Stefanie Glanzmann is the Group Talent Acquisition Lead at Zur Rose Group in Thurgau, Switzerland. She was previously the Head of Talent Acquisition Manager at Hilti Group and led the Graduate Program at Syngenta Crop Protection. Stefanie started her career at Novartis in Basel.

How do you approach work in a fast-growing and changing environment? What is the biggest change that you’ve adapted to?

Pretty much all the environments I’ve been in in the past five years have had superfast training. Zur Rose was the fastest changing one, because we acquired a lot of companies before I joined. So, while I was joining the company, there was this big cultural change.

I try to connect with people as fast as possible, getting to know them, understanding what their views and needs are. People always work with you when they see a value in that, so I’m trying to add some value if possible. I’m trying to win them over, which sometimes I’m successful with and sometimes not as much.

The other one is being open to change. In my current job, there are still a few people that are not willing to work with us as a team and who feel like we’re not adding any value. At some point, you just have to accept it.

You try to win them over, you’re trying to convince them that what you’re actually doing is making their life a lot easier, which it is, but some people just don’t want to change - and you cannot force them to.

Something from the past - it wasn’t that much of a change - was moving from Basel to Liechtenstein. I was still living in Switzerland, but working in Liechtenstein, and I was going to completely different environments, from pharmaceutical to construction. They were completely different people, which was very overwhelming; they were super nice, but it was such a different vibe in that rural area than it was here, so there was really a big cultural change.

Being an expat, do you have to connect quicker and in a different way than in your home country?

I wouldn’t think of myself as an expat, because it was just ships crossing the border every day when I was still living in Switzerland, and I just went to Liechtenstein to work. I almost felt like an expat in my own country, because sometimes Switzerland is super traditional and people don’t really move so much.

Think back to the best manager you’ve worked for. What did you like about their style and how has it influenced you?

Actually, that was my first manager at Hilti. He was Chairman Head of HR back then, really quite a character.

If we can use stereotypes, he was a super Chairman - super straightforward, a tough one, but so knowledgeable. At the same time, he was not necessarily empathetic, because that was not his strength, but he really taught me a lot of business and management skills.

He was the most open person I have ever met. He gave me some constructive feedback, and challenged me in my thinking and my leadership skills, so I learnt a lot from him.

I’m trying to be similar to him, in term of understanding business needs and how to translate it into our work. I’m not trying to be as direct as he was, because sometimes - at first - he was a bit too much, but I’m trying to give people constructive feedback. I’m not good at looking at people running into the wrong direction.

In HR, you always have to show that you add some value, because people think that you don’t. I had a conversation about that with a friend on Sunday - he’s a director at PwC Legal and he said: “I have to ask you, I only see you as a service provider, you only cost us money, what’s your value?” And we are very good friends!

A few years ago, I would have taken it as really offensive, but then I realised a lot of HR people are probably not adding value, so it’s a fair question, and you have to add value as a corporate function. It’s the combination of the employees and their needs, but then you also have to fulfil a business need and make that happen in a positive way.

Now, I see how vast the HR functions are, so I understand where people are coming from.

What struggles have you overcome since taking ownership of your career?

I started my career when I was 15. I finished school when I was 15 - that was too young, at least for me, to think about it.

I was struggling about what to do overall. In Switzerland, we have a dual system, so you don’t need to study; you can join a profession, and I went down that road and I worked for a bit. But then, I realised that I wanted more, so I decided to go back to school.

My first struggle was to decide what I actually want and, at 15, I was a baby - I didn’t know anything. I went back to school and that was really good. I did something I actually really liked and then I started my professional career over there.

I had people in my life who didn’t really believe in me. When I was still at school, I had a boyfriend, and I was struggling with studying and he was like, “You can always quit, it doesn’t matter,” which wasn’t helpful, so that didn’t work out.

Then, I started struggling because I always looked younger than I actually was, and people always thought I was the intern. When I had my first leadership role, people referred to me as if I was the intern. There were a lot of struggles around not being taken seriously.

Back then, I took it very personally. There was also another career change for me when I was in Syngenta, someone once told me, when I was managing a graduate programme, “That’s actually as far as you can get.” That was super hard for me to hear, but then I was like, you know what, you’re not telling me what I can and cannot do, so I changed company and started over again, and that was really good.

I’m trying to prove that I can do more than people would think. I’m really ambitious and that is just something that is inside me, I guess.

You’ve said that you didn’t really have an idol to begin with, but later on you found it in your grandmother’s sister. How did she inspire you in being who you are today?

I did not really realise it back then, but I was looking up to her for a very long time - she was not the typical role model you had back then.

She was one of the first doctors in Switzerland. She was the only female in the family who wasn’t married, didn’t have kids, who was independent, who was working and living in the US, had a super fancy car, and who was living that lifestyle.

Back then, I didn’t actually realise how cool I thought she was, because it did not fit in with that general role model. I always looked up to her, but I only realised it when I really started to reflect on what inspired me. I realised that she was a big part of that – the independent career woman.

How do you approach building strong relationships in your network?

What I’m trying to do is build a personal relationship, at least with the people I have to work with closely. There’s no like secret recipe behind it, but I think it’s just to listen to people, because when you actually start listening to people and you talk to them, you let them speak, you get to know a lot about them.

There’s a lot of people who, when you talk, they’re not listening or they don’t really care about what you’re saying, so people are super surprised when you listen to them, and you remember three days later what you discussed. Sometimes, you do it a bit more on a personal level, like going out for coffee, but I think it always serves whenever possible to meet in person. So, you go for lunch, you go for a drink after work and I think that’s it - it’s not extraordinary.

