Erwin Rengers is the Global Chief Human Resources and Marketing & Communications Officer at Hyva in the Netherlands. He previously spent over 20 years in FMCG with Kraft Heinz, becoming VP HR for Continental Europe, Russia and European R&D. He was also Global HR Director at discount retailer Steinhoff International and has acted as an HR consultant.

What excites you about Hyva and the mission that attracted you to the business?

Initially, I had never heard of Hyva, although it was founded by Jaap Vaandrager in the Netherlands, 44 years ago. Nevertheless, what was interesting was that I was approached by an executive search company, and I had a couple of conversations with Alex Tan, the CEO of Hyva.

From these conversations, I realised that Hyva had experienced strong organic growth over the past four decades. Reflecting on our discussions and looking at the business, it became clear what the company’s future journey needed to be, moving into the next stage of the business lifecycle and change.

This realisation was a very personal reason for my decision to join the company. I like to leave a legacy - not just for the sake of leaving a legacy - but to add value to an organisation; that’s where I get my energy. Looking back at my career, I've worked with mid-sized companies like Heinz to big corporations like Steinhoff, with a turnover of 20 billion and 130,000 employees.

But it’s not about the numbers; it was the complexity and opportunities ahead that were my main drivers for joining. I loved the product - I like concrete products. I had previously worked with products like Heinz ketchup, for example, and now I'm dealing with cranes and cylinders. These products aren't rocket science, but it’s very interesting to see where you can add value both from an HR perspective and for the organisation.

Two years ago, in July, I joined Hyva. After about a year and ongoing discussions with Alex, it became clear that changes were necessary. Factors like the impact of COVID-19 and the global supply chain issues - our cost price is for a large extent based on steel prices – meant our past strengths became our weaknesses, which was magnified due to COVID.

The organisational structure did not have many professional processes across various functions, such as HR, Finance, Business Operations, IT, and SOP processes – it was like “spaghetti” trying to manage that globally. This prompted us to consider a shift in the company to create focus for both the business and people.

We have five LOBs , but they were merged in how they were managed globally. The nature of the products - either route to market (selling) and production are different; some products are for different markets and totally different customers, some with tailor-made or specific specifications and requirements, which is very project based, and others standardized and made to stock.

So, we needed to change and enhance focus, accountability, and clarity within the business, which will create a lot of value in the long run. We initiated a project, called “Project Rainbow”, which was inspired by a rainbow I saw on a rainy November morning while driving to the office, and it symbolises a transition into brightness, aligning with our goal.

We recognised the importance of external support to make transformation happen – to be successful, you need to make sure your execution of such a big transformation is successful. So, we collaborated with McKinsey, drawing from their expertise. This partnership extended over six months - the first month with the management team and finally the entire organisation.

Mid-July, we unveiled the new structure, consisting of three vertically integrated business units: Components (core of the business), Cranes, and Recycling (Container Handling & Waste Handling). We still have some regional structure, as well.

This shift includes the globalisation of HR, IT, and Finance functions, using a matrix organisation. So, the full HR community will report to me, and someone else will take this responsibility for Finance, IT, etc.

The next step is working on processes, clear accountabilities, and data. The processes are fundamental for the new organisation. We have a clear strategy and vision, but we need to execute that and look at processes and other elements like culture to gain a holistic view to change the organisation.

For example, HR will invest in HR systems for global management and employee self-service, as well as digitising processes to support locations without HR support. Overall, really driving functional excellence.

The transformation is a natural progression, mirroring the evolution observed in many companies after decades of growth; adapting to a new professional structure is an organic evolution in its journey.

How do you define what you want that culture to be like in Hyva as a business?

As I am responsible for Marketing as well, we recognise our strong brand in the market, consistently recognised in the industry. The brand strength translates globally, evident from our surveys and high net promoter scores, consistently ranging from six to seven. We should leverage that for our employer brand; so, we'll start focusing on various efforts, such as LinkedIn posts, social media engagement, and updating our career website, combined with internal and external communications.

But, before that, we want to reshape our values. When I joined, we had seven values - best practice is three to four. Entrepreneurship and customer relationships remain central. Fundamentally, I want to create a purpose. The “why” is crucial for attracting and retaining talent, especially among the younger generation. Sustainability is also becoming much more important.

We need to align the vision, mission, purpose, and strategy. While the strategy might change in detail, this structure remains. Simultaneously, reshaping our structure, processes, and culture to elevate our business. A lot of work still needs to be done.

