HR Talks (by HRMinfo.eu)

Marc Ernst, the founder and director of HRMinfo.eu, talks in French with Maud Larochette, Chief Finance Officer & HR director at N-Side.

Ms Larochette is French and this episode of HR Talks is therefore a French-language edition.

Maud Larochette is one of those HR directors who is also responsible for the financial management of her company. She was also interim CEO of N-Side for a while.

Her unique profile allows her to zoom out, to do HR with a helicopter view. And by extension, to do the same in the field of financial management.

N-SIDE is a deep tech company. Founded more than 20 years ago, it is headquartered in Louvain-la-Neuve and also operates in the US market where it also has an office.

In life sciences, N-SIDE streamlines the clinical supply chain of pharmaceutical and biotech companies by accelerating clinical plans, reducing risk and eliminating drug waste. Half of the world's major pharmaceutical groups use N-SIDE's technologies and solutions.

The company has over 200 employees (it should double that number by 2027) and employs more than 30 nationalities. It is also a very women-friendly company as it has 40% women in management positions.

N-SIDE was recognised last year as a Trends Gazelle, as a fast-growing company. It was also awarded by Deloitte as Best Managed Company and won both the Great Place to Work and Best Workplace in Belgium certifications.

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Sponsors :  Flowsparks, Cornerstone, GoodHabitz & NXT People
Technical partner : ThePodcastFactoryOrg

Interested in a sponsored episode (up to 15 minutes long) of HR Talks? Mail to sales@HRMinfo.net (Subject: Sponsored HR Talks)

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Technical partner: ThePodcastFactory.org

Marc Ernst, founder and director of HRMinfo.eu, talks in Dutch & French or about 48 minutes with Guido Perremans the CEO of Armonea. Mrs Perremans  also switches continuously and fluently between the language of Vondel and that of Voltaire.

With over 60 residential care centres, service flats and residences, Armonea is the largest independent provider of senior care in Belgium. It employs over 6000 people. Armonea is part of the international Colisee group which, in addition to Belgium, is also active in France, Spain, Italy and China and employs over 19,000 people worldwide.

Mr Perremans is a former HR director and worked as an HR professional for companies including Alcatel, Attentia and Atalian. At the latter he was European HR director and later became CEO for Belgium and regional manager for the Benelux.

He is one of the few, rather rare HR professionals to have made it to CEO. This phenomenon is not typical for Belgium, by the way, but worldwide. Why this happens and what to do about it: that's one of the many themes that were discussed in this new episode of HR Talks, the podcast for those who really have something to say and to tell in the HR field.

In addition, the following topics were also discussed - amongst others:

• is 'HR = Finance = Business'? - The title of Chris Burggraeve's presentation/webinar (Guido Perremans' answer is a resounding YES: according to him, HR should concern itself more with figures (P&Ls & KPIs) and with the business. More than that: if it doesn't make a demonstrable contribution to the business, HR is implausible and actually superfluous because it has no added value).
• How can HR present itself as an effective business partner and, with good reason, be part of the management committee? (The latter is the exception rather than the rule in smaller and medium-sized companies, and even in 20% of large companies it is not the case)
• What should be the 'output' of HR ? (According to Guido Perremans, this should be, more than is usually the case today, in the area of ESG: Ecology, Social and Governance. All too often HR limits itself to process-oriented output).

This edition of HR Talks is special because it is completely bilingual: Marc Ernst, founder & director of BizInfo/HRMinfo, alternates between Dutch and French with his podcast guest who also switches continuously and fluently between the language of Vondel and that of Voltaire.

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Sponsors:  MobieTrain, SD Worx, Flowsparks
Technical partner: ThePodcastFactory.org

Marc Ernst, founder and director of HRMinfo.eu, talks in Dutch for about 34 minutes with Marc Noppen CEO at UZ Brussel.

Marc Noppen has been CEO of the UZ Brussel since 2006. The hospital is an organisation with almost 3800 employees, including 400 medical specialists. This year, the UZ Brussel was chosen by ZORG magazine (more specifically by a professional jury composed by that magazine) as 'Healthcare employer of the year 2021'.