I’m not always easy to handle as a manager, because I like to self-reflect. I can be super tough, even when I am not trying to be. What I’m trying to do now is draw a realistic picture of myself, but sometimes it’s a bit difficult.

There are a few things about all of us that we don’t like about ourselves - you have to accept it’s part of you, but you’re working on it, and you never really get rid of it. For me, it’s being that pragmatic, tough person; it’s something I like, but also something I have to watch out for, as it could be overwhelming for people.

What advice would you share with someone fighting impostor syndrome?

What helps is to think about the past two or three years and about what you have achieved. It’s making yourself aware of where you were three years ago, what has changed, and what you achieved - where you pushed the change or drove the change, or what impact you had on the change.

That makes you aware, because sometimes you forget what you’ve achieved and then you feel like you didn’t do anything or own everything. It helps to reflect on what you have achieved and where you are.

Did you experience that at the start of your career or do you still have it now?

I still experience it right now. Now that I’m looking for new jobs, I think: Do I really fit the profile? Can I live up to their expectations? Then I have to say, “I did it twice already and I did it successfully.”

Look back and try to make a list of your achievements, and try to see the knowledge and what you learnt out of it. That helps you to understand that you have grown as a person. It’s recognising your own growth and seeing where you were back then, seeing what steps you took and so on. For me, it has a lot to do with reflection and appreciating all of what you’ve done.

I reflect quite a lot, in particular about myself: How I have done something? How could I do it differently? Do I need to do it differently? Do I need to worry about something? I think that’s a really important step in developing your own personality. But you have to be very careful with overdoing it, because you’ll become insecure, as you are telling yourself you could do better, and then you’re getting into the impostor syndrome, so do it very carefully.

Also, what helps is talking to other people; get their views. Not necessarily asking them how they perceive you, but have conversations with your team on what you have achieved and so on. I think that helps, too.

I try to prevent other people - also in my team - from getting into the same situation, as we need to highlight and celebrate achievements. I have one person in my team, who is now employed by a new team lead, and she has come so far.

Still, she feels insecure sometimes, and I have to talk to her and let her know what she has achieved, and we have to celebrate that with the people surrounding you. We all have feelings and we all get frustrated; sometimes your anger and frustration gets the best out of you. It’s happened to me a few times, but then you move on.

How important are mentors to you and do you currently have a mentor?

Right now I do not have one, but I used to have one. When I was at Hilti, there’s a network in Switzerland which is called Advance. It is a female leadership network and Hilti was part of it, and their goal is to empower females in leadership positions, in any area.

When you are a member of that programme, you have someone who is a mentor, but you can also nominate a mentee. They nominated me, which was super cool, so I got to work with a really great lady whose name is Natalie Zihlmann, and she was the Head of HR for Randstad in Switzerland, and now she’s the Head of HR Business Partners for a big insurance company. She is super cool and she’s very much like me. She helped me reflect a lot and also define that impostor syndrome.

At that point, I was insecure and she helped me get back on my feet and say, “You know what, it doesn’t matter what they think.” She gave me a lot of very good tips and I’m grateful for having had her in my life, particularly at a time where it was super difficult for me. That was the best that could have happened to me to be fair.

How can someone stand out in the interview process to show their potential?

We probably have a less formal approach in interviewing. What I do not believe in is having these firm interviews where you ask typical questions and you’re trying to put stress on people.  

I think the conversation like we’re having now will get the best out of people. I am just trying to understand what people are about; their base and their experiences, and trying to see what I can read out of it, which is sometimes not easy.

I think a lot of people have more potential than they actually think and they need to have the right environment to be successful. That’s probably the key - if you’re not successful in one company, it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be successful in another one. Maybe it’s just not the right environment for you.

Also, as a manager, you need to have the guts to tell people that this is not what you should be doing. Sometimes, it’s just not working and you have to be tough with them, too.

When you let people be themselves, that’s the only way you can read or see what they’re capable of, because you don’t want to have the answers by the book.

What did you achieve in 2022 that you were proud of and what are your goals to achieve in 2023?

In 2022, what I’m super proud of is, we built a functional Talent Acquisition cross-segment team at Zur Rose Group. We had people in Spain, in the Netherlands, in Switzerland, in Germany, and we are working as a team. To get there was super tough, but that’s something which I’m proud of.

It sounds sad now, but what I’m trying to achieve is to separate the team again - not to separate it because that is what we have to do, but to separate it in a way which is comfortable for everyone and still leaves two workable teams. That is because, basically, even though they are leaving us, they still need to be in a good working mode with the rest of the team. So, if we can achieve a really nice, smooth split, which does not leave any hard feelings, I think then we did a good job on that.

We are having a meeting to make a list of the tasks that we need to do, to make them aware of what’s going to happen, what their workload is going to be, and to engage with them and make them aware. That is because, currently, we don’t have the awareness of what it will mean for the different teams.

I am worried; we’ve put another balance sheet into building the team and we finally made it work, and now the task is to separate again, so it’s super difficult. I have some really good people in the team now - I don’t want to lose them. We will have to say goodbye to a few people, also.

What was the last thing that made you smile?

What really made me happy was today, for lunch - now that I’m living back in the area, I’m very close to my family again, and my family is all super close. I have a sister with two boys that are eight and ten. My brother, his wife and his kid, who is like six months, all meet for lunch on Wednesday, and I hadn’t seen them because of my vacation and their vacation.

I was standing in front of my parents’ house and one of my nephews came running to me with open arms, “I miss you so much, I’m so happy to see you,” and that just made my day. That was super nice and really made me happy. The thing with children is they are genuine, they are just real; he was just so happy to see me and I was happy to see him.

