Leveraging Adaptable and New Age HR Strategies to Enhance Employee Engagement

WiebkeRowedda, HR Director DACH and Turkey at Moët Hennessy

WiebkeRowedda, HR Director DACH and Turkey at Moët Hennessy

What are the overarching challenges you have to deal with in today’s HR scenario?

Moët Hennessy is distinguished as a luxury wine brand. When people hear our name, it is most often associated with our product brandingrather than employer branding. As flattering as that may be, it is also a challenge for us because candidates don’t seek us; wehave topursue them.

When looking at our talent acquisition funnel, finding suitablecandidates with specific talents and strong desiresis always challenging, especially,how and where we can find and attract individuals to join.Hence, we are constantly looking into new strategies for sourcing candidates.One of the things we have noticed with the rise of remote work environmentsand flexible schedules now isthat candidates desire working for companies with better benefits and workplace innovation.So, we try to network with potential candidates, focus on finding out as much as possible about their needs, and discuss the benefits we can provide them. Since employees seek flexible and remote work arrangements, we discuss them and develop workable alternative plans.

During the recent “great resignation” phase, how did your company and talent space cope with recruitment challenges?

Employee retention and turnover mostly remained steady until the pandemic. We used to have only about 5-10 openings per year, which would immediately fill due to internal mobility.The pandemic changed this employment landscape, not just for us but for all sectors. Employees started rethinking the role of work in their lives, whether they work to live or live to work. Many started quitting jobs that did not fulfil their personal goals. Many others began demanding more flexible schedules beyond location, time, and day, from their employers to suit their personal needs.

During the two years, people who had been with us for many years also decided to change their job roles or work in another country altogether. The pandemic also impacted how they balanced their work and private life. After almost two years of working remotely, everyone has developed their own varied expectations about how the work culture should be. They appreciate flexibility, autonomy, and feelings of safety coming with remote working; truthfully, returning to work is what they struggle with. As an employer, we understand that and respect ouremployees’ sentiments, and constantly strive towards facilitating a positive experience for our employees.

How difficult is it to plan employee engagement strategies for a hybrid work culture to reduce the attrition rate?What are some of the ways you are strengthening your hybrid work culture?

The concept of employee engagement is still in the transitional stage in response to the uncertainties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our earlier programs focused entirely on the people working from the office; hence we were more aligned on certain concepts of employee engagement. Now that we have people working remotely, there is a need for a roadmap that caters to the hybrid workforce. Employees should be given the freedom to choose and personalise their work environment, whether offsite or onsite, whichever suits their goals. Even those goals change over time. So, we plan strategies accordingly to accommodate for their changing employee needs. We try to find solutionsfor them thatbuilds trust and invest in infrastructure and tools that foster better employee engagement in this transition period.

“Companies with purpose have greater odds of creating significant long-term value generation that leads to increased employee engagement, so be as flexible as possible.”

We are also hiring employees worldwide and widening our talent pool. We have created different recruitment teams for the freshers who are young professionals themselves and understand the budding minds. Campus recruitment is a wonderful way to attract young budding minds. We have partnered with renowned universities to organize exhibitions and fairs. We conduct workshops and seminars in those colleges to display our career opportunities. We also encourage and invite students for an industry tour to help them learn about our company structure.

Could you elaborate on some of the employee engagement initiatives you are working on right now?

We understand how much flexibility matters to our workforce. We let employees decide how they want to work; work from home (WFH) or at the office. No matter what they choose, they are all given productivity tools and freedom as long as they remain accountable for their work. We provide relevantbenefits to those who work fromthe office voluntarily. Apart from these, we ensure to give people in the office the opportunity to connect, learn from each other, and build relationships through joint meetings.We have set up wine tastingsessions with people from different teams to improve communication and build a sense of community.

What are the ways you ensure that there is constant employee-employer and employee-employee communication?

We organize events and celebrations to increase employee motivation and nurture successful team bonding.Wealsoconduct weekly leadership training programsfor all employees and managersfor solid and effective team building. The instructorstrain them on conflict resolution, relationship building, and attitude improvement.

What role do you play in helpingthe company’sleadership team acclimate to changing HR trends?

Change management needs to happen on all levels of organisations. Primarily, we focus on change in mindset.We design and execute different change management and communication plans for each project. For instance, if managers need to ensure they successfully incorporate changes into their team members’practices, they are provided with an external coachto help them prepare the necessary stepsto achieve the overall objective.

Based on your experience in the changing HR landscape and recruitment landscape, what advice would you give HR leaders or recruitment drivers reading this article?

Companies with purpose have greater odds of creating significant long-term value generation that leads to increased employee engagement, so be as flexible as possible.Involve employees and managers because, as an HR, you cannot do all the changes and can cope with them. So don’t be afraid to implement bold ideas or keep adapting.