From the government’s energy sobriety plan to the fear of a power shortage this winter, energy is at the heart of current concerns.
Voltalis has made energy its core business, and today wants to contribute to the transformation of energy consumption habits and behaviors.
As an operator certified by RTE (the company that manages the French Electricity Transport Network), Voltalis offers French households a smart box connected to radiators which operates when the electricity network is in a state of imbalance. In concrete terms, when energy consumption is greater than production, the boxes temporarily reduce the consumption of certain households. These individual decreases, imperceptible on the consumer side, enable, at national scale, the electricity network to return to a state of balance – guaranteeing its security.
Founded in 2006, Voltalis now equips more than 200,000 homes, free of charge, and has significant prospects for growth.
Instead of acting by producing more, Voltalis acts by consuming less.
Olivier Cassoudebat
Partnerships & Development Director, Voltalis
Voltalis's objective: to familiarize its employees with the concepts of energy and ecological transition
As Director of Partnerships & Development, Olivier Cassoudebat leads a team whose objective is to conclude partnerships with players specialized in the energy transition (local authorities, companies, sponsors, etc.). It is partly through these intermediaries that Voltalis is able to install its boxes in new homes.
However, some employees do not always have a thorough enough background on energy issues, which they will nevertheless have to address, at times, in the course of their relations with customers.
For this reason, Voltalis wanted to offer its employees (from sales, marketing, business development, etc.) upskilling workshops.
Because there was no “off-the-shelf” offer on the market, Voltalis turned to Wavestone to support it in this challenge.
Ten fun and collaborative workshops led by industry experts
In the space of a year, Voltalis employees took part in ten workshops lasting from 1.5 to 2 hours.
Each workshop, the result of joint work by Voltalis and Wavestone, was constructed in three stages.
The first step consisted of jointly identifying the topics to be addressed: electric mobility, energy upgrades, renewable energies, self-consumption, hydrogen, energy sobriety, etc. Each theme had to resonate with the problems and current topics faced by employees.
Once the theme of a workshop had been set, Wavestone’s consultants leveraged their expertise and knowledge to produce the content of the workshop, which had to be both rich and clear. This was not without its challenges, as the energy sector and its regulations are constantly changing, so all elements chosen needed to be regularly checked and updated.
Once the content was developed, Voltalis employees were invited to meet in Paris to learn about a new topic related to the energy sector. In order to make this as fun and educational as possible, an original approach to facilitation was taken by the consultants. The workshops took the form of team games (quizzes, role-playing, Game of the Goose with illustrated cards, etc.) or even “Draw me…”.
This resulted in hours of fruitful discussions for Voltalis employees and for the consultants themselves
One year after the start of these workshops, the results are very positive for a range of reasons.
The workshops were times of discussion and sharing
- Internally: Voltalis employees, from different areas, meet in Paris to take part. This has become a kind of monthly “ritual” for them – something they look forward to.
- Between Wavestone and Voltalis: the discussions, which were very rich, enabled consultants who are passionate about the sector to meet with curious employees with a desire to learn.
The workshops were both fun and concrete: the key for employees to learn and grasp the content
- The themes addressed were popularized by the consultants through a gamification approach: the objective of the workshops was not to turn Voltalis employees into experts, but to make the topics understandable and applicable to their roles.
- To illustrate what was said, the consultants regularly shared feedback on assignments they had worked on.
While the workshops lasted only two hours at most, their impact extended over a much longer period
- Even now, Voltalis employees are using the workshop materials and discussing with each other the topics they’ve been able to address in this context…
- All the documents are available to everyone, which helps fire curiosity and a desire to develop culture on energy and ecological transition issues.
After a year of very successful workshops, Voltalis and Wavestone have decided to continue their collaboration through new workshops!
Motivation was the key to the success of these workshops. Our employees showed curiosity and a desire to learn. And the Wavestone consultants shared their contagious enthusiasm with us!
Olivier Cassoudebat