Thank you to Stefanie for speaking to Lauren Eagar, Senior Consultant in our Finance & Accountancy recruitment division in Switzerland. 

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment. 

Mohamad Mohamad is the Global Category Director Skin Care, Aerosols, and Bodycare – External Manufacturing Procurement at Coty in Amsterdam. Mohamad moved to the Netherlands while working for Coty last year.  

What are the three to five key drivers to success in Coty that you watch the most?

The most important thing to start with is why we exist at Coty and to think like the consumer.

Our mission is to create forward-thinking beauty and provide new, innovative, science-based solutions. We do that with our people, our partners, and our customers. Together, we unleash a vision of beauty.

Some key drivers there are being consumer/customer centric; understanding and meeting their needs is critical to our success. The other one is how we position ourselves through innovation, staying ahead and meeting changing consumer trends.

One key driver to success that is near to my heart is operational excellence; my background is in Operations and Manufacturing. Part of the engine that makes a good products company, in my opinion, is focusing on the operational efficiency or effectiveness to drive cost savings and value for our business and consumer.

As someone who’s recently moved to the Netherlands, what advice would you offer to someone thinking about making that move?

The first one is, do it. The other one is, embrace the culture. The Dutch people are great; they’re very open, they’re very direct, so be prepared for that.

The other one is the outdoors. If you enjoy the outdoors and you come here, go and explore. The landscapes are great - the canals and biking. There’s a reason why a lot of people do it here, because it’s quite convenient.

I really recommend for someone who comes to the Netherlands to be part of that culture of biking, because - once you get over the learning curve - it almost feels like the most convenient way to get around. It almost becomes second nature. Even me, now, I very rarely use anything other than a bike to get around.

Was that quite a big culture change for you, considering that you often need a car to get around in the US?

Maybe from a muscle memory perspective, for sure. It is different than the US. What I would say is, the Netherlands has done a lot of things properly in regard to the easiness of an expat coming to live here, like getting a place, getting around. Even if you don’t choose to bike and you use public transportation, all these things are quite systematic and user friendly.

I’m quite accustomed to change and I like change. That’s my personal perspective.

What is a personal highlight in your career so far?

At Coty, if I look back, and even with our most recent vision, we are focused on our consumer; that’s why we exist, but we also have some good values.

One is being fearlessly kind to yourself, fearlessly kind to others, and fearlessly kind to the planet. I think all this relates back to my career, because Coty has allowed me to be myself. Whenever I wanted a new opportunity, or maybe I wasn’t learning in a specific area anymore and I wanted to expand or take my knowledge from one area and shift and apply it to another area, Coty has allowed me to do that.

Coty has allowed me to continue to grow, which I really appreciate, and I think the message there is, by allowing you to be yourself and nurturing your career, there’s a baseline that you need to deliver and do the right things.

But, if those things are done and you have flexibility, from a career perspective, Coty has allowed me to grow and I’m very thankful for that; I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon. Again, our values are rooted in helping people grow in their careers, and in themselves, as well.

How did you plan out your career development path?

The first step is to start with the micro. The micro is setting clear goals and objectives, and seeking out short-term learning and growth opportunities. This includes networking with the people that are closest to you - they are within your circle day-to-day, peers or mentors that you have access to. The first thing I did was to understand, and connect with people, the goals and objectives.  

Once I felt comfortable, I started to ask the people that I developed a good relationship with: How do I expand? How do I learn about these other areas? Once I started to do that, I branched out. Even when you’re quite into your career, you only see what you deal with on a daily basis; there are things you don’t see. So, understand your area, then - once you start to branch out - you start to learn about what is out there.

Once I did that, I could say, “Okay, let me talk to my leader, this area looks interesting,” and I would ask if I could do stretch assignments or projects. I did a few of those throughout my career, whenever I wanted to see or develop new skills, or understand a new area.

Whenever I thought there was an area that I wanted to do, I would bring that back and link it to a personal highlight of my career, and even back to Coty as an organisation. When I came back with these opportunities, whenever I’ve been performing well, Coty has allowed me to take those and run with it or go into a new area and develop new skillsets.

What would be your opinion on the four-day work week?

I’m open to the concept, but I think there needs to be a few more in-depth studies on it.

Like many other organizations, the pandemic has provided us with a pilot experience, an opportunity to test both our technological capabilities and our appetites for a new philosophy of flexible working.

During COVID, we kicked off omni-work, a hybrid workplace flexibility model.

Removing the stress of having inflexible working principles, while ensuring people always feel productive, Coty provided the option to work up to 50% of the week remotely.

How is the growing focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) changing the Procurement function and how does it relate to your role?

If I were to keep it as simple as possible, the function of Procurement is to make sustainability a key consideration - let’s say a KPI or even a right way of doing business - for supplier selection and supplier management.

On a different front, it’s a journey; everyone’s on that journey, including our supply base. In certain cases, where we have developed partnerships, we get to work really closely with suppliers, co-building plans, partnering and going on the journey together.

Before, it was more of a supplier-customer relationship, now we’re very closely tied on this metric, and we have invested interest on each other’s success. That’s a little bit of change on that front.

What do you think the future of sustainability in your sector looks like?

At Coty, sustainability is the ultimate driver of innovation.

Our sustainability strategy, Beauty That Lasts, outlines the ways we will deliver on our goal of becoming an industry leader in a more sustainable and inclusive world. Launched in February 2020 and guided by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, our strategy is structured around three pillars: the Beauty of our People, Product, and Planet.

What are the three challenges ahead of you for third-party manufacturing?