Currently, we have a purpose, but we are not clear on that. We need to make it explicit. Our waste handling, for example, yields impactful solutions, a prime example being China, where we orchestrate comprehensive waste management for governments. Beginning with street collection, we transport waste to dedicated stations. These solutions contribute to a healthier world, particularly in countries like India, where the streets remain cluttered with garbage. India's government emphasises not only infrastructure development, but also an improved quality of life. Having personally witnessed this during my recent visit, the potential is there.

This is a perfect fit for us, as well, with growth opportunities. It's a mutually beneficial scenario, benefiting governments, collaborating businesses, people, and our own business. At Hyva, it's not just about products - it's much more.

Sustainability is clearly something that businesses are focusing on so much more now than they perhaps have in the past.

Recently, while visiting our Pune factory, which is about 160 kilometres from Mumbai, I gained a fresh perspective. We essentially serve as bodybuilders, modifying trucks and the body, and we build upon that by incorporating cylinders where necessary. However, this process consumes significant energy, for example, welding and other tasks generate a lot of heat within the factory. It's clear that we need to drive change and see what we can do differently in our processes to reduce our environmental impact as an organisation.

To address this, we've started investing in solar panels. This initiative is gaining momentum; even the Pune factory now has solar panels. The business has picked this up more over the past one to two years.

Is there anything that stands out to you as being a defining moment or maybe a risk that you've taken that has helped you reach that leadership role?

Having spent two decades at Heinz, I grew with the business and progressed through various roles. Then, the business was taken over by Warren Buffet and 3G Capital, and almost the top 200s needed to leave, including myself. I then moved to Steinhoff in a strategic role and decentralised organisation, which was totally different from Heinz.

Thin margins, managing quantity, having logistics right, and having Sales staff fully dedicated to do the best for the customer – a very interesting period.

I tried self-employment and did some project-based work at TE Connectivity in a Business Partner role, but found myself needing more challenges and to be able to leave a legacy. So, I put myself on the market. I reconnected with e-llis, a 4PL [fourth party logistics] organisation, a family-owned business. I worked temporarily on the company's purpose and market development as Business Development Director, but as I said, I wanted to leave my legacy and have more responsibility as a CHRO.

Finally, I was approached by an executive search company. I shared my limited industry-specific experience, emphasising competence over industry knowledge, as he was saying Hyva was looking for industry experience.

After that, there was a period of not hearing anything, but I held onto my belief that industry experience reaches a point of relevance, while competence holds more importance in a certain organisational context.

Suddenly, I was approached by another consultant from the same executive search company - someone I knew ten years ago at Heinz - and she put me forward again for the role at Hyva. She explained they couldn’t find the right candidates, but she said I would be a fit candidate from her perspective. The following day, I spoke with Alex (Tan) and, after three interviews, they hired me.

What struck me was the challenge, but also being at the top and being able to influence within the organisation.

If you didn’t choose HR, were there any other professions you’d like to explore?

In my youth, I was interested in many jobs, like a vet, architect or - like many - a professional soccer player. I also wanted to be a pilot; I even did some tests for the Royal Air Force. I had never even heard of HR. A good friend, who was studying HR, suggested that it might suit me. I joined him at school one day, and the combination of economics, philosophy, social studies, and psychology that HR offered was interesting. So, I decided to pursue it once I finished my secondary education. I went on to earn a degree in Business Administration, as well, achieving university-level education.

While at university, I worked for a food company for three years and, after, I worked at Heinz for the next 20 years - although I hadn't originally planned to become an HR Director or CHRO. My career within the company evolved gradually. I began as a factory HR Manager and the company expanded across the UK, Europe and Russia.

At one point, Heinz faced a decision about consolidating its European production. With government incentives, the Netherlands-based subsidiary was selected. During my time there, I worked on innovative projects, introducing concepts like lean production and flexible labour solutions to adapt to seasonal demands.

Throughout my career, there has always been a point of improvement, being innovative and looking for change. I never aimed for the next step up; instead, I focused on adding value and generating energy in whatever I did. As my career progressed, I took on roles of increasing responsibility and worked on diverse projects.

For this role, I wanted to be responsible and contribute to the organisation at the highest level. I find fulfilment in being close to the top where the communication is direct and I can influence decisions.

Was there anything else that you wanted to share about your own personal story or Hyva itself?

I can tell you about my personal life. I'm married and have a 12-year-old daughter, along with a golden retriever. I've always tried to balance my life, even though I make long working hours. When I do have free time, I focus on quality. Alex, the CEO, often tells me that, too. In fact, we recently went out for dinner, and I push him as well to also enjoy life outside of work.

