Vinci Energies: Managing Global and Local Communications for 90,000 Employees

Vinci Energies has over 90,000 employees located all around the world—and to keep them all connected with company news and updates, they chose Poppulo. With over 75% of the group’s employees active and engaged in communication, Vinci Energies has succeeded in bringing its global teams together on a single platform that reinforces brand perception, while offering high visibility to local content.

Vinci Energies is a French company specializing in industrial maintenance services, digital service infrastructures, and engineering. It supports organizations worldwide in their environmental transition by deploying tailor-made technologies.

With 90,000 employees located in 57 different countries, Vinci Energies operates in four business areas within its 1,900 companies. These companies are grouped around major global brands, as well as regional brands.

The global brands are Omexom for energy infrastructure activities, Actemium for industrial services, Vinci Facilities for facility management, and Axians for information and communication technologies.

This complex organization, the result of long external growth, brings together hundreds of brands and companies. This poses the challenge of creating coherent communication across the organization, both global and local.

The need for consistent, “glocal” communication

Previously, it was difficult for Vinci Energies to develop a common culture and positive recognition of its own brand. Many employees remained attached to the brand of their original company. Coherence and team spirit were oftentimes lacking.

To solve this problem, internal communication and the associated tools were selected to play a key role.

A previous initiative to overhaul the organization’s intranet had shown its limitations—local information was unevenly distributed across the divisions. And above all, it was not sufficiently complemented by Group announcements.

Vinci Energies’ Communications Department recognized this, remembering:

“Our need was twofold. We wanted to bring all employees together on a single communications tool, while at the same time having communications spaces that would remain in the hands of the local entities. Our priority was to have a high-performance tool, with excellent ergonomics for both administrators and users, as well as fine-tuned management of content distribution in our decentralized organization.”

In short, a “glocal” solution was needed, one that could manage both global and local news.

Vinci Energies adopted Poppulo for more effective internal communication

Vinci Energies chose Poppulo to replace its existing tool. The main reasons for this choice were the platform’s modularity, flexibility, and ease of use, for both administrators and employees

Here are some of the Poppulo features that convinced Vinci Energies:

Information structuring: Poppulo enabled the creation of platforms and channels adapted to the different Vinci Energies entities (regions, business units, etc.). These spaces, more relevant to employees, had their own access and administration rights.

Audience creation: Obtained directly from the Vinci Energies employee directory, audiences could be used to define the scope of information distribution, or to set up notification and alert rules specific to certain professions.

Automatic translation: All Poppulo content (text and video) could be offered in the languages chosen by administrators, thanks to the automatic translation integrated into content editing. Users working in any of the group’s 57 countries could translate content into their preferred language.

Advanced editorial capabilities: The ability to plan, co-edit, pin, campaign, suggest and categorize content was particularly useful in a group where information needed to flow in many directions.

Fine-tuned content distribution: Thanks to its integrated newsletter editor, Poppulo lets you send relevant content to a specific audience in just a few clicks. For the most important messages, notifications, or mandatory reading, admins could ensure that content was received.

Microsoft integration: Poppulo is natively integrated with Microsoft tools (Teams, SharePoint, etc.), enabling Vinci Energies employees to easily access information from their usual work environment.

Powerful API: In order to present information in a personalized user interface that was perfectly integrated into its portal, Vinci Energies was able to rely on the API offered natively by Poppulo.

Poppulo’s flexibility to meet different communication needs

Thanks to the advantages and flexibility of Poppulo, here are a few concrete examples of what has been made possible at Vinci Energies:

• A division manager in Central Europe could share local “market” information in a language suited to his audience, on the platform he controls.
• The Group’s Communications Department was guaranteed to be able to address its important messages to 100% of employees worldwide, by relying on a transversal chain managed by itself.
• The Group’s intranet was no longer the place to create and manage communications. Instead, thanks to the Poppulo API, the portal’s home page displayed a fully personalized and relevant selection of content, according to each user’s profile.
• A system of newsletters and workspaces reserved exclusively for communicators enabled feedback for “on-theground” issues. This was a simple way for the Group’s Communications Department to identify and promote local successes and achievements on a global scale.
• Each country adapted its content and engagement strategies according to its own culture and needs.

In Germany, for example, the top management’s video speeches—a local priority—received many unexpected “likes.” In Brazil, where engagement practices on social networks were widespread, the new engagement possibilities offered by Poppulo were particularly appreciated. In both cases, the local communication platforms were a great success.