For me, one of the most important things is to stay knowledgeable on innovation, consumer trends and market dynamics. I try and stay as knowledgeable as possible. We have some excellent leaders in our Procurement team, with our head CPO , Stéphane Delbos. We have some excellent people in our organisation, and we want to keep that knowledge and continue to grow that.

The other one that I mentioned is close to my heart, Operations and operational excellence - not just of us, but also of who we’ve chosen to partner with, because we also want to push our partners to be elevated.

We’ve talked about Operations excellence, consumer trends and knowledge - the last one is relationships and performance of our suppliers and partners. Coming out of COVID was a very dynamic time - everyone experienced it in one way or the other on a day-to-day basis4 through our energy costs, etc. So, now, we need to ensure we’re building really strong partnerships across the supply base we partner with.

Thank you to Mohamad for speaking to our Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment team in the Netherlands, led by Richard Bailey.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment. 

Marjolein van Eck is the HR Director IBM Northern Europe at IBM in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She has worked for IBM for 17 years, having joined as an HR Transformation Consultant, and then rotated in a variety of global and European HR specialist and generalist roles.

What excites you about working for IBM?

For me, it is twofold: first, the company itself and then second, what it means for me personally in terms of career growth.

IBM, as a company and the business we are in, excites me a lot. We're always at the forefront of technology and we’re doing such cool, new and innovative stuff that it's very exciting to be working here.

I have a very technical background myself (Master of Science degree) and I’ve always been intrigued by technology, but - more so - the people that work in this business keep inspiring me and I enjoy being around them. It’s the people that make the culture and we often hear that back from when they join – or, unfortunately, when they leave, as well. The culture is the first thing that people really call out.

Secondly, it’s the HR profession at IBM, which is very mature. In many ways, IBM is leading in the HR space - and not just because of the technology aspects, which is obviously well adopted in our daily work. Whenever I read an article about HR trends or other research, we often already implemented it. And, personally, from a career perspective, I've always been given the opportunities to grow and develop.

How would you describe the culture?

Our culture is very collaborative, supportive and kind. Most people would never say, “That's not my job.” People are always there to help and, because we're so internationally organised, I can pretty much call anybody around the globe if I have a question or need advice.

We, of course, need to navigate the matrix, but the informal organization is also very strong. Culture is about belonging, and I feel that I belong and matter in this organization.

I'm curious to hear about what IBM does in terms of wellbeing and mental health, which is high on the agenda for HR functions these days.

It's definitely becoming more prominent on the agenda than it's ever been before - because of COVID and the aftermath, obviously - but I can say that, for IBM, it was already high on the agenda before we had COVID; it was easy for us to rely on the structures that we had.

Our strategy is primarily focused on prevention. But we, of course, also have many programs and policies in place to support employees when they are in need, from employee assistance programs to individual counselling – all tailored toward the specific health issue.

But, as said, our primary focus is to avoid people needing these services, and that means we drive a lot of investments and efforts toward prevention. This is embedded in our HR strategy, but we also have a separate Health and Safety organisation driving this agenda - anything from education, to programs, to teaching people how to manage work life. We even have training around sleep and nutrition. We go quite far in those offerings – but also leave it up to the people whether they think it's beneficial for themselves.

We have many local programs, but sometimes also need local country variation. Where in the US, for example, an app could be a good solution, that may not work well on the other side of the pond. Here, for example, we offer health checks to our teams - a separate, completely safe institution runs that for us and it’s completely voluntary to participate. There’s clearly a lot of investment in this area and we focus on physical, mental, but also financial, health.

We really see it as part of our overall Diversity, Equity & Inclusion agenda, and invest a lot in advocacy and allyship around this. We are a very open organisation in that sense. We not only embrace different cultures, make sure that people feel included, but also drive an open dialogue about any type of diversity or wellbeing topic. We want to ensure people not only feel supported to discuss these topics in the workplace, but also know how to find their way to the services provided.

I would say that COVID helped us bring the human factor more prominently, making this more okay than it already was. I personally like that and am happy to see the progression.

What would you say your biggest challenges will be over the coming 12 months?

Interestingly enough, my role has just changed. I was looking after the Northern European region - the eight countries there - but now I'm also looking after Central Eastern Europe. So, a lot more countries, with completely new cultures and people priorities.

In supporting the business, my biggest challenge is how to bring all those countries, different perspectives, people and profiles together in one new market that needs to operate as one engine to drive business. From an overall HR perspective, our agenda - like many other companies - is centred around organisational health, and the attraction and retention of critical skills.

The dynamics, especially in the IT industry, are quite fierce, so attracting talent, working on your employer branding are key, but we're a company that has people working for us longer than the average five years, so that says something about the culture, as well as our career progression and reskilling opportunities.

Within IBM, the skill demand is continuously changing. So, for us, retention is naturally focused around skill development and ensuring there is continuous career growth, besides rewarding and recognition of our key talent. I think I am a personal example of how this worked, as I’ve had three different careers almost - there is really a value proposition there.

You’ve been with IBM for some time and had lots of evolution in what you've done. Is there something that stands out as a personal career highlight?

The moves between roles have been my critical career milestones. I started in consulting, then moved to more specialist HR, and now I’m in a more generalist role, so those were really anchor points.

During all roles I’ve had my key defining moments – but if I would need to call out one, it’s the recognition I received for a large-scale program I designed and rolled out across the entire company. This gave me a ticket to our special Best of IBM celebration in the Caribbean.

Sometimes, there are moments in your career when all the stars align and you're on a roll. I always look back at that with a smile.

If you were to go back and offer your younger self some career advice, what would it be?

I actually have a younger self in my house, my 12-year-old daughter! So, it would probably be the same as what I am trying to teach my children.

