1. How do you manage to stay adaptable in different organizational landscapes, especially amidst industry shifts like the global energy transition?
This is first and foremost a leadership challenge, adaptability requires a strong understanding and grip on the operational performance of today as well as a very clear view of where you are aiming for with your product, service, or both. Furthermore, adaptability requires a diverse leadership team with countervailing power to allow different perspectives to have a chance to be taken into account.
2. What initiatives did you implement to foster a culture of innovation and agility within the HR function?
Obvious but critical, to get the right people in the right place (talent, learning, OD, ER/IR, people analytics, etc) and build a strong team. Innovation and agility are not possible with a weak team as both require the courage to try and fail new approaches and learn in a rapid cycle. To allow cultural change in a sustainable way you also need markers, in the case of ABNAMRO we introduced Care, Courage and Collaboration and the 3C´s rapidly became common denominators.
3. Your involvement with Sustainable Energy for All and Alliander NV reflects a commitment to sustainability. How can HR leaders drive sustainability initiatives within their organizations effectively?
For me the involvement of HR in the broader theme of sustainability is an absolute key for the function in the short and importantly longer term. If you unpack sustainability it ultimately addresses a key question…do we improve the planet we live on with our products and services or do we leave it worse off. Over time the latter proposition is not going to be attractive and yes dare I say sustainable. In my view, the key role of HR is to channel Human energy towards the key objectives of the organization you work for – a lot of that energy you will waste (i.e. you will not attract and retain the talent you need) if your proposition comes with too much collateral for the planet.
4. How can HR professionals in traditional industries prepare their workforce for shifts toward sustainability and renewable energy?
Leaders (also in HR) have to show the way forward and communicate relentlessly and align behaviors and choices….if there are discrepancies between doing and saying trust will rapidly evaporate. secondly its always better to align around the positives of the transition (better products and services) than allowing fear of irrelevance/becoming obsolete to take the lead as fear kills creativity and adaptability.
5. How do you see technology reshaping HR practices, particularly in talent development and employee well-being?
Tools like Workday and SuccesFactors have already fundamentally shifted the nature of deployment and usage of HR within most organizations with more efficiency and in most cases more effectiveness as well. LLM (i.e. Chat GPT) provide many opportunities to further strengthen individual development and well-being by allowing mass customisation of learning/development. How this will shape the way we work and the work environment in the long term is a question many experts are debating, I tend to be optimistic and fundamentally believe Human capacity to create and sustain social fabric in private and at work will prevail.
6. With your experience in offshoring and outsourcing, what are the critical factors HR leaders should consider when implementing global workforce strategies?
The most important lesson I learned is that (labor) cost is really just one factor to consider, just as important is economic/political stability of the country you outsource too as well as credibility of your product/service to your broader client base. If you find yourself explaining you already lost the battle.
7. Given your track record in building agile organizational structures, how can HR departments balance agility with stability?
Most important for me is that agility and stability is not a contradiction. If you are well equipped to be agile as in effectively dealing with an ever increasing amount of changes externally (yes VUCA is still real) you can navigate steadily and stable through the winds and storms of change. This requires high quality leadership and we see many examples of companies who navigate well, catch prevailing wind and flourish… and yes some that struggle.
8. Having worked across different industries, including energy, banking, and coaching, what are the universal HR principles that you believe apply across all sectors?
I have learned that the common denominator for any successful HR strategy and plan is to be deeply curious about what makes people tick. Always asking the question will this action increase positive Human energy towards our shared objective or decrease it. If we can inspire people to be or become the best they can be you will create a proposition that is hard to beat by competitors. If this would be easy everybody would do it…again the right leaders in the right places make all the difference.
9. Looking ahead, what trends do you foresee shaping the future of HR, and what skills should HR professionals prioritize developing to stay ahead in their careers?
I do see two key developments for the future.
First, people data/analytics combined with sales and customer data, safety data, etc, will further mature (also by more usage of LLM and related technology) as leading and lagging indicators for (strategic) choices. Knowledge about data analytics will become a fundamental pillar of HR basic capacity all the more when an increasing amount of availability of data could lead to paralysis through analysis.
As a balancing power deeper understanding in the HR function of what creates a sustainable engaged environment for people will be key. It has always surprised me how little curiosity there is in our function about fundamental human behavior – like fear, excitement, joy, pride. I believe that as the impact of technology intensifies, a better understanding by the HR function of what drives human behavior will be key for any enterprise that wants to reap the benefits of both.
10. Recently, Great Britain has introduced a pilot project of a 4-day working week. What’s your opinion about it? What advantages and disadvantages do you see both for employers and employees? Would you take part in the experiment, and why?
For me, this is a bit of a red herring, as production – measured in hours/days – becomes more and more automated. For any work that requires creativity, agility, originality, and listening, human ingenuity is best served by a well-balanced combination of work and rest. Since we are all different, the perfect blend is hard to capture in days per week, and I believe it’s better served by focusing on agreed-upon output rather than effort or time spent.
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