, we helped employees and managers dive deeper into the purpose, goals, and principles of Vattenfall. Knowing that 20,000 employees could equal 20,000 potential brand ambassadors, teams were encouraged to get familiar with the new external narrative of Vattenfall, in order to feel comfortable answering questions from a customer, friend, or family member. After that, focus shifted in 2018 to the connection between “Fossil-free living within one generation” and the daily work of both teams and individuals.
As it turns out, the future is an engaging topic – and “Unlock our future” was embraced by employees and managers alike. Between 2016 and 2020, Vattenfall’s internal Employee Engagement Index rose from 57 to 72 while the program was voted by managers across the corporate structure as the “most useful internal activity” to help understand the Vattenfall’s purpose and goal.