For me, it's not the number of hours, but the quality of those hours spent. Maintaining the right balance is important in my life.

I believe in running the extra mile and driving passion and energy in everything you do. I always say there’s always a solution to a problem and don’t make things overcomplicated. After all, we are just selling cylinders and cranes - or ketchup, as I experienced at Heinz.

Be open and honest, respect others, and treat others as you want to be treated, as my grandmother always used to say – simple values in life. As the CHRO and Alex the CEO, we remain very humble, and I see that gap of perception some may have about our role, but we don’t feel that.

We want to serve the business and do the best for the business and for our people and grow further. We are accountable for 4,000 employees and their families. The ultimate goal is to be successful for our employees and customers – that’s it.

Thank you to Erwin for speaking to Katie Insley, Associate Director in our Human Resources 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. 

Aidzil Subohi has spent the last 22 years growing her career within Greif, a global supplier and manufacturer of industrial packaging products and services in the Netherlands. Currently Director of Finance for the North & Western Europe Region, Aidzil shares fascinating insights into her career path, management style and personal development philosophy.

Greif has ambitious sustainability targets – specifically, to reduce scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 28% by the end of the decade. What are the challenges the company faces in its bid to achieve this goal?

The target is a challenge in itself! And rightly so – because it’s hugely important and we need to take it seriously. By setting the bar high and having a clear mission, I believe we’re far more likely to push ourselves and reach our goals by 2030 than if we set the threshold lower.

We’re committed to reducing our energy usage for every production unit, as well as delivering products and services in a more sustainable way – promoting a circular economy wherever possible.

Doing all that at the same time as offering the best value and customer service is a tall order, so our sustainability initiatives must be smart. For example, we’re seeking new opportunities in renewable energy, looking at new ways to recycle raw materials and manage waste or byproducts, and investing in green initiatives across all our locations – like solar panels and water pumps, right down to increasing greenery in our locations and finding ways to minimise paper usage in office environments. It’s about every team and every department doing their bit.

What are the successes and opportunities that have kept you at Greif for almost 22 years?

Since I started at Greif, there have been significant advancements in technology, business landscape, infrastructure and environmental perspectives, and I’ve been incredibly fortunate to experience and contribute in the company’s continual development and growth.

To keep myself on the front foot, I’ve had to develop myself, keep learning new topics and not be afraid to step outside my comfort zone. I also think that when you’re genuinely passionate about the work you do, your career progression increases naturally.

I’m good at connecting and working with people from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and disciplines, and my management approach is people-first. I encourage critical thinking in my teams and keep an open mind when it comes to communicating and implementing business strategies, because information and new ways of working will always be interpreted diversely by different people. You have to stay aware of that, recognise the sensitivities of each individual and adapt your way of communicating accordingly.

Did you always have your career path planned out from the beginning or has it happened organically?

I graduated with a Law degree, so - in the early days of my career - I assumed I’d follow a fairly standard path, though I still had a high interest in Finance!

There was high demand for Finance professionals at the time, hence I specialised in this area and completed an MBA, thereafter started as a Finance Controller at Greif. It was an exciting time – full of challenges and opportunities to learn. I trained to become a Certified Management Accountant in the mid-2000s and, as the business grew, I became involved in projects such as business acquisitions and reviewing major capital investments.

I always had an awareness that, if I wanted to continue being involved in complex tasks like these, I needed to keep developing myself and taking on new responsibilities – even if they felt overwhelming at the time.

I still use skills I learned in my Law studies on a daily basis, i.e., analysis, critical thinking and problem solving, to name just three. No degree or textbook, though, can give you the learning curve you get from on-the-job experiences. It’s the knowledge base you build from these small steps that ultimately keeps you climbing higher in the structure of an organisation.

I’ve also had a lot of support at home during the most challenging times, from my parents in those early days and, later on, from my husband. You can’t underestimate the peace-of-mind that brings.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever been given?

That I am reliable and connect with people from various levels and disciplines. Also being described as a leader with emphatic values. I am able to connect to each individual according to their respective skills, as well as encouraging my team to problem solve independently, while at the same time guiding and supporting them along the way.

What advice would you give to aspiring leaders?

It would be to keep learning and developing yourself, both professionally and personally. Formal education, professional qualifications and on-the-job training are all important, but I give equal weight to softer skills, such as communication and presentation skills, and having the self-awareness to know when coaching will improve your way of thinking or approach to challenges.

I also believe career progression doesn’t have to be vertical. The best experiences and learning curves often come from moving sideways in an organisation.

