Toyota Motor Uses Microsoft 365 for Productivity and Hybrid Operations in Europe

Toyota Motor Europe (TME), an automotive company with operations in 29 European countries and about 25,000 employees, has implemented Microsoft 365, a collaboration platform to foster employee-to-employee exchange and a new model of daily life with a return to hybrid work. and transforming a traditional automaker into an innovative mobile company.

According to Tine Slabbink, manager of the Toyota Motor Europe Corporate Productivity Group, these changes are linked to the company’s overall mission, which is supported by a new leadership structure called the Five Cs – Courage, Curiosity, Collaboration, Creativity and Coaching. “What we do with Microsoft Teams is change management, we just explain things, show patience and empathy, and ultimately try to make a difference on a human level.”

This transformation involves the creation of products, systems and services.

In addition, since TME has representatives of more than 69 nationalities, the company is finding in technology a way to further integrate the different cultures present in its organization. As such, Slabbink’s Business Productivity Team focuses on supporting employees on the TME network to learn new ways of working, especially when they use digital tools. “Our team’s mission is to increase user acceptance of the Microsoft 365 digital desktop, as well as to get closer to and listen to them,” she explains.

acceleration of adoption
Using digital tools to improve productivity and collaboration is nothing new for Toyota. The company was one of the early adopters of cloud-based tools and was already planning to move to a hybrid workplace in 2019. “The company just announced that we will be working remotely two days a week,” Slabbink recalls. “So we were busy preparing for this, putting things back in place when Covid-19 hit.” So what was once a strategic decision to use remote work suddenly became a necessity.

While the early days focused on ensuring that firewalls could support the new configuration and looked at the basics, the team quickly turned their attention to the well-being of TME employees by conducting satisfaction surveys based on available technologies.

As part of the move, they created the Know It Community, a portal in Teams and SharePoint where people can find important information about Microsoft 365 tools with FAQs and videos. In this way, employees could exchange information and guide each other in the use of technology.

As a result, Tina recalls, “We found that live team meetings with videos allowed for faster sharing of best practices with a wider audience, so it was an improvement over how it was before.”

In addition, a series of webinars were held to help people focus their time and understand their own style of work. “For example, a lot of employees started using Teams with Planner. And they find that Planner really helps them visualize their tasks and work in new, more flexible ways, ”comments Slabbink.

An important aspect of how Toyota Motor Europe uses technology is not to see it in isolation, but as part of a broader organizational transformation. “This transformation includes the creation of products, systems and services. This has brought our IT, HR and administrative functions closer to collaboration, open exchange and innovation. Together we strive to inspire and facilitate change in the organization. ”

A new way of thinking for a hybrid workplace
Like many companies around the world, Toyota Motor Europe is now facing the challenge of continually creating hybrid jobs. One aspect of this was the creation of a jointly defined digital roadmap. “We focused on creating a roadmap for the hybrid workplace, and Microsoft Teams is central to helping us work together.”

In addition, the Microsoft Forms tool encourages employees to come up with ideas and help innovate the company by participating in meetings via video conferencing.

Even as more and more employees return to the workplace, the move to the office will be flexible and therefore technology will remain essential to continue this new work mindset. “HR is focused on being in the office 40% to 60% of their time. This means that most of the meetings will continue to be through teams, as it is likely that everyone will not be in the same place as often, ”concludes Tin Slabbink.

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