CEOInterviews.AIDigitalization and new leadership | Sylvie Nicol, Henkel: #SW

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Heidi Sheena0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Superwoman on a new digital TV channel. My name is Heidi Sheena from the German language additional Forbes. On this broadcast, I'm talking to experienced leaders, founders, and executives who share lessons learned to increase diversity in their companies. Today, it's my great pleasure to introduce you to Sylvie Nicol, Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Infrastructure Services at Henkel. Sylvie Nicol is originally from France and joined Henkel in 1996 in marketing and sales for beauty care, and she made it all the way up to the global management board in 2019. Henkel was founded in 1876 and has three business units: adhesive technologies, laundry and home care, and beauty care. The company has over 52,000 employees, 120 nationalities in 80 countries, and in 2019 the turnover was around 20 billion euros. Sylvie Nicol is the only female member of the global management board and is responsible for global HR and infrastructure services. Today we will talk about digitalization and leadership. Welcome, Ms. Nicol, it's a great pleasure having you. Thank you for taking the time.

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Sylvie Nicol1:45

Thank you very much for your invitation. It's my pleasure to be with you today.

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Heidi Sheena1:49

So, Henkel has decided, still facing the consequences of the pandemic, to stay with investing in digitalization and digital transformation. The topic itself is huge. What does it mean for the company Henkel generally to follow the path of digital transformation, and what does it mean specifically in terms of global HR?

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Sylvie Nicol2:28

We firmly believe that digital transformation is something that is there to last. It's not a project, it's a journey. We are facing technology acceleration, changing consumer expectations, and transformation due to digital acceleration will be with us for years. We have changed the way we do business. We have decided to engage in a transformational program that is in the core of the business units. Each business unit drives its own digital transformation, but we also want to support our employees. In HR, together with business colleagues, we developed a program called digital upscaling. We identified with our business partners what the needs are and how their business is changing, and based on that we developed a full program matching the needs for the future. It's a huge program that will last for years. Digital is not only about changing the business, it's also about changing the way we do business and supporting people in this transformation.

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Heidi Sheena4:11

Could you give me a small example of what it practically means for the HR department, this digital upscaling?

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Sylvie Nicol4:21

The digital upscaling program is based on an assessment. We asked our employees where they stand, what they know, and what they need to know in their job to do a better job in the future. We tailored our program. We started with what we call 'digital base' for all employees, giving them the opportunity to understand the world they are in, independent of their job. Then depending on the job, we have different modules. For marketing, it's about product development, communication, ecommerce. For supply chain, it's data management and industry 4.0. The programs are online with various formats. We have done the digital base for close to 10,000 employees, and for the expert level we have covered 4,000 employees across five job families. We are now covering five remaining job families. We will assess progress and take feedback to complement the program.

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Heidi Sheena6:38

So as the global HR manager, you have the overview. Could you see who is more skilled in digital topics than others, because you have a worldwide view on your employees?

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Sylvie Nicol6:52

Yes, we could because we assessed the employees at a digital level in the organization. There was no big surprise. Our colleagues in Asia are more advanced because digital is part of their daily life. In Europe, they were less advanced. That was a confirmation. On the other hand, we were surprised that the new generation might be more advanced on some digital expertise, but we discovered that in some areas, it was not the leaders who were more advanced. Being a digital native does not mean you understand everything about data analytics. Experience in the job and projects you have driven also matter. So we should not believe that the digital native is the digital expert.

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Heidi Sheena8:09

I mean, also different topics that people look at. You mentioned blockchain, crypto currency, ecommerce, and other topics.

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Sylvie Nicol8:21

Yes, for sure. In each job family, we have a set of different modules. We try to tailor the program based on the job to not overwhelm people. Digital is extremely broad. We want people to feel comfortable and get the right tools and knowledge for their job. If they change jobs, they can do the other program. For communication, social media plays a bigger role. For supply chain, data analytics is a big focus. For HR, social media and recruitment technology and new learning platforms play a bigger role.

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Heidi Sheena9:30

You have a last question about this. Did the management board also take part in this upscaling program?

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Sylvie Nicol9:39

The program is available for everybody, and everybody is highly encouraged to do it. I can only tell you that there was a high demand also from the management board.

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Heidi Sheena9:57

Perfect. So you had kind of a proof of concept during the shutdown. What did you already see as a result of this upscaling program during the last few weeks of COVID-19? Did it change something within the collaboration within the company or also with partners outside?

