People and organisational performance

In the quest for performance, what is the role of the HR director alongside the CEO? Does the role involve executing a roadmap, or guiding corporate strategy?

: In guiding and executing strategy, both aspects are crucial.

How do you combine the quest for performance with ever higher aspirations in terms of work-life balance?

Performance is far from being incompatible with balance, quite the contrary. We had the opportunity to test the four-day week (with no reduction in salary) in one of the group’s units, and performance increased spectacularly.

Talent acquisition

The job market is dominated by the ‘war for talent.’ How does this play out in practice in your own recruitment processes? What difficulties are you facing?

The market is probably a little less tight this year, but certain profiles are still hard to find. I’d say that differentiating employer branding and inspiring leaders are the winning combination.

What ‘weapons’ is your company deploying to fight this battle? And what additional ‘weapons’ would you like to have at your disposal if you had the power to change regulations and laws?

A top recruitment team and quick and easy processes for candidates, as the candidate experience is essential. I would add leaders who make people want to join them. In my opinion, the main problem remains the cost and accessibility of accommodation, and any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.

Employer branding

Applied to your organisation, what is your definition of ‘employer branding’?

I’d say it’s the reflection of our corporate culture to our employees and to the outside world.

In the light of this definition, what role does HR play in promoting this ‘employer brand’?

The HR department may be a driving force in building the employer brand, but it’s only one player among many. I’m convinced that the impact of communications is much greater if it comes spontaneously from employees and is not orchestrated by HR or management.

Reskilling and upskilling

In terms of upskilling, what are the priority needs that you have identified within your organisation?

I focus on two areas: leadership development and increasing skills in the use of AI.

And what tools and systems have been put in place within your departments to support the ongoing training of employees?

We still have room for improvement here, even though we deployed a number of digital tools last year. I’m convinced that the integration of AI as an assistant in our daily work will play a key role in training, by automatically suggesting and preparing training content based on the tasks and projects we’re working on.

Talent retention

Is the ‘war for talent’ also being waged on talent retention? And if so, what is your conclusion? That today it’s just as complex to attract talent as it is to retain it?

Yes, that’s a crucial point, and here again leadership and corporate culture are decisive factors. Career prospects are also essential to enable our employees to project themselves into the company in the medium term.

What have been the main developments, or what are the current ones, in your company’s ‘employee pathway’?

We’re working hard to make life easier for our employees. Digitalisation plays an important role, in particular so that simple interactions can be carried out quickly and efficiently. For example, we have just launched a chatbot that replaces the traditional intranet to help employees find information on HR topics.

New ways of working

Flexibility, teleworking... Since the health crisis, the desire for new ways of working is more pronounced than ever. How can we respond to this paradigm shift without hampering business performance?

We give our employees a great deal of latitude in the way they organise their work (hours, location, etc.). Naturally, we respect the constraints specific to each profession, the law, and tax and social security limits for cross-border commuters. We observe that most of our employees naturally opt for a regular presence in the office (three or four days a week).

At the same time, how do we meet the challenge of employee commitment, which studies show is falling?

Here again, it’s all a question of leadership. For example, we try to involve everyone in the strategic objectives. Everyone needs to be able to identify how their work contributes to the achievement of the organisation’s major challenges.

Another point I feel very strongly about is making work interesting. I think there’s still a lot of room for improvement in the way we work, and many repetitive or low value-added tasks could be simplified, automated or even eliminated.

Employment law

What is your view of the legislation? As it stands, do you see the Luxembourg labour code as a partner for employers? Or, on the contrary, something of an adversary?

I don’t have any particular complaints on this point. I would say that it seems to me to be fairly balanced, between protecting employees and ensuring that companies run smoothly.

Same exercise in fiction as before... If you had the power, what additional provision would you like to introduce into Luxembourg law to meet your needs more effectively?

Ideally, I’d like more flexibility in part-time working, which is a bit rigid in its current form.