What I have found in my career at this point is that there's more stability, which comes with experience. Stability at work means you don't get too stressed anymore about certain situations - you stay in control of the situation and analyse it differently.

Early in my career, I remember that I sometimes would completely freeze or panic at work, or feel totally out of control and have sleepless nights for a week over something small. At a certain point, you will reach that stability and you will know how to shape things, make problems smaller, simpler, think around issues and create solutions, and don't get stressed as much.

It is definitely a skill. I am trying to figure out how I can help my children develop it, partly through role modelling and guiding them through their challenges. Overall, I feel their generation seems more mature, mentally, perhaps due to the world they are more exposed to today, than we were when growing up.

You talked about IBM being at the forefront of digital HR transformation, which is something that's happening at quite a pace. How do you see that changing the HR discipline in the future?

Quite a lot. If you would have told me, ten years ago, that I would be in this job or that it would suit my skills, I wouldn't have believed it. But, because of the transformation of the HR profession, I'm now a good fit, because of the technical background, but also the analytical capabilities and consultative mindset. I am now able to apply these skillsets in my daily work. Within IBM, I can even develop them further. For example, our analytics practices go far beyond a standard dashboard; we apply predicative analytics and even AI now in many of our HR processes.

By being able to advise the business - not just giving them a dashboard to say, your attrition is going up or down, but by actually bringing in the correlation and doing some predictive analytics to advise and drive better business outcomes - also requires different skillsets from an HR professional. I see a very accelerated path right now with analytics, but also the use of AI. It’s a self-learning mechanism, so it takes away a lot of the more operational work from us and makes the employee experience better, which elevates the HR profession from an experience standpoint, but also allows me to do the more value-added work for the business.

It’s fun and it's cutting edge - if you're speaking to your digital twin online and you see an HR partner that can help the business, from assignments to promotions - you name it - it's really interesting. Sometimes, I feel we’re already living in the future.

There’s sometimes discussion about whether there will even be a need for the HR function when the technology transformation is going so fast. Yes, our roles are changing, but pivoting towards using technology to drive even better business outcomes. It is not about replacing people, but doing work differently. It’s a transformation of the way we run HR.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?

That's a personal one. Reflecting on my father (who passed away a few months ago), the best compliments came from him. You can get compliments in the business all the time.

For me, there's also a difference between a compliment and feedback. But, he used to say that I'm a hard worker, dedicated and I always have a solution for everything. I'm always very genuine and switched on, but he would always say, when there's an issue, she would immediately come up with a solution - I think of that quite often. Compliments have more value when they come from those that know you best.

Do you have a favourite quote? If so, what is it and why does it resonate with you?

I'm not a quote person, but I had this sign from Albert Einstein, which said: “I have no special talents, but I'm just passionately curious.” It resonated with me.

Over the years, as it stood there, I started to think about what's behind that, because I'm always talking about EQ [emotional intelligence] versus IQ [intelligence quotient]. Yes, I have the IQ, but what made me successful is my EQ and my perseverance. Both have helped me to be where I am today. It's the ability to influence, bring people together - the human aspect - and constantly learning and being eager to jump into new things. That is what really stands out.  And it's always that perseverance that keeps me going. Behind me [the room Marjolein is being interviewed in], there is a sign from a song called Soldier On. It means, just keep going.

So, it's more the story behind it than the quote itself that really resonated with me. Over the past couple of years, during COVID, you read more about that skill and how to deal with AI taking over IQ. Your learning ability and those skills become more important, and I often smile and think, well that’s just normal human behaviour.

You also read about companies that are selecting people more on the basis of what they could learn, rather than what they already know. We used to have cultures in companies where you always had to be in the know - but you are not always in the know. As an HR Director, there are so many topics coming in. Daring to be transparent is sometimes saying, “I don’t know and I need to find out, but I will find out and then I will come back with the proper advice.” That is okay and has been quite a change.

Thank you to Marjolein for speaking to Katie Insley, Associate Director in our HR recruitment team in the Netherlands.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment. 

Sinéad Sheridan is the Procurement Director at Cloetta in the Netherlands. She started her career in various Procurement & Supply Chain roles at H.J. Heinz Company, working for the business as it became Kraft Heinz in 2015. Sinéad also managed her own Procurement company before joining Cloetta.

What strategies do you use for developing innovative, diverse teams?

This is a really important point for me, especially diversity in a team. I don’t think I’ve managed a team successfully that didn’t have a range of diverse individuals with different viewpoints and different ideas to pursue.

As a starting point, it’s the right mix of people with passion and energy. So, there are a few things that can somewhat compensate for experience - among them are passion and energy. If you’re passionate about Procurement, if you’re passionate about the food industry and you put that energy into everything you do, that’s a starting point.

Having that mix and energy in the team, and the drive to do better, is key. We have that shared energy and passion for what we’re trying to achieve as a team, and then it’s about learning from each other in an open culture.

As a leader, it’s your responsibility to create an open culture within your team, where team members feel that they can put forward their ideas and they can freely question others’ ideas. That way, you can bring all the different knowledge and experience together. A key point for a leader is creating the opportunity for the team to be innovative.

What do you see is the biggest challenges for a) your business, and b) your role over the next 12 months?

Over the next 12 months, the number one challenge for me is to prioritise people.

Our team - just like a lot of teams in Supply Chain and Procurement throughout the world - have done an amazing job with keeping our factories running in the past couple of years during the supply chain disruptions. It’s been a high pressure two-plus years fighting these supply issues and, of course, the inflation that we’ve seen. I think it’s really important to recognise that achievement.

