Recticel

recticel

Electronic tool for integration Talent Management

Recticel is an international group based in Belgium with almost 7,800 employees in 28 countries. It was and is the task of Group Talent Manager Seija Gadeyne to coordinate the company’s talent management across all countries. Recticel is already seeing positive results. ‘But we didn’t start from nothing’, she tells us at the group headquarters in Evere. ‘Some steps had already been taken towards harmonisation but clear red line was still to be developed.’

Feedback culture to be developed

‘Until recently, performance management was handled differently by Recticel in each country, if at all’, says Gadeyne. ‘It became clear that we needed one common system for performance appraisals, based on our company’s 6 core competencies. Working out the details of this for our upper and middle management became one of my first tasks. At the same time, I was also responsible for getting the Recticel University off the ground, our offering of courses and trainings. We developed an electronic workflow for the performance evaluations that also creates a link to the Recticel University.

'When we started to use this new tool, we noticed that we had to work on the feedback culture in our organisation’, says Seija. ‘We kept noticing that, in the beginning, almost all the appraisals of the top 300 managers ranged from positive to very positive. Since this cannot reflect to a true situation in any company, we asked for some evaluations to be done again. The tool had to become more user-friendly and we had to train managers in giving and receiving feedback. We have fine-tuned the tool a little each year since its inception 3 years ago. We introduced more options for allowing employees to express their own visions and desires and to allow them to give feedback to their manager. This increases the involvement in the appraisal process.’

Challenging the approach

Recticel turned to Quintessence for strategic advice on this harmonisation project. ‘Quintessence challenged us to reach a higher strategic level’, says Seija. ‘At first we wanted a uniform concept for the performance appraisals but we ended up with an integrated approach which supports our entire talent management strategy. The workflow generates all the information that we need for this: it's the link between performance appraisals, succession planning and training. Even our retention planning has been integrated into the system.’

And the results? ‘We have been using this system for 3 years now and 97.5% of our top 300 managers use the tool annually’, answers Seija. ‘They use it because they see the advantages of using it, not because HR asks them to do so. The local HR departments follow up on matters and support the managers if necessary.’ Seija appreciates the improved quality of the performance appraisals and the uniform process which is a great asset for an organisation with many international careers. The new workflow also helps to manage cultural differences: the tool is available in 9 languages, managers can adjust the local functional skills and add local training needs to the system.

A user-friendly talent bible

The key document for the performance appraisals is an electronic tool by which the employee’s behaviour is assessed based on the company’s 6 core competencies: focus on results, build talent & teams, business acumen, flexibility, customer focus, and effective communication.

It also pays attention developmental requirements and activities and to career planning. The criteria for assessment are not only the competencies to be developed but also the talents to be strengthened. The employee can give feedback to his manager and evaluate the quality of the appraisals. The tool generates a lot of information automatically and is really user-friendly.

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