Outside of work, what does relaxation look like for you?

I love spending time with family, reading and watching concert performances. I also love doing long-distance running and practising karate. Both sport activities increase my focus and sharpen my thinking. In fact, it’s not unusual for me to come up with ideas or find the solution to a problem at work while I’m out on a long run!

Karate, in particular, teaches self-awareness, discipline and anticipation, working out your competitor’s moves in advance, and those skills transfer over into my professional life. There are so many benefits, I could go on and on!

Thank you to Aidzil for speaking to our Finance & Accountancy recruitment team in the Netherlands, led by Hannah Mallia and David Harper.

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

Patrick Visser is the Vice President Global Internal Audit and Control Assurance at Universal Music Group in the Netherlands. He started his Audit career at PwC, before moving to KPN, Biomet, Stryker, and Angelini Pharma Company.

How, in your opinion, is the role of the senior Finance professional changing?

The current business world asks for more real-time insights, both from a past and future perspective, to allow for fast and preferably more fact-based decision making. The role of the senior Finance professional must adapt to that evolving expectation.

They need to play a meaningful role in delivering the right data insight at the right time and the right level of detail to the C-suite to support the decision-making process. I would expect that the senior Finance professional will take a lead role in exploring opportunities for a more intelligent process automation.

All of this will enable the Finance function to spend more time on analysing data, predicting trends, and predicting outcomes, rather than doing a lot of manual, repetitive work.

This trend started a couple of years ago, but is still as relevant as it was back then. My expectation is that we will only see more of that.

How do you approach strategic workforce planning?

Firstly, I’d say you need to have a good sense of what you’re trying to accomplish business wise and what you’re working towards. Define what your strategic initiatives are, which might require different or new capabilities compared to what you currently have in your team.

From my perspective, it is important to think about whether we have the right expertise to deliver on our strategy or not.

Flexibility is important, as well. Can we scale up and down when we need to, in terms of resource levels? I strongly believe in having a strong core team that is supplemented by a strong co-source partner. Having a strong partner allows us to gain an outside-in perspective; the expertise helps management to decide that certain things must be done.

Bringing in the flexibility, the experience and the expertise can definitely help in making sure you achieve what you want to achieve.

How do you think your management style works for you and your team?

As a leader, my goal is to always ensure that we create the right environment for the team to excel and to remove roadblocks when they appear. I am focused on empowering my team, mostly to create a positive flow of information and ideas, instead of me telling them what to do.

I tend to place a lot of trust in my team, but only after we’ve developed a system of checks and balances, so that I’m sure the output of our work consistently meets our quality standards.

I lead my team with a lot of trust, and it tends to work well, because it gives a level of freedom and empowerment to the team. Typically, people like that and it engages them. We use their experiences and their innovative capabilities to always challenge the status quo.

How can we accomplish wellbeing for all employees?

Wellbeing can mean different things for different people; it is important that we understand what it means and what is important to each individual team member, as well as what a work-life balance means to them.

What works for one might not work for someone else. Since the COVID pandemic, we’ve all been working more from home and we still operate with more flexibility, so the need for more attention on mental wellbeing is more prevalent than ever before.

One of the effective ways to accomplish mental wellbeing could be partnering with a specialised company that provides mental coaches to employees, where employees can make appointments with them whenever they need advice, or when they just want to soundboard with someone outside of the team or the company.

Secondly, it’s about having an open dialogue between a manager and an employee. Maybe we need to spend more time on that than ever before, because the world has changed, and remote and flexible working is now an established part of business.

You don’t see each other in person that often anymore, so you risk loss of connectivity and the social element of work, which I think is really important for people’s engagement levels.

What advice would you give to yourself five years into your career?

A couple of things come to my mind. The first one is to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, because - when I look back - when I was stepping out of my comfort zone, I was taking on stretch assignments and going all in without a fear to fail.  

From my perspective, complex challenges become an essential opportunity to learn. Make sure you learn from everything and don’t make the same mistakes again - and try to get the best out of it.

The second is, dare to take decisions, even if you don’t have all the answers - even if you don’t have all the data – try to make decisions and utilize the skills and experience of those around you, because you will find out quicker if it was the wrong decision, and then you can course correct, learn and move on.

That also leads to the third thing from my perspective, which is, don’t overthink things too much - it can paralyse you. Just experiment and try to learn along the way.

You have worked in a number of different industries. How do you think it has added to the success of your Finance career so far and what you’ve learnt?

It’s all about context and perspective. You can learn from what works well, but also what doesn’t work well, in one industry versus the other. I think that’s also true for one company versus the other, even if it’s in the same industry.