We’re all very quick to move on from these things and think it’s in the past, but to recognise the achievement and the work the team has put in to helping the business mitigate all these issues. It's key now to also try and guide the team back to a strategic sourcing approach and away from the constant fire fighting that has dominated all of our lives in Supply Chain over the past couple of years.

Things like restoring routines and processes that may have been put on the back burner because we prioritised solving supply issues and then also trying to reconnect in person. I’m cognisant that there are still people that haven’t met each other in person in the organisation over the past few years - even though some people are still a little bit reluctant to meet in a large group, and to be conscious of that, so prioritising people and keeping people on track is a big challenge.

Then, of course, inflation – unfortunately - is currently a word that is used across a lot of industries, and for all households, as well, and it’s sticking around for some portfolios. We see the CPI commitments. If you think about, again, science-based targets to 2030, is our supply chain ready to support us to deliver that 46% reduction in CO₂ emissions, for example? We will have to make some key decisions around our sourcing strategies to achieve that, so we need to have adaptable strategies going forward.

My last one is, during COVID and the various supply chain crises we’ve had over the past few years, Procurement came a bit closer to being a more strategic partner for a business. Not only focused on cost and cash - the typical Procurement objectives - but also we need to be proactively supporting and delivering other key business needs, like innovation and sustainability.

That would be the three areas. Digital transformation, adaptive strategies, and to be a key strategic partner to the business.

What does the future of sustainability look like in the sector?

Cloetta is committed to science-based targets and I’m proud of that. I’m proud that we’ve jumped in there and made that commitment. Procurement has a massive responsibility to deliver many of those targets, for example, areas like CO₂ reduction, regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, packaging from renewable sources or recycled material, human rights improvement in our supply chain, etc.  Procurement touches all of those areas and we have that responsibility to deliver on all of those points.

Again, it links back to the adapted strategies of the traditional Procurement approach. We need to adapt our strategies to meet these changing needs that we have driven by our science-based targets.

In the confectionary sector, we also have the challenge of the sugar debate. This is why we have added more healthy alternatives to our product range.

What do you think about the future of sustainability in the wider sector, maybe not just in Cloetta? How do you see that transformation happening?

As a total food business, we need to combine our efforts, because there’s no point company A running a programme, company B running a programme, company C running a programme, all impacting, for example, regenerative agriculture and wheat.

I think, for efficiency’s sake and for shared learning, we need to pool our resources, and try to set up more industry-wide groups to attack some of these areas in a cohesive way, rather than different companies imposing different standards and targets on suppliers, and suppliers having to sign up to different programmes. As an industry, we need to be a bit more aligned in our approach when it comes to sustainability.

Joint investment in sustainability programmes makes sense; the power of a number of companies joining together to invest is much more powerful than what any one company can run individually.  

Thank you to Sinéad for speaking to our Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment team in the Netherlands, led by Richard Bailey.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment. 

Tijani Djaziri is the Global Vice President, HR Digitization & Organization and Rewards at gategroup in Zurich, where he’s been for over six years. He previously spent more than eight years at Dufry Group and two years at Sellbytel. Tijani started his career as an Auditor/Consultant at Mazars.

You started your career working for Mazars as an Auditor/Consultant. What attracted you to Human Resources?

I realized I wanted to move into HR at university. The various political and human aspects of organization was a fascinating discovery back then, and it kept being the most appealing side of HR throughout my career. The strategic aspect or organizational development - whether on the pure organizational side of things or people empowerment - has been a constant driver in my HR path in various stages of my career.

Even though, in the early stages of my HR life, the focus was mainly around basic organization skills in putting together processes and clear guidelines of HR best practices, it was always driven by a strategic view to improve the business capacity, to face daily challenges in alignment with the overall business strategy.

As I grew with the role and gained experience, I managed to reach this strategic goal to bring HR to a level above the usual administration role it was assigned to, with fresh and pragmatic approaches - mainly data driven to bring more fairness, together with additional efficiencies.

You have implemented and led HR projects on a global scale. How do you manage integrating strategies across different cultures and environments?

The challenging part of global projects is that all the various regions involved come with different priorities and focuses. Most of the stakeholders are usually struggling with their day-to-day issues and do not necessarily understand or even care about the global strategic necessity; they are stuck within their scope of responsibilities and don’t have a global vision around HR.

Hence, helping them change their views can prove challenging, and can require a lot of energy and time to help them evolve to another level of thinking.

The other challenge is usually to align global objectives with local ones, which comes with a lot of exchanges and compromises on both sides; the difficult part being to stay aligned with the global target, while compromising on specific details, generally ruled by legal constraints.  

How do you manage internal stakeholders to see the value of HR technology and digitalization?

Managing internal stakeholders is a key skill to drive digitalization and HR technology initiatives. To convince stakeholders of the value of HR technology, I had to align the HR technology strategy with business goals and priorities, through various workshops with them, defining the business processes and aligning them for a single set of rules to be globally implemented.

This helped to demonstrate the impact of HR technology on operational excellence and business value through leveraging data and analytics to showcase the benefits and ROI of HR technology.

Further to this, throughout the implementation journey, aside from the governance element, I had to communicate effectively and frequently with all stakeholders to address their needs and concerns, build a change management strategy through newsletters, regular calls and meetings, and end user guides and videos to improve the end user experience.

All these initiatives helped to foster a culture of innovation and experimentation in HR across the organization.

Your LinkedIn profile mentions you have implemented new global HR systems with very limited resources. What obstacles did you face under these circumstances?

The main challenge in the implementation project I handled at gategroup was related to resources. Even though we managed to get the budget on the licence and partner side of things, from the HR perspective, we had to convince the regions to allocate a full-time, dedicated resource in each one of them (at their cost) to help with implementation.

