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NEWS
February/March 2014 • www.esb.ie/em
NIE displays its charitable side on Facebook
THE NIE STAFF and Pensioners Charities’ Fund has launched itself on social media. The Facebook page went live in January to make it easier for charities to apply for funding.
Last year saw the NIE Staff and Pensioners Charities fund contribute over £96,000 to around 80 organisations. Alexis Totten has been the Secretary of the NIE i Staff and Pensioners Charities’ Fund for over 20 years. She said: “Our staff and pensioners have been contributing to the Charities Fund for nearly 30 years and during that time more than £lmillion has been distributee to hundreds of local and diverse charities. It's brilliant to see how our funding is used and how it has helped so many individuals and organisations. We hope that the new Facebook page will make it easier for charities to get in contact with us and apply for funding”.
Here are just some of the Charities that benefitted from funding last year:
Child Brain Injury Trust
Funding was given towards a ‘bubble panel', for Darryl Halls’ home. The panel changes colour and helps Darryl relax.
RNIBNI
Funding for two tandem bicycles so as those who are visually impaired can benefit from cycling.
Gis a Hug Foundation
Support for a charity that promotes the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Parenting NI
Funding towards computer equipment for its helpline service.
Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NIECharitiesFund.
Councils learn more about NIE
AS PART OF Northern Ireland Electricity's (NIE) ‘Preparing for Winter’ campaign a number of Councillors and Emergency Planning teams came to visit the NIE Campsie and Ballymena Depot to understand how the Company deals with power cuts and plans for emergencies.
The visitors saw how the depots operate when there is severe weather and had the opportunity to visit the apprentice schools at each location.
David Keys, Customer Relations Manager, welcomed the visit and said: “We appreciate when Councillors and those involved in emergency planning take the time out to visit our business to understand how we plan and deal with power cuts and other customer issues on a daily basis and during severe weather. “Councillors help us distribute information to constituents so it is important that they are aware of how we work and some of the programmes that we have in place such as our critical care register for people who rely on electricity for their health care needs.”
Raymond McMenemy, Training Manager at NIE, took the visitors on a tour of the apprentice training facilities. He said: “Today's visit was a great opportunity to show local Councillors the facilities we have in place for training our apprentices. Our training facilities provide our apprentices with electricity equipment such as erected poles, underground cables, switchgear and meter boards so as they can practise and develop their skills on equipment similar to what they would find our live network”.
To learn more about the apprenticeship programme visit nie.co.uk.
Transforming the intranet
Emma Duggan, Web Manager at NIE, tells us about the new intranet solution.
Q Emma, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I joined NIE as the Web Manager in November 2011. Before that I worked as a marketing and project officer in a development agency that promotes the craft industry in Northern Ireland. During my time at NIE I've worked on the new company website which went live in Winter 2012, established Twitter for NIE's customer service that was launched in February 2013 and I'm now managing the implementation of a new intranet solution for the company. Not to forget getting married and completing a PhD, so it's been a busy couple of years!
After carrying out surveys and focus groups throughout the business we discovered what employees felt was missing from the intranet.
In my spare time I play tennis for a local club and like to go hiking when I can. I've also started designing t-shirts and aprons to sell online and at local markets.
Q Why are you introducing a new intranet?
The NIE Communications team has responsibility for internal communications; however the current intranet does not support this function well.
The current intranet system was built in the early ‘90s so the technology is quite outdated. Initial research on the project found how staff were struggling to find the information they needed due to problems with usability and information quality. After carrying out surveys and focus groups throughout the business we discovered what employees felt was missing from the intranet and ways it could be improved for better company wide communication. Getting this feedback from staff was invaluable and will help us to deliver the best solution for staff.
Q Can you give us an example of the new features?
The intranet will have new features like a profile page for all staff with quick links to career and pensions information, a buy and sell section, document libraries, forums and project work groups to share information and aid cross company communication.
Q What stage is the project at? What is the next stage?
The project is at an early stage but we hope to have the solution in place by the summer. Over the last couple of months we've worked with the business heads across the company to identify intranet ‘champions’ who will help us to define our requirements. They will also be the super users for the intranet when it goes live as well as helping us to train staff when the solution is rolled out in the autumn.
An intranet is an internal communications network that enables staff to use a range of web-based tools to access and share information within an organisation.