For example, some industries are more progressive and innovative when it comes to technology differences and support processes compared to others.                          

So, if you have experience and go into another industry, you can take that knowledge and your experience with you to challenge the status quo, and think more about what could be, instead of accepting what is.

That has aided my experience and my progression, because I’ve been fortunate enough to work in different industries, and I’ve always been able to take learnings from them - the good things and the bad things - through just asking some critical questions and challenging the status quo.

That is the beauty of having been in multiple industries, but also different types of companies, even within the same industry.

How do you feel Finance can help accelerate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives?

Finance can lead the charts, because we are the experts in processes, systems and understanding how transactions turn into numbers.

Similar to Finance, ESG initiatives will also be included in annual reports. We look at the recently published CSRD has ever done.

Through the training and coaching amongst Finance departments, they can also help build the governing process and the controls that will support the reliable reporting of non-financial information.

Most Finance teams are used to such processes, so they can be the ultimate gatekeeper in a sense; even if there’s an overlapping process or there are overlapping tools that cover both aspects.  

Finance can make sure that both aspects are covered for the financial reporting and the non-financial reporting. At the end of the day, it’s all in the same annual report, it’s going to the same stakeholder group, and then Finance can be the ultimate gatekeeper in reviewing that data based on their understanding of processes.  

Finance can play quite a big role in this - it can possibly become the leader, and I think that’s what most companies actually do. There are a couple of ways to accelerate these initiatives, just by leveraging the available knowledge, process, systems, and controls.

Thank you to Patrick for speaking to Hannah Mallia, Head of Executive Finance recruitment in our Finance & Accountancy team in the Netherlands.

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

Antonio Calco’ Labruzzo is the Global Head of Human Resources, GREFP and TBS at Takeda in Zurich. Antonio started his HR career in Italy, and prior to his current role at Takeda was a CHRO at Colosseum Group/Jacobs Holding.  

Willem Krul has been Global Accounting & Reporting Director at JDE Peet’s since 2012. JDE Peet’s is the world's leading owner of coffee and tea brands, serving around 4,200 cups per second.

Here, Willem reflects on the streamlining of recruitment processes over the course of his career, how taking a risk can pay off in the long run, and that awkward feeling of being the “new guy” in the office after leaving a company you know inside out.

What changes have you seen in the employment market in the Netherlands over the years and what are the key drivers for these changes?

From the point of view of candidates, I don’t see a lot of changes. Generally speaking, people go into an organisation, stay for three to five years, and then move on.

The biggest changes have been to companies’ internal processes. In the past, it would be managers alone who’d interview five or so candidates and make their selections based on those interviews (and probably a degree of gut feel, too).

These days, HR - especially the recruitment departments within HR (if you’re a big enough company to have that luxury!) - has professionalised the whole process and made it a lot more thorough.

For every opening at JDE Peet’s, there’ll be a properly graded, group-approved and externally benchmarked job description, with pre-screening selection criteria that enable our recruitment department to identify the best candidates out of the many applicants before sending their CVs onto managers.

Then, we’ll usually do an assessment to check the person’s competencies, and sometimes the applicant will get an unscheduled call from us with a few questions just to get a feel for how prepared they are without any preparation! It’s a useful way to gauge how motivated a candidate is, how much research they’ve done on the role and the company, and ultimately how much they want to work for us.  

Investing this kind of time and diligence into the recruitment process makes it far less likely that you’ll employ someone, only to have to let them go after a month or two because they’re not quite the right fit. And that’s not just better for companies; it’s better for and more respectful to candidates, as well.

What measures has JDE Peet’s put in place to retain high potential employees?

As part of our annual appraisals, we score members of our team and calibrate those scores by asking colleagues in other departments to do the same. This gives us a broader perspective on the individual and helps avoid the bias that you naturally have with your own team.

We also rank talent using the nine-box model, a tool that helps us categorise and compare employees’ performance and potential. This means that, when a new (senior) role becomes available, we’re able to identify and promote the top talent we already have.

You’ve had an enviable career within a prestigious firm. What risks have you taken to reach the level you’re at today?

I’d have to go back to my KPMG days back in the ‘90s. I wasn’t an auditor; my job was to compile financial statements for small business owners. We had an engagement with an oil company who had some interest rate swaps. They wanted monthly reports on receiving fixed interest rates and paying floating, etc. Honestly, I didn’t know a lot about any of it! I just followed the process my predecessor set up and did everything I could to learn on the job.