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Sylvie Nicol10:26

We observed many different things. First, the willingness of people to be more digital and the acceptance that it is there to stay, but also an opportunity. We saw a movement from pushing people to become digital to people pulling and asking for more learnings and tools. On our learning platform, we have 30,000 users, and we saw a huge acceleration of learning hours. We also saw increasing demand for new learnings, like leading teams remotely, safety measures, safety trainings. We tried to take this momentum. Another important thing is new ways of collaboration. Working with Microsoft Teams, Skype became part of daily life. Employees accepted it well. It was not only about having the tools, but also finding new ways of communication. We have never seen so many videos from leaders, town hall sessions, leadership courses, virtual conferences. We believe it has changed the way we work and interact, accelerated the digital movement, and we are working to capture these best practices to make them stay after the crisis.

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Heidi Sheena12:48

Did you also have the feeling that your staff, your employees, are getting a little bit closer due to the new digital possibilities of these technologies?

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Sylvie Nicol13:02

Yeah, definitely. Connecting with each other became very important. People took the time to do digital coffee chats that they might not have done before. That was a chance because it gave them the opportunity to spend more quality time together. On the other hand, it was a disruption for people used to working together in the same place. But we were already working globally before. What was new was using these tools with people who were normally around you. In the future, I think it puts everybody on the same level, independent of physical location, giving equal chance to contribute. That's the big change.

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Heidi Sheena14:21

I've heard from a lot of companies that this digital way of working just leveraged the trust they have in their employees, because this distant working tool was not 100% accepted from the employer side, and now it is. It turned out that employees are much more productive if you use those tools correctly. There is a limit, it calls for trust. When you don't have people under your eyes, you need to trust that they are working. That comes with a certain strength in leadership, trusting, empowering. The great thing is that there was no choice, we had to move. Sometimes it's good to be pushed by circumstances to see if assumptions were right or wrong. For many leaders, it was a confirmation that it's possible. For some, it was a contradiction, but they saw that it works.

Let's come back to leadership. There is a new leadership at Henkel as well, digital leadership. What I found very interesting is that you set up new leadership commitments, a guideline how leadership should look like. Please tell us a little bit more about this.

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Sylvie Nicol16:02

Yes, we have renewed our leadership commitments because we felt that we are in a moment of transformation that requires a different style of leadership and behaviors. Agility, speed, openness, empathy, collaboration will play an even bigger role. We have four leadership commitments: we collaborate as one team, we act as an entrepreneur, we develop people with passion, and we own our results. We believe this framework shapes the behaviors we expect from our people to drive the digital transformation. We expect our leaders to behave according to these commitments, and we also expect our employees to ask for these behaviors. It's from both directions. We started this journey before COVID, but the crisis accelerated it. Our people often referred to these commitments, like 'we collaborate as one team' was so important during the crisis. They helped us make difficult decisions.

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Heidi Sheena18:12

How was the acceptance of this new leadership style from the more experienced leaders, the older generation? Getting feedback from younger ones is not always easy.

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Sylvie Nicol18:31

It is not easy, and change is not easy, especially in a big organization. The good thing is that the commitments have been very well accepted across the organization and across generations. They are understood, accepted, and considered the right way. What is more difficult is to behave according to them in day-to-day work, to accept that the way you have been doing things in the past may not be the way to be successful in the future. We developed 'hacks' – small tips and tricks to apply in daily work. It will take time, but we are all together in this journey. There is some resistance here and there, but that makes it exciting. We believe we are on the right track.

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Heidi Sheena20:06

Yeah, but this topic was also speeded up by the COVID-19 situation.

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Sylvie Nicol20:12

Definitely, huge acceleration. Circumstances forced us to act as entrepreneurs, be fast, make decisions on the day because of safety and security. There was no time to wait. That has made us more agile and faster in the way we decide.

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Heidi Sheena20:49

What did COVID-19 and the shutdown change in your own mind, personally?

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Sylvie Nicol21:00

For me, first it confirmed that values are above everything. Having strong values as an individual and as a company is of utmost importance because in crisis time you refer to your values. That helped me make the right decisions. Next, I rediscovered that I can change my habits very fast. I had to work remotely, and I was a strong believer that I would never do that because I like to be in the office and interact. But I realized I could adapt very fast and even enjoyed being at home with no commuting. It's never too late to discover things about yourself. I also enjoyed the trust of my colleagues and executives in driving together through the crisis, making fast decisions. I really enjoyed that trust and that it helped us protect our people.

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Heidi Sheena23:03

Thank you very much, Sylvie Nicol, for sharing your insights and experiences. Thank you for taking the time. I hope you liked this session as much as I did. If you have fear of missing out any episodes, please press the subscribe button. Again, thank you very much, Sylvie Nicol, for your time. As you said, next time we'll do it in French? Au revoir.