The Communications Department summed up Poppulo’s potential in the “glocal” context of Vinci Energies in the following way:

“We don’t think it’s possible to use a single communications model in 57 countries, for 90,000 employees. As a result, Poppulo’s modularity and flexibility enable us to communicate effectively anywhere in the world.

This is an advantage of Poppulo that comes up regularly in our internal conversations: the tool adapts perfectly to the situations and needs of our local teams. This adaptability serves the diversity of content, complex distribution needs, and variety of cultures."

We don’t think it’s possible to use a single communication model in 57 countries, for 90,000 employees.

As a result, Poppulo’s modularity and flexibility enable us to communicate effectively anywhere in the world.
Communication Department, Vinci Energies

Communications governance with greater autonomy and relevance

The deployment of Poppulo at Vinci Energies proved to be a major transformation. Indeed, the platform offered a flexibility that provided a whole new level of organizational communication. The aim was to bring greater autonomy to all levels of communication and to provide relevant content for employees on a daily basis.

With Poppulo, Vinci Energies created multiple communication spaces adapted to different business units, regions, and employees. These spaces have made it possible to publish more information.

All local information was given its place and its audience. Thanks to Poppulo’s ability to manage contribution and publication rights, local teams could delegate contributions according to their wishes.

“When training local contributors, we explained to them that they were going to become information managers, rather than content producers,” emphasized the Communications Department.

A team of Poppulo consultants (Customer Success Managers) dedicated to Vinci Energies trained all local communication managers in Poppulo’s many content management functions.

With advanced editing, planning, highlighting and distribution features, they were able to manage precise communication, in space and time. They benefited from a powerful tool that facilitated the presence of local information. Poppulo’s CSMs supported Vinci Energies at every stage of deployment, as well as in day-to-day use.

A three-stage engagement strategy

To coordinate the production and distribution of local and global content, the project team at Vinci Energies put in place an ambitious strategy and a solid organization. “We designed communication with Poppulo in the form of a pyramid built in 3 stages,” they explained.

1. At the base of the communication pyramid, Vinci Energies wanted a wealth of authentic, local news to feed a solid base of content in Poppulo. Regular, varied, and easy-to-find information. This was not the case with the previous system.
2. The second step, at the heart of the pyramid, was to get users involved. This point was quickly consolidated thanks to Poppulo’s native functionalities. Likes, comments, and employee contributions via UGC (User Generated Content) were well received worldwide.
3. Finally, the third step, at the top of the pyramid, was an Employee Advocacy program. Here again, Poppulo’s integrated features for advanced sharing on social networks were a powerful asset for a group of 90,000 employees. This part of the program demonstrated its full potential in an exceptional campaign for UNICEF, in which Vinci Energies was a partner

With this strategy, Vinci Energies intended to control the balance of content on the platform. “We want our internal communications to reflect the local activities of our divisions around the world,” explained the Communications Department.

“That’s why we’re aiming for a corporate communications presence of only 20% to 30%. The rest is provided by contributors from the divisions and by employee UGC, which gives exactly the local color we want. We need to interest our audience by getting them involved.”

Group-wide:

• 40,000 pieces of content published every year
• Generated over 500,000 in-depth reads
• And nearly 150,000 likes

Poppulo’s native dashboard provided visibility over the activities of all communication areas. At any time, group or division communication managers could monitor consultation and employee engagement data. This meant they could quickly adjust their content and distribution strategy in line with their objectives

We pay particular attention to the volumes of content distributed and the proportion of content created.
Communications Department, Vinci Energies

Through regular updates with the 46 local communicators, the Group’s Communications Department could keep them informed of important news and upcoming campaigns, along with the communications kits available in a “Sandbox” reserved for communicators.

A rich distribution ecosystem to multiply contact points

Thanks to Poppulo, Vinci Energies succeeded in creating a rich and effective communication ecosystem:

The MyView intranet featured a personalized home page thanks to the Poppulo API, offering relevant content for each employee.

On mobile, the Poppulo application was being prepared for deployment, in the Vinci Energies colors, designed to offer a fluid, immersive experience of all the Group’s news, to tens of thousands of employees in the field.

On branch screens, Poppulo was being implemented to display specific content for each office.

On social networks, Poppulo made it easy to share content tailored to each employee, with the option of modifying or scheduling it.

With over 75% of the Group’s employees active and engaged in communication following the launch, the gamble paid off. Vinci Energies succeeded in rallying its global teams around a single tool that reinforced brand perception, while offering high visibility to local content.

The Communications Department summed up this success: “We now have a high-performance communications device, where it’s easy to find and consult information, favoring the dissemination of local information in a targeted way.”