The People, The Team, The importance of Human Ressources
This article has been written by Patrice Thiry, founder and CEO of ProwebCE and daphnipolitan.
At ProwebCE, we are proud to have hired more than 80 people in 2016 and we are on an identical recruitment plan for 2017, which should bring us to a team of 400 people by the end of the year. Human resources are, in my view, the key factor in the success of a team. As a CEO, I still spend a lot of my time on this issue. With regard to hiring, my attention is focused on: personality first, then interests, values, personal objectives, level of motivation and of course why he/she wishes to join us.
Back to School
Aware of the importance of human resources to succeed, I chose to take an MBA at the Paris-Dauphine University between 2004 and 2006. I felt that managerial communication downwards as we were taught in the 1990s did not allow the energies to free themselves. Dauphine highlights the human, cooperation and empowerment of everyone. And it is precisely HR that is the key to our success.
Integration rather than remuneration
Beyond the elements of remuneration, we strive to integrate and train the newly hired so he/she becomes fully engaged into our collective success. The goal is to make him/her very comfortable in the group so that she is happy to come to work in the morning.
It is so important that I decided to dedicate the first 4 days of each month to integrate new employees. The first two days, we take time to explain our model & market, share our values, vision, ambition and history, in order to create a level playing field. Of course, these two intensive days are punctuated by group-based relaxing breaks. The two following days are split as follows: day 3, newly hired are divided by business verticals and managers prepare role-playing games to help them to really get into business reality. Finally, during the last morning, based on what they understood from our market and challenges, new employees are asked to design a brand new product or service. These suggestions are evaluated during the afternoon by a jury of directors, including me.
We also organize many internal events, parties, seminars to enhance the pleasure of working together as a unified team. But one of the most anticipated moments of the year is the annual seminar which brings together all the employees of the company. Last September, everyone spent two days in St Tropez \o/.