Mr Noppen is a lung specialist. He studied medicine at Limburg University, pharmaco-economics at Antwerp University and management at Insead in France. Afterwards, he also obtained a doctorate in health sciences at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels (Free University of Brussels).  Today, he is also a professor that university. Previously, he lectured in Boston, Canada, France and Australia. Marc Noppen sits as a director on various academic and corporate boards.

Recently, he published the book 'Gewoon anders' (Just different). Its subtitle is: An ardent plea for an unusual way of doing things. In it Marc Noppen shows himself to be a challenger of the status quo, an advocate of change and even of disruption.

Marc Noppen is also a man with an opinion. In proof of this the interview with him this week in Knack magazine. In it, he argues against the excessive fees for certain specialists and pleads for a capped fixed salary, supplemented by a variable part based on, among other things, the quality and complexity of the care provided, for specialists and, by extension, for all doctors. It is a measure that he sees as part of the necessary radical changes in our healthcare system.

The following topics, among others, are addressed:

• The attitude of the employers' organisations in the Covid pandemic with regard to teleworking
• Whether the government was sufficiently evidence-based and science-based in this crisis
• Teleworking as an opportunity for innovation that, under normal circumstances, would be much more difficult, delayed and slow to take place
• Changing visions and attitudes of employees, in general and more specifically in the health care sector, towards work
• The companies or other organisations that he looks up to, among other things, because of their HR policies
• The books on business, management or HR that he recommends HR professionals to read and why
• The future HR priorities of the UZ Brussel and how they will be achieved
• Why he is a supporter of holacracy and self-directed teams
• His vision on what he considers to be necessary thorough reforms in the field of work organisation in hospitals and in the extension of healthcare

Sponsors:  MobieTrain, SD Worx, Flowsparks
Technical partner: ThePodcastFactory.org

Marc Ernst, founder and director of HRMinfo.eu, talks in Dutch for about 48 minutes with Deb Vansteenwegen (HR director @ de Universiteit van Leuven) & Lisbeth Decneut (Executive Vice president People & Culture, Diversity & Inclusion, Health & Safety @ imec) (NL).

Ms Decneut has been working at imec since 1997, where she started as a recruitment manager. Before that, she was a researcher at the faculty of psychology of the KU Leuven.

Ms. Vansteenwegen joined KU Leuven in 2014, starting as a director in a HR function. Before that, she was director at ISW Limits, a service provider in the field of psychosocial well-being that later merged with Eupora and is now called Pulso. She started her career as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leuven.

Imec is the world's leading independent research and innovation centre in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. It is a spin-off from the KU Leuven. It employs over 5,000 people, mainly in its headquarters in Leuven but also in its branches in the Netherlands, Taiwan, the US, China, India and Japan.

KU Leuven, one of the older universities in the world (founded in 1425) and the largest in the Benelux, has more than 21,600 staff members and 60,000 students.

I talk to Lisbeth Decneut & Deb Vansteenwegen, in Dutch, about the following topics:

• The policy of imec and KU Leuven on homeworking and, by extension, hybrid working.
• The pension reform of PS Minister Lalieux (PS) and how their two organisations respond to the need and desire of many to work longer but flexibly.
• Two recent studies (one by Steunpunt Werk of the University of Leuven and one by Acerta in cooperation with the KU Leuven) on learning & development in Belgium and how they do L&D in their organisation.
• The innovative and even revolutionary HR policy of Decathlon, winner of the HR innov8 Award (powered by HRMinfo).
• Which company or other organisation they look up to for their HR policy.
• Which book or two books on business, management or HR they recommend HR professionals to read.
• To what extent and in which way HR at imec plays a role in stimulating and supporting the innovation drive of the organisation and its employees.
• The main lines, the underlying vision and the scientific foundation of the welfare policy of KU Leuven.

Sponsors:  MobieTrain
Technical partner: ThePodcastFactory.org