Magnetic Stories

CASE STORYTranspower, New Zealand

Transpower New Zealand owns and operates the national grid that moves electricity from where it's generated to where it's consumed by homes and businesses. Their direct customers are large energy-generation and -distribution companies, but their work touches the lives of nearly every New Zealander.

Since its inception, Transpower operated from the simple and noble vision of ‘Keeping the Lights On’. However, in 2016 Transpower was facing an unprecedented level of change in the electricity industry driven by new technologies, changing patterns of energy consumption and distribution, and growing demand for action to combat climate change.

With all this uncertainty in the business environment there was a growing concern that their employees were not fully prepared, or engaged, to meet the challenges and opportunity ahead. An employee engagement survey, conducted in 2016, showed employees were not engaged with their work, with the engagement score sitting at only 62 per cent.

Transpower knew its success would depend on their workforce being able to adapt and contribute in ways that could achieve the organisation's strategic goals. More importantly, Transpower wanted its people to know they — and their work — mattered.

Transpower also wanted to better reflect the country it served by creating a more diverse workforce. The electricity industry in New Zealand was traditionally one of male engineers and linesmen, so they designed information-gathering ...