Ultimately, this approach was very beneficial, as it helped each region feel part of the project - not only as an execution element, but more as a business partner, as these resources (SMEs: Subject Matter Experts) had a saying in shaping the project. They were also a key SPOC [single point of contact] with the regional HR leaders to ensure alignment and have all stakeholders moving at the same speed under the global coordination.

What excites you about HR technology?

In a fast-paced, technological world, HR needs to cope with this overall evolution as much as any other department. In the context of global companies with branches spread across the world and multiple timezones, where time is of the essence, evolution is a must if a company wants to keep up to speed.

I believe HR technology is the solution to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of HR management. HR systems can automate and streamline various tasks, such as recruitment, payroll, performance appraisals, training and development, and employee engagement. By doing so, HR systems can reduce manual errors, save time and costs, and enhance the quality of HR services.

Another business strength of HR technology is that it can support strategic decision making and organizational performance. HR systems can collect and analyse data on various aspects of human capital in real time, such as skills, competencies, productivity, satisfaction, and retention. By using this data, HR tech can provide insights and recommendations on how to optimize the workforce, align HR practices with business goals, and measure the impact of HR initiatives on business outcomes.

Ultimately, it pushes HR to become a strategic business partner, rather than a simple support or admin function, as it used to be.

How have you, as a leader, created a good working culture in your teams?

The key element in this exercise has been to always value transparency and collaboration, involving all team members in the project with clear plans and clear governance. Even though this governance approach wasn’t applied at the project start, its implementation brought clear boundaries to all stakeholders (internal/external) on the task split and responsibilities. This helped to identify and fix issues quicker when they popped up, and also have a better understanding of the root cause and assign it to the right resource.

Aside from that, knowledge sharing and internal mobility (mostly) laterally, helped to grow internal technical knowledge and know-how, and helped progress much faster in the early stage of the project. It also helped to face challenges in a more structured and efficient way to enhance the product and improve the usage level for all users.

Thank you to Tijani for speaking to our Human Resources recruitment team in Switzerland, led by Keely Straw.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment. 

Franca Mercurio is the RD&E Director EMEA at SC Johnson in Switzerland. Franca has spent many years at SC Johnson in cross-functional roles. Having lived in different countries, she brings a broad perspective to her work and is involved in several Diversity & Inclusion activities in Switzerland.

How would you explain your job to those who've never worked in your field before?

It's funny, because - if I look at my job from a very simplistic perspective - when my daughters ask me what I do at work, I explain to them that normally I'm just on the phone 24/7! I do a lot of talking and try to gain an understanding of what the situation is.

If I have to be a little bit more concrete, I lead a team that is implementing products into the manufacturing areas, which means that we are not doing fancy work. We’re not the designers or the inventors, but we are the people that actually make things happen. We translate innovation into reality.

How do you identify with the mission at SC Johnson?

I would say that SCJ is definitely proud of the values and the integrity that we have. Our mission is visible, first of all, if you look at our logos, but even from a lot of the talks that our Chairman does on trying to make a better world.

We’re also here to make sure that we continue to think about the next generation. If I can make a little bit of a transposition between what we do on a day-to-day basis and what the ultimate mission of SCJ is, it is really to be involved in the execution and implementation of projects that are making those values true. So, you might have seen a lot of activities from the Chairman on sustainability, recyclable plastics, and those kinds of things.

Sometimes, we ask ourselves what it is that we do, but - when you see a product on a shelf that is responding to the values of the company - you can really feel proud of that.

Do you have a memorable moment from your career?

I have two memories that are a little bit similar in the sense that I made the best steps in my career when I was pregnant.

The first one, I already delivered my baby, and she was two-months-old. I was asked, “Would you apply for a position in the Netherlands, which would be a promotion?” I was like, “Well, why not? She is small, so we can do it. I have a fabulous husband that is following me.” So, I discussed it with him, and we were like, “Okay, let's go.”

Having the opportunity of the company considering my profile, even when I was on maternity leave, was amazing.

Subsequently, I was pregnant with my third child, and there was an opportunity. They were like, “Would you apply?” and I was like, “Yeah, but guys, I'm actually going on maternity leave and then I will be back.” They were like, “No worries. If everything goes well and you're responding to what the needs are, we're going to wait for you” - and that's what they did.

I found it so respectful and amazing that those values of D&I are true, irrelevant of what stage of your career you are. That was really memorable, and I’m grateful to the company that has given me the opportunity.

Do you have any advice for people who are relocating as a family?

It very much depends on where you go. When I moved to the Netherlands, I found a place which was very easy to move; it wasn't necessary to learn the language immediately and there were a lot of part-time opportunities. There are a lot of places to put your child or your children into the care of somebody; that was extremely helpful, because it makes it easy to move. You need to be very conscious of the things you want to do yourself and the things that you can leave to others.

When I moved to Switzerland, on the other side, I thought that I would find the same kind of structure. But, in reality, it was a little bit more difficult to find a place. The moment I moved to Switzerland, I had three daughters, so our needs were different. We had an au pair for a while - she was part of the family actually - she's Dutch, so it was also nice to keep on using the Dutch language for the girls.

Then, I always chose to have my daughters in public school, but also in the public sector, where I could leave them after school. I was lucky that they were not very ill a lot, so I could send them every day, and I’d also have the flexibility that, if they were not okay, I could work from home. It's really important that you understand what your values are, what your need are, and then see where you can find the help.

I am super lucky; I had a lot of friends that helped me if there was any need. That helps with taking your mind off things, because you know that there is a support network around you that will actually step in if you need them.

Do you have any advice for leaders who are looking to engage new talent entering the workforce?

