HR Perspectives: Evolution and Innovation #2
At Lincoln, we are passionate about the evolution of the HR profession and the innovations transforming this crucial role within companies. As part of our article series, we explore these transformations with Véronique de Watrigant, Head of Practice HR at Lincoln. Each article features a conversation with a renowned HR Director, offering a dual perspective thanks to Veronique’s expertise.
In this second article, we explore the initiatives and strategies put in place by Marianne Descamps, HR Director at Paragon, when she joined the company. Interviewed by Veronique, Marianne shares her perspectives on the challenges of reorganization, performance management, and the integration of CSR into corporate strategy and therefore human resources. In this interview, we discover how she tackled these issues to support Paragon’s transformation, demonstrating the impact of HR in business. Together, they discuss innovative ways to manage talent, optimize internal processes, and reinforce the company’s mission and vision.
Veronique: What initiatives did you put in place when you joined Paragon as HR Director?
Marianne: Paragon is a company with industrial origins, rooted in the rural areas where it started out as a printing company. In France, we are present in regions that are often far from major cities, and we have grown both internally and externally, consolidating declining printing-related markets, but also expanding into other activities such as logistics and service. A little over a year ago, one of our major challenges was to organize this patchwork of companies and activities around a common structure and project.
We therefore set up a new organization, grouping our entities under a centralized governance with a Comex. My first task was to help clarify the organization and corporate culture, with the aim of fostering effective collaboration where everyone makes a contribution. We’re currently thinking about delinearizing career paths, enabling our employees to prepare for the future and bounce back from change, with the support of the company to explore new opportunities, whether in-house or otherwise.
Veronique: It’s true that the HR function is playing an increasingly important role on management committees, particularly when it comes to supporting transformation. When we recruit, we notice that the function is also changing, and is increasingly influenced by other ecosystems. What other spheres do you think influence human resources?
Marianne: We are indeed influenced by many other professions that enrich our own practice. Marketing, for example, influences our recruitment process, where we can be the most creative. This is how HR began to work on employer branding, notably with the first job boards (back in the 2000s!).
Finance also plays an important role. For example, my project is to organize the data in the HR system in such a way that it is useful not only for us, but also for our accountants and financiers, in particular to feed their P&L.
So we’re constantly inspired by other areas and looking to interact with other functions, so that what we do generates value. Increasingly, human resources are being asked to take a more global and holistic view of the company.
Veronique: This also involves a change in talent management, as you have found at Paragon that employee loyalty is a major issue. How have you adapted your processes to better meet the individual needs of your employees?
Marianne: We’re working not only on collective but also on individual communication, with a range of interviews that follow the employee on an individual basis throughout his or her career. For example, we no longer talk in terms of annual appraisal interviews, but of individual appraisal interviews, which can take place at a different pace from the annual one. We have sought to individualize our approach to performance.
Veronique: And on the question of attractiveness, there is talk today of a paradigm shift for candidates. For my part, I have the feeling that remuneration, although less important and not the only factor in decision-making, remains an important lever. How do you feel about this?
Marianne: I think that, everywhere, remuneration clearly remains one of the primary levers of attractiveness. So we’re thinking about a system of individual or collective objectives, with variables adapted to each person’s job, as well as exceptional bonuses, both individual and collective, to recognize strong contributions.
What we’re currently implementing is primarily concerned with performance management and the objectification of performance. We used to work with a bonus system aligned to the fiscal year, based mainly on financial criteria. Some employees understand how they can influence these criteria, but the further they are from management positions, the more complicated it becomes to perceive their individual impact and contribution.
This can create tensions, so we’ve started thinking about these bonus systems, to ensure that they are truly motivating. If their purpose is to reward financial success, fine, but in that case, only a limited number of people are eligible. We have therefore halved the number of people eligible for bonuses, not to eliminate them, but to transform these bonuses into variables linked to more relevant objectives, or to integrate them into the fixed salary, which may be of interest to many people.
We also work on specific objectives, whether collective or individual. In this way, we give a group of people a sense of responsibility by explaining what’s at stake, making resources available and, in the end, sharing the value created.
The overall aim is to make a clear distinction between bonus and variable pay. We’re also thinking about including a 5% extra-financial component in our bonus.
Veronique: Can you tell us about the CSR dimension of HR?
For HR, it’s natural to get to grips with these issues, as long as we don’t limit ourselves to a restricted vision of CSR, even if it is necessary, such as inclusion or disability. We need to think more broadly about the way we make decisions, upstream of business plans, budgets and investment decisions that structure the company.
At some point in our lives, sooner or later, we ask ourselves, “What am I good for?” . This of course concerns individuals, but if we broaden the perspective, we can ask the same question for the company: “What’s it for?” This is where it gets really interesting. It’s not about getting lost in an overly conceptual vision, but about giving meaning to the decisions we make. By defining criteria based on our raison d’être or vision, we can say, “We’re doing this because it fits in with where we want to go and who we want to be.”
In this second article in our series on HR Perspectives: Evolution and Innovation, we explore the transformation strategies implemented by Marianne Descamps at Paragon, under the expert guidance of Véronique de Watrigant of Lincoln. Marianne discussed with us the challenges of reorganization, performance management and CSR integration, illustrating how Human Resources can shape a more efficient and aligned company. This exchange shows the importance of rethinking compensation and integrating a broader vision into strategic Human Resources decisions, laying the foundations for innovative and effective talent management.