Northern Europe.

The responsibility of the Chief HR Officer goes further than business as usual HR. It is about providing leadership and clear direction, whilst also providing challenge and debate. It is about aligning the function to partner with the business, with the long term strategy consistently in the line of sight. It is about inspiring a team to deliver an ordinary HR process with extraordinary value. And, most of all, it is about providing a framework and environment that allows all of our people to thrive at work which brings us closer to reaching our purpose.

Following is the conversation that we had with Beth Whittaker FCIPD, Chief Human Resources Officer - Veolia, Northern Europe.

As the Chief Human Resources Officer, what are some of your key roles and responsibilities that you have on a daily basis at Veolia, Northern Europe?

As a business, we have a really clear strategy that is both challenging and ambitious; our purpose is to be the benchmark for ecological transformation. This means adapting, improving, and prioritising sustainable patterns of production and consumption. It’s a really exciting time to be in our business, right at the forefront of environmental change and innovation. The solutions and innovation to the challenges our planet faces requires an extraordinary effort from our 20,000 people working across the Northern Europe Zone. It was clear that setting out a HR strategy running in parallel to the business strategy would be critical to our success. The HR Strategy has to work hard to enable our people and business to succeed.

With the support of my Leadership Team, I launched our first four year HR Strategy in March 2020. As part of the Strategy, there are 4 pillars of work: Purpose-Led, Change Capability, Future of Work and Stakeholder Engagement. Within these pillars are 23 projects, led by HR Managers with the support of over 70 HR team members. Highlights of the Strategy include:

• Launching a diversity and inclusion strategy that saw a 12 percent increase in the number of women joining Veolia and an 18 percent increase in ethnic minority representation

• Integrating our five Veolia Values into the performance management cycle showing it’s not just what you do, but how you do it that counts

• Connecting our people with our purpose via workshops, podcasts and our upcoming Purpose and Values week of events

• Supporting our managers with both the tools and skills they need to lead their front line teams and have effective relationships with our recognized Trade Unions

Whilst I have responsibility for HR across the Northern Europe Zone, I spend a lot of time working with my colleagues from the Veolia Group HR team. We collaborate regularly and ‘copy and adapt’ innovative and inspiring HR initiatives from across the global Group. The HR team in Northern Europe is held in the highest regard; I value the opportunity to discuss our successes and how they can be implemented elsewhere for the benefit of colleagues in the Australia New Zealand Zone or the North America Zone for example.

My role sees me hold a position on the Veolia Northern Europe Executive Committee. As part of this team I am not ‘just’ a CHRO. I am there to discuss and debate business critical issues, to set the course for our business in the short and long term, to work with my peers to reach decisions that support our multifaceted performance. We are a group of individuals, with our own specialisms, collectively responsible for the long term success of Veolia. 

2023 is bringing a changed world of work. The pandemic has propelled digital transformation four years into the future, and the employee-employer relationship has transformed. Although HR has been leading change and crisis in the past years, it runs the risk of missing the boat on this fundamental shift in how we work. Your views on this.

Let me take you back to March 2020 for a moment. The whole team met at our HR conference to learn about our ambitious four year HR strategy to understand the part they could each play in its delivery over the coming years. The following week, my team took on a critical role, leading the response to the pandemic to ensure that we kept our people safe as key workers and our business continuing to operate and provide essential services.

COVID 19 has propelled us forward to a place that otherwise might have taken many years to get to. The HR Strategy ensures that we continue to think about what work looks like in the future and ensure that we have a plan and can help everyone to come with us.

Did you know that 50 percent of children born today will live to the age 100? We already have five generations in the workplace for the first time ever. Statistics like this propel me forward to question what we need to do to ensure we continue to attract, retain and upskill the best talent at Veolia. We respond with an open and enquiring mind to really benefit from this multi-generational workforce. 

At Veolia I would say we were already ahead of the curve with our digital transformation. Through use of the Google Suite we ensure our functional teams can stay connected and agile wherever they are and however they choose to work. In March 2021, my team was part of delivering a once in twenty years major system change, replacing legacy HR and payroll systems with Workday.  This allows our frontline workforce to engage more fully with digital content available to them via our Intranet as well as receiving digital payslips for example.

We ensure that we balance hybrid working with the need for social interaction. Through our wellbeing series, we ensure that we bring people together face to face. Over the last two years, we have invited all of our people to take part in Social Wellbeing days - an opportunity to have some food, fun and company with their colleagues.

How do you expect HR to move towards a more proactive approach to wellbeing and resilience?

At Veolia, we place great importance on wellbeing and resilience - with a focus on actions and tools rather than just words and sentiment. We have long offered access to physiotherapy services, employee assistance programmes, free and confidential counselling and a broad network of mental health first aiders, amongst other initiatives.

In 2021 we formalised our approach further by launching our Wellbeing Series. The series focuses on four types of wellbeing; physical, mental, social and financial to help our people improve their day-to-day health and happiness. Each month, since April 2021, we have focused on a different wellbeing topic. We’ve brought in expert speakers, hosted on-site events and distributed resource packs.

Over 1,700 of our colleagues attended a session with an expert clinical and coaching psychologist on the topic of resilience. She guided our people through fueling their resilience to stressors. After many requests, she came back again to discuss the next steps to further strengthening resilience in individuals and teams. With recorded sessions and session notes, our team members are able to revisit this content.

We also launched our Wellbeing Bus to support increased awareness of wellbeing services provided by the business. The Bus, along with one of our Inclusion and Wellbeing team members and a Health Professional, attends Veolia sites and focuses on boosting engagement with all employees and providing them with the tools and contacts needed to support both themselves and their colleagues. Our people are offered a range of services from prostate cancer testing, cholesterol checks and healthy eating advice to pension’s awareness, budgeting tips and access to discount platforms.

What would be your piece of advice for your fellow peers and leaders?

A couple if things if I may:

• Don't look sideways to compare yourself to other leaders or businesses; challenge yourself (and the business you are leading) to improve in a way that is meaningful to where you are and where you want to be.

• Where is your business heading and what do you need from your people to achieve it? This was the starting point for the HR Strategy that was launched in 2020 - I looked at the business strategy and was truly inspired but knew that the only way to achieve it was through our people doing amazing things.

• Purpose is really important to me - my own sense of purpose and the purpose of the company I work in. Know what your purpose is as a CHRO and ask yourself if the decision you are about to make is in service of that purpose - if it is, you can’t be far off.

• Finally, I think it takes a lot to be a leader in this world we operate in. Be brave, take people up on their offers of support and be sure to look after your own wellbeing so that you can continue to make a difference to other people.