Within a social context that is as thrilling as it is changing, in which constant economic, socio-cultural and health (pandemic) milestones have led us to a labour paradigm where markets value creativity and innovation, flexibility and