It's really funny, because my team is pretty young and the values that they are looking for are always different from the ones that I was thinking myself when I entered the workforce. Sometimes, it's like, isn't it not enough? What is it that you're looking for?

For me, the key ingredient is to be there, and be open and available to talk and to listen to them. That is because they don't always know how to explain themselves with what they are looking for. But you cannot just assume that, because it was like that in your time, it is still like that. I find it fascinating to understand more and to open more.

For two days per year, I go into a school of Marketing in Lausanne. They're all between 20/22/23-years-old. It is really fascinating to understand where they want to go next, or the things that they're looking for, how you engage them for eight hours consecutively, making sure that they're not just looking at their mobile phones. That is something that you need to be very conscious about - anything that was true for you does not necessarily apply to them. Actually, a lot of the skills that we are looking for today are different from the ones that I was growing with.

But, always assume that you can learn from them. Always be available - your door needs to be open, and you need to talk to them so they can explain to you. And, see that there is also a point of reference in a moment in which they can talk and it's going to be more on a parity role, rather than a manager or an employee. It should be like, “Okay, explain to me what it is that you're looking for and how I can help you.”

This week, I was training on inverted classroom. They were talking about the standard way of viewing a class; there is a teacher, they talk to you, and then you go home and do your homework. But, now, they're looking into giving you the material first, so that you have an idea of what we're going to talk about, and then when we're in class, we are enhancing that opportunity there.

I was thinking about what I can do at work, instead of me just telling you, “Okay, this is your task,” giving you some hints and then brainstorming with you - constantly working on these additional things that you can find to engage them and to show them that, actually you don't know everything, but it's mutual growing.

What is the most exciting project you've had outside of work?

Teaching in a school is one of them, but the other big piece is related to D&I. I'm part of the LEAD Network in Switzerland. I'm part of the board there for the chapter. It is incredible, because – between 13/15 people - we're looking to do webinars, mentoring sessions, face-to-face or virtual events where we can give tips to the women around us. Actually, this morning we were discussing what our next event is going to be.

First of all, the amount of people that you meet, and the amount of things that you learn from just listening to their stories and by exchanging experiences is really impressive. I hope, just by doing a little bit of this, I can give a small contribution for my daughters when they're entering the world of working. It’s super important that we look into it.  

I know there were a lot of studies showing that we went backwards with the pandemic on the women's side, so we need to catch up and make sure we go back to where we were before pandemic – but, also, that we accelerate going forward.

When you're hiring new people, what would you say is trainable and what do you think must already be there?

If I think about this question, I've changed my perspective along my career. When I was younger, I would say, if you wanted to be in a technical role, you need to be a grown technical first, and then we’re going to add some of the soft skills around that.

However, going forward, you can always learn the technical piece. Of course, if you are a formulator, you need to have some real formulation experience and studies behind - it's not applicable to everything. But 80% of the things are trainable; you go for a course, an MBA , a post-doc, or whatever you're going to get.

The thing that you need to have is the ability to shape the person. So, you need to have the adaptability of the person, or you can just grow those soft skills that are going to be even more important than the real hard skills. By that, I mean they need to be open, they need to be receptive to feedback, and they need to be curious.

You cannot teach those things. Yes, as you grow, as you become more mature, you can understand that certain things are necessary and you can try to adapt, but you need to have all of those at the beginning. I'm really looking more at how the person is responding, rather than the answer they're giving on a certain problem.

I will always remember, once I was doing an interview - we were looking for a lady that was more on the data type of work. We did a business case with her, trying to see how she would think about it and how her reasoning was developing. I thought we gave her a very easy task, but - after half an hour - she came back and said, “I don't know what it is that you're asking me, I don't understand it. So, I'm not sure that I'm able to do it.”

First of all, I appreciate the fact she came back saying she didn’t know how to do it. But then, we gave her two or three things that she could start reasoning about, and after that, she was like, “Oh, okay, now I know,” and she did it.

For me, first having the humility to say, “I'm not able to do it,” but then the rework happens, and they came back with a good performance - those are the things I'm most looking for.

How does SC Johnson engage and develop top talent?

We do great onboarding; people are very happy when they come, because they can see a lot of things in a month that sometimes you don't see even after a year.

The other piece that SCJ does in an amazing way is to keep you engaged. So, if you want to be going beyond what you're normally doing, you can always raise your hand at any level. It’s giving you the freedom of just doing your work or going beyond, if you wish. This is the most attractive way to keep you engaged.

What advice would you give to new graduates who are looking to step into R&D or Supply Chain for the first time?

First of all, don't be scared. It could be technical on the R&D side, but even the Supply Chain side could be technical. But don’t be scared to start working from the basics.

Sometimes, when we start working, we think that it's going to be all these nice things and very flowery, but, actually, you need to also do the very basics, and you need to start understanding what you're talking about from the lowest level. This might mean doing the practical side of things.  

The most important piece is to understand what it is that you're doing and to give back. Don't be scared. Nobody is born knowing all these skills. Nobody is going to be asking you to make super-duper things if you don't have the capabilities. We're going to be asking you to just be yourself, to come in and to be humble enough to say, “I don't know,” and be willing to learn how to do it.

The other piece is, don't be scared to ask if, after a couple of years, you question what you can do next, where you can expand. Find a sponsor, find a mentor, find somebody that you like as an example, and go and explore what it is that you can do next.

At the same time, don't be too arrogant and say, “I know everything,” Instead, it’s, “Okay, where can I go next? Where can I do different things?” and the opportunities will come.

So, start, go, don’t be scared about the type of work, deliver what you need to deliver, and then the opportunities will just come.

Thank you to Franca for speaking to our Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment team in Switzerland, led by Neil Cope.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.