Suddenly, a large international client, Montell, which was a newly created joint-venture of Shell and an Italian company in the chemical industry, came along and they wanted us to do their accounts.

They invited a KPMG partner to come in and discuss the set-up of the accounting. When the subject of interest rate swaps came up, he said: “Willem knows all about that!” The next thing I knew, I was in front of the customer having been used to work on accounts for small numbers, but now dealing with big numbers - billions and billions. It was mind-boggling. I had to buy a new calculator (remember, we are still in the ‘90s) to fit in all the zeros!

At the end of the day, though, numbers are numbers. And, although I was less experienced in this area, I knew just about enough, I had the backing of a colleague who believed in me, and I loved working in an international environment.

Eventually, an opening came up for a consolidation and reporting role. That was my move out of the Big 4 into Montell (now LyondellBasell Industries), where I went on to grow my career for the next 14 years. So, the risk paid off!  

How did you plan your career development path?

It’s simple - I didn’t! Yes, you need to take ownership of your career path, but no one can be sure of what’s around the corner. You must weigh up new opportunities based on what’s happening in the here and now, on what you love doing, and you have to be brave.

When I made the move from LyondellBasell to Provimi after almost a decade-and-a-half, it wasn’t easy. Suddenly, even though I was 40 years old, I was the new guy. I didn’t even know how the coffee machine worked, let alone the financials! But that feeling is only temporary.

When I moved on again to JDE Peet's, the transition was much easier, because I’d already gone through that big change just three years earlier. It was a huge learning curve.

My career path has also been influenced by changes that have happened around me - changes I could never have predicted when I started in each role. For example, Montell merged into Basell, and a few years later Basell merged with Lyondell into LyondellBasell Industries, which at that time was a very centralised, American-style company. I didn’t feel at home and took the decision to leave. History repeated when Provimi was taken over by Cargill.

When I joined JDE Peet’s, revenue was 2.5 billion. Now, it’s over eight billion. So, change is constant, and how I’ve responded to that change has dictated the direction of my career.

I also love what I do, I know my skillset and I know where my dreams lie. For some people, it’s all about diversifying and then aiming for those top CFO roles. My dream is doing the very best job I can in a position that plays to my strengths in a setting I like. And I feel lucky that my role right now with JDE Peet’s allows me to do just that.

If you could go back in time and give your younger self some advice, what would it be?

I’d probably repeat the advice my father gave to me and my brother: It doesn’t matter what you study, as long as you study. University-level education gives you a certain mindset, and an approach to problem solving that serves you throughout your life and work, no matter what you end up doing as a career.

What do you think will be the biggest challenges facing you in your role at JDE Peet's over the coming year?

One is retention, keeping hold of the talent in our team, so we don’t have the challenges of recruiting in a very tight market.

The other big challenge from an accounting perspective is the shift we’ve had to make from the financial to the non-financial space, in the form of sustainability reporting - something that’s quite new for us. It’s a good challenge to have, though, the right thing to do for us and for society as a whole. As with any change, we’ll learn, and we’ll adapt, and we’ll become all the stronger for doing so.

Thank you to Willem for speaking to our Finance & Accountancy recruitment team in the Netherlands, led by Hannah Mallia and David Harper.

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

Alrik Boonstra is the CHRO for Roompot, which will be after the announced acquisition of Landal GreenParks, the leading provider of holiday resorts in Europe. He joined early in 2023 from the role of Global SVP Human Resources at Irdeto in Amsterdam. Alrik started his career in consulting, before moving into Sales & Marketing at Unilever. He went on to join PepsiCo and became a Managing Director and Partner at Korn Ferry Hay Group, where he spent almost 12 years.

What excites you about the culture of an organization?

When you look at Irdeto, it has a truly international and very diverse culture - and they celebrate that diversity. They're very curious about learning from other nationalities and cultures; there is no one country or dominant culture, which you would often see in some international companies.

Also, Irdeto is a true culture of empowerment in combination with accountability. The reason they have that empowerment and accountability in their culture is because it's so geographically dispersed, with 20 locations. All of them are relatively small, so it's impossible to actually manage that from a headquarters. You therefore must empower your leaders. You have to empower your teams and you have to instil trust. So, the accountability plus empowerment plus trust - that's really deep in their culture.

Roompot is different. It has a very entrepreneurial, down to earth culture with a less is more mentality. At Roompot, we celebrate that we are not a corporate in the classical sense with lots of meetings and processes.

From a broader perspective, what are the things that you think are really important when you're trying to retain talent in a business?

