Supporting collaborators in their on-going growth process is one of the challenges facing IBSA’s Human Resources & Organization department. The development of people (not surprisingly, the Person is the first pillar of our corporate philosophy) is a task as complex as it is exciting, since the abilities and expectations of individuals must always be harmonised with the needs of a complex and dynamic organisation such as IBSA. Carlo Riccardi – Sr. Talent & Training Manager at IBSA – will tell us about it.
A conversation with Carlo Riccardi, Sr. Talent & Training Manager
CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR ROLE?
In IBSA I hold the role of Sr. Talent & Training Manager. As stated in the title itself, my job is based on two very important and complementary elements. The first concerns Talent Management: for the IBSA Group to continue to grow and achieve ambitious goals, it is necessary for all collaborators to improve every day, developing their talents over time. Therefore, it is not so much – or only – a question of identifying the talents to develop, but of contributing to the growth of each colleague, according to their own characteristics and potential.
The other distinctive element of my function is Training. This term is related to both education – which is a critical lever for continuing to invest in people and their growth – and practice, a concept evoking several essential aspects for people’s development: the objectives we give ourselves; the determination, tenacity, continuity of action and efforts necessary to pursue and achieve them; and, finally, the desire to constantly improve, the satisfaction of seeing our progress, and the well-being necessary to perform at our best.
IBSA’S PILLARS ARE PERSON, INNOVATION, QUALITY AND RESPONSIBILITY. WHICH AMONG THESE DO YOU FEEL CLOSER TO YOUR DAILY ACTIVITIES? AND IN WHAT TERMS?
The pillar Person it is the raison d’être of my function: people – my colleagues – are my “customers”. For any company, results are essential. But they are a consequence, a “result”, indeed. If we want results, we have to develop and encourage behaviours. To do this, one needs to start from the people, give them a purpose, clarify the meaning of what the company is asking for. One of the secrets of IBSA’s success has been precisely this: involving people in a collective adventure, within a company that asked (and asks) for everyone’s contribution to achieve success.
And from there we come to Responsibility: each of us is responsible for their own development, their own behaviour, their own contribution to the results. This helps to remove any excuse: if I want to improve myself, it depends on me, in the first place. If managers and coordinators can make people grow, so much the better, but the main responsible for my own development is me: not my boss, not the company, me. At the same time, however, each of us, in a team game, can be responsible for the others: helping them, cooperating, making the work environment inclusive and motivating. The best team is not the one with the best players, but the one where people help and trust each other. Trust is a defining element in organisations, and trust is also a result, which derives from people’s behaviour.
LOOKING AT THE CHALLENGES OF YOUR DEPARTMENT, WHAT ARE THE ACTIVITIES OR PROJECTS THAT WILL BE DEVELOPED OVER THE NEXT YEARS?
An important issue will concern the evolution of the management processes, starting from the IT ones dedicated to HR, to contribute to the development of the organisation. In addition to this, there will be two main challenges: launching the IBSA Training Academy and listening to people, in a structured way.
The IBSA Training Academy consists in the design of a permanent training offer focused on the cross skills of our model, those that are measured within our Performance Management process; these are the behaviours that we aim to encourage and develop, because they lead to the success of the company, and therefore we want to support people in this improvement process.
The second objective related to listening to people is linked with the involvement and responsibility I mentioned earlier. I think it is essential to listen to the people who work at IBSA, to hear from everyone’s experience what works and what can be improved in their relationship with the company. Each of us is IBSA, each of us can help our company improve; promoting listening initiatives will give us, as HR&O Management, essential inputs to guide our action and give ourselves the right priorities, so that listening does not remain an end in itself, but leads to tangible improvement initiatives.
More generally, the challenge is to support our people in the on-going change process: the company aims to grow and transform itself without losing its identity and culture. But a company’s culture is nothing more than the sum of its people’s values and, again, behaviours: IBSA’s success goes through here.