Digitalisation

How are you transforming digitalisation into an ally of the HR function?

Digitalisation is at the heart of our strategy. However, it is essential that it is carried out in a concerted and coherent way with the company’s other departments. HR data alone will hardly help. However, used in conjunction with operational and financial data, it will enable management--and more generally all employees--to make the best decisions. AI also needs ‘clean,’ labelled data to function optimally.

The same applies to HR systems, which need to be able to interface with the tools used by other business lines if they are to achieve their full potential.

What obstacles do you still face at this stage?

The complexity of the organisation, which has seen an exponential increase in the number of different tools and data sources.

On the other hand, a centralised approach to the choice of tools is not always easy. For example, we sometimes have to sacrifice high-performance tools for one department that don’t fit in with the company’s overall digital strategy.

Benefits

How important is salary attractiveness today in recruiting and retaining talent?

It’s still an important factor, and the high inflation of recent years hasn’t helped. I’ve also noticed that some candidates are now prepared to change jobs for the same or, in some cases, lower salaries, in order to return to a healthy and stimulating working environment.

Aside from pay, what are the elements that you can rely on to make your company more attractive?

Flexibility and, more generally, the corporate culture, which should enable you to attract talent that identifies with your values. And also opportunities for development and advancement.

Mobility & fleet

A fleet of electric vehicles, incentives to use public transport... In your company, what measures have been, are being or will be taken to improve mobility?

It’s not always easy, because a large proportion of our employees work shifts and there’s very little transport available at those times.

More generally, what are the points to watch out for in terms of the green transition?

I’m convinced that there is still a lot to be done to facilitate mobility, particularly for cross-border commuters. In my view, the impact of transport on the morale and health of employees is still underestimated. It’s very often an obstacle course, between the hardship of overcrowded public transport and blocked roads. I think we would benefit from introducing more bus routes between the more remote towns and the critical areas, such as Luxembourg City. This would provide quality transport, where passengers could relax and start and end the day much more serenely.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

What are the biggest challenges for your organisation in terms of the new CSR obligations?

I’m still finding it hard to estimate. At this stage, what seems complicated to me is compiling the data required in the various reports.

I hope that these administrative hurdles will not distract companies from the fundamental underlying objectives. We need to focus our energies on building a healthier, fairer and greener working environment, not on generating abstruse reports.

How do these same obligations impact your internal upskilling or external recruitment processes?

Here again, I think it’s a bit early to say. If I take the European directive on pay transparency as an example, it’s complicated at this stage to measure the impact. As an optimist by nature, I see the advantages of implementing such a directive in the policies for weighting functions and the underlying salary levels. I hope that this will lead to greater fairness, particularly in terms of gender pay balance. However, I can also see the potential for drift, with greater difficulty in individualising salaries according to criteria of performance, skills and commitment. Another side-effect that I greatly fear is general wage inflation, with a significant impact on profitability.

Gen Z

They are said to be less committed, more demanding, and perhaps even difficult to grasp... Is Gen Z really turning the working environment upside down?

I don’t necessarily have this impression of ‘disengagement,’ but I do think that young people are right to question the processes and ways in which we work more readily. I see this as a strength that we need to draw on to dust off our organisation and push forward with digitalisation and the employee experience.

What advice would you give to newly recruited 25-30 year olds?

Don’t hesitate to question the way we work, and do it with enough distance to avoid gratuitous criticism. But my main advice is to continue to be curious, to want to understand, learn and develop throughout your career.

Diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI)

As an HR director, how would you define your role and responsibilities in relation to DEI issues?

Driving forces, but not alone. Having had the opportunity to develop multiple initiatives within different environments in my career, I’ve come to realise that without committed management then it will be a fiasco. I attach a great deal of importance to making a continuous link with the tangible benefits of the actions we undertake.

Is the ‘exemplary’ company a utopian dream or a feasible objective?

Clearly an achievable goal, even if we have to continually challenge ourselves and make progress.

This article was originally published in .