I believe, based on lots of research, that people don't leave companies, they leave bosses. The feeling of belonging and having a connection with your manager and with your peers is essential.

It’s important for a company to ask, on a regular basis: what is your relationship with your manager? We see that asking that question is the best predictor of people staying with the company for a longer period. Building that relationship with your manager is crucial, such as building relationships across the company, having peers - buddies, as we sometimes call it.

So, I am very much an advocate of peer-to-peer learning, mentoring and coaching, because it's all geared towards building deeper, meaningful relationships in the company to create a sense of community where people really feel connected to each other. I think that's even more important than feeling connected to the company and its mission and strategy. I’ve learned that tech companies are typically very good at building cross-functional, international, non-hierarchical relationships.

Ultimately, those interpersonal relationships will, of course, lead to commitment to the company. But, at the end of the day, people don't necessarily choose companies anymore. They choose to work for certain people who they relate to and let their choice be determined by a set of more moral values they’d like to experience in the organisation. For us, as HR professionals, it's really important to understand and build programs around.

If you start recruiting for a business, you want to understand the business, the business model and the kind of company you're recruiting for. However, I think it's becoming more and more important that you understand the leadership culture. That's where the recruitment businesses come into play, because that's something you cannot put into an advert on LinkedIn, since it’s all about setting people up for a deep interpersonal connection - the famous chemistry between a leader and his or her team.

We also have to be humble, realistic and ensure that the basics are right, as well. It’s great to create that amazing culture, that community feeling, but - at the same time - people want to have the basics right. They want their pay, short-term incentives and long-term incentives to be right, that’s – as HR – our license to operate.

I fully understand that people need that kind of stability, particularly in those times of high inflation that we are experiencing right now - that all contributes to the employee experience. The employee experience is determined by the basics, and all the other things are the cream on top of the cake.

Where do you think HR adds most value to an organisation?

The People agenda is in the hands of the line managers and many CEOs these days, if not all CEOs. They're talking about people all day long, because they now truly understand and believe that people make a difference to the value they create in the market, and to their clients.

As HR, we need to help support line managers and, in particular, the CEO to navigate that People agenda and deliver on it, and we need to build a strategy that creates business value through people. I think that’s one of the most important tasks of a CHRO - creating business value, instead of managing the costs of human capital, which I still often see.

It’s not just setting the scene and building this strategy; it's also making the strategy reality, and I think that's actually the hardest part. Talking about talent is great, but implementing true talent plans, succession plans, development plans is hard work, and that's where the HR team can add a lot of value to the business and to the shareholders. PE companies taught me they really understand that great talent can create business value, so they focus – more than I expected – on building talent pipelines and connecting great leaders in their portfolio companies to learn from each other and accelerate their development.

To create value through talent, it’s important to be the coach and navigator; but, first, HR must develop a deep understanding of what drives the business and where value is created in an organisation, and you can then focus your HR efforts there. This business driver analysis is often overlooked by HR people, but I believe that’s rapidly changing.

As I said before, get the basics rights; the foundations need to be in place. I always call my People Operations team - a soft sounding machine in the background - you don’t hear it until it’s broken, so you better ensure it doesn’t break!

If the basics are not right, I don't have a license to operate in the more strategic domains of the business. So, that's always what I try to do: get the basic rights, get the cake right, and then start building some icing on the cake to make that amazing cake we all love to eat.

How do you see the function evolving?

You can often predict the future by looking into today. Today, people have become one of the most critical assets to deliver on business strategy; having the right people in place in the right positions is going to give you a competitive advantage. It's always been like that, but - in the past - it was easier to replace or fill some gaps from the outside markets. Today, that’s more difficult.

If we don't have the right people in the right place, we're not able to deliver to our clients, our guests, and our stakeholders. So, when you talk about the evolution of HR, I think it’s becoming more and more clear that HR is going to be the strategic function in the organisation to create a competitive advantage through one of the most strategic assets a company has - its people.

In recent history, the CFO has been the right-hand person to the CEO, because there’s been a huge focus on money and investments. What I see in the next five to ten years - but I also see it happening right now – is the CHRO becoming a very important part of that group. Because, at the end of the day, money and people are the oxygen of the business – and, when you put oxygen into an organisation, it can start to grow.

So, more than ever before, Finance and HR are becoming closely connected, which makes it even more important for HR professionals to have strong financial acumen and use HR analytics to talk in that language.

In my former job, when we developed an HR analytics strategy and an HR analytics dashboard, we also engaged people from the Marketing Research department to help build it. This demonstrates that HR is not a separate function anymore, and - in the future - we will share lots of resources and skills with other corporate teams. I believe we need to break down the traditional silos between teams and, in particular, between the corporate functions and the business teams.

