How do you efficiently introduce yourself to all employees and answer their questions when you have just been appointed CEO ? This was the case of Christophe Gerondeau, Senior Vice President Refining & Petrochemicals TOTAL Americas.
By organizing a live webchat!
The arrival of a new CEO is a major event in a company or subsidiary ; this change can cause stress or frighten some employees hence the need to introduce him properly to everyone.
TOTAL R&C Houston was facing a dilemna : how can we ensure all employees meet him at the same time and have the opportunity to directly ask him questions ? Since the United States are a country with continental dimensions, and Total has multiple site locations, a physical event was not an feasible option.
This is where we step in : as an interactive & live webchat designer, our services suited their needs perfectly !
We designed and implemented a live text webchat between the new CEO and all employees of the US subsidiary, dispersed across the country.
After designing and developing the template of the live webchat, we showed the local Total team how to use our platform and moderation tools so they could operate the moderation and live transcription themselves on D-day (self-managed).
This event took place in three stages :
– The week before the event employees could ask questions and/or vote for the ones they liked best among those already asked by other employees.
– During the live session, the CEO answered 35 questions regarding very diverse topics, a way for employees to get to know him a little better.
A live photo-report was published on the webchat page to demonstrate that was really him responding in real-time.
– After the event, the entire transcript of all Q&A was published so employees could read it over. This stage really increases the audience of the event since employees who could not attend the live session can still access the discussion’s transcript afterwards.
This event was a huge success since the CEO concluded the session by responding to a question on this new communication platform with « You can expect more of these [live webchats] with other members of CDRPA and the Management Committee. Thank you for all of your participation and questions. It was wonderful to hear from so many of you. »
Looks like we converted this challenge into a success !
