Publications

FOCUS 75: Developing Human Capital During A Crisis

Florence Strulovici, Head of Engie’s Corporate University Asia Pacific, believes that corporates need inclusive leadership and future ready workforce that thrive in diversity. 

What is the mission of ENGIE University and how do your programmes enable the organisation in the context of a COVID world?

In September 2019, I moved to Singapore to establish the regional hub of our Corporate University in the Asia-Pacific region. The mission consisted of accelerating ENGIE’s ambitions and capabilities in the region through bespoke learning programs for our staff. When COVID emerged, we adapted our learning strategy to prioritise key topics such as Sales Excellence and programs like remote working and management, resilience and many more topics to ensure that our teams are equipped to navigate the unprecedent challenges.

You mentioned that women in leadership is one of ENGIE ’s priorities. Why this topic and what are the key actions that support and foster diversity and inclusion?

ENGIE has a conscious policy of promoting gender diversity and professional equality between men and women.  In 2017, the Group signed an open-ended European agreement on professional equality between women and men. Thus, our ENGIE 50-50 ambition is a commitment to promote both equal opportunity and treatment at a practical level, and to drive the culture of diversity and inclusion. At ENGIE APAC, we set up a clear action plan to accelerate the development for women; increase the headcount of female employees; and cultivate an Inclusive culture where everyone feels a sense of belonging and acceptance. 

As a result, we would increase the number of women in leadership positions progressively from 20% in 2020 to 50% by 2030. More concretely, we have launched our Women in Leadership Series, aimed at empowering female talents at different levels of their careers to develop and own their individual unique traits, strengths, and skills. It is a very good start, and we observe high level of satisfaction and confidence of our female colleagues, telling us that this customised program is supporting them in their leadership journey. 

Many APAC corporations have had to re-engineer their business models quickly – in such a short time – as a ripple effect of the pandemic. What is Engie University doing in terms of supporting and transforming the organisation to reach its KPIs?

The pandemic has definitely accelerated us into digitalisation quicker than we had planned or hoped for.  It was never a question to put training on hold, instead we continued to engage our people by adapting virtually, which means more people were rapidly able to join our learning programmes.

With interactive e-classroom trainings led by top trainers, I’m happy to see that we have doubled the number of employees trained regionally in 2020 compared to 2019 before COVID. As mentioned, we launched a Sales Excellence Program amidst the crisis, enabling us to accelerate and improve our sales capability in the region as well as improving the experience of our customers. This pragmatic program aims at show-how rather than know-how!  Our focus for results led us to add personalised learning (360 Sales Assessment, individual coaching). More than 100 colleagues have completed this learning journey while others are currently starting. 

 

We also launched our first virtual Group Learning Festival last October where over 2,300 colleagues teamed up for one week to develop the essential skills they need (Sustainability, Energy transition, Leadership, Managerial etc). As a result of its success, we organised a second edition in March this year.

 

At ENGIE, we are truly committed to make a difference by helping customers become both sustainable and efficient in their energy use, and COVID hasn’t dampened that. ENGIE University, through the continuity of its learning offers, is successfully contributing to this vision. 

 

^{Interview with Florence Strulovici, Head of ENGIE's Corporate University Asia Pacific, for FOCUS #75. To read more articles from this issue, download your digital copy here}