So, the evolution of HR will be more strategic, more data driven, more connected with other teams and, by doing that, you deserve your seat in the boardroom. At the same time, I expect organisations to become more human, more empathic. HR has a role to play in this humanization process, as well. It’s not either strategic and value focussed or human - it’s both.

I want to ask about how your career started and evolved. You were in FMCG Sales and Marketing, and then there was the transition into the HR discipline. What prompted that change?

I had just graduated and applied for a role as an HR Business Partner in Unilever. When I started the interview with the HR Director, within five minutes, they said: “You shouldn’t go forward for an HRBP role. If you want to be a really great HR person, you’ve got to learn how the business operates and how it generates money, and - in Unilever - that means working in Marketing & Sales.”

In the interview, the HR Director picked up the phone to the Sales Director and said: “I have a guy here who wants to become an HRBP, but I think it's much better for him to actually speak with you and first learn how to sell soap, detergents, personal care products…” So, that's how it started.

When I moved into Sales & Marketing, I developed a deep understanding of what drove the business, which allowed me to become a better support, coach, and guide to the business on the People agenda. It was a great experience, and it was one of the best times in my career, where I also learnt a huge amount.

Sometimes, I tell recruiters I’m working with I’d really love to see two candidates in the long list with highly diverse backgrounds, who really have a passion to move into HR; one of the best HRBPs I’ve had in my teams was a former Financial Controller. I love to hire for potential and learning agility, not for a certain CV with an amazing business school.

This has also been a shift; hiring managers are more open to hiring for skills, rather than direct experience. There are front-runners doing it now, and that will accelerate in the next three to five years.

Do you have a personal highlight from your career that stands out to you?

The part of my career that was an important transition for me was the move from my consulting over to the other side of the table to become a CHRO.

It was a really big step for me, and I learned a lot - it made me so humble. All the consulting, conceptual reports, and slick presentations we did, we always felt like it was so easy to get it done. What I learned in my first year as a CHRO was that it requires a lot of time and grit to actually implement it. It was really blood, sweat and tears.

Who’s been the biggest inspiration in your life, whether that's in business or in your personal life?

I thought about it and there's not really one person. I'm inspired by many people on a daily basis. An example would be my former US boss, who was really amazing in terms of giving feedback on a continuous basis. Now, everybody is talking about continuous feedback cycles; at that time, he just did it in a very natural way to the people working in operational roles in a business.

In my former job in a food retail company, I came across so many inspirational people working in the stores. They were so curious about how to develop themselves - not necessarily through university or colleges - but people who just want to learn on a daily basis, and they were so open to feedback.

At the end of the day, it's not about big MBAs . To me, it's about learning new skills or being curious and trying to be a little bit better at the end of the day than you were at the start of the day. That's what was very inspirational to me.

Finally, at Irdeto, working with a lot of Software Engineers - extremely smart people - what I learned from them, and which is really inspirational to me, is that you need to approach things with a certain level of logic. They taught me how to structure my stories and to ask questions, like, what problem are we trying to solve here? which is how you can really add value.

Have you been able to achieve work-life balance? Do you have any tips for people that you know are trying to reach that point?

I struggled with this, like everybody, especially because I think work and life are so intertwined these days.

For me, the most important thing is to actually think about what gives me energy and what takes energy away from me. It's both in personal life, as well as in business life, learning what actually drives the energy level in my own battery on a daily basis.

Of course, we all have to do things we don’t like to do, but it’s important to be conscious of balancing those with things that give that energy back and making decisions about what I do day-to-day based on that.

Did I crack it? To a certain extent, because I do feel balanced in general, but of course I do struggle with it at times. There are weeks where I say to myself, what did I do this week? It's all energy-draining stuff, and then I need the weekend to really recover, spending time with family and friends.

Finally, it’s really important to have fun in my work and to have connections with people. I learned over the years that the content of the role is actually less important to me than the context, the people you work with, and the culture and values you operate in.

A role may tick the boxes in terms of strategic positioning, highly complex projects, but that's not enough. For me, the best HR role is the role where I feel connected to the people around me on a personal level, and where we can have fun while we work - this really drives my energy. If you’re full of energy, you can move mountains. It took me 25 years to figure that out, and I’m glad I did in the end, so it’s never too late to learn…

That’s hopefully how I can maintain that work-life balance, which ultimately is all about life balance, because work is part of my life and life is part of my work.

Thank you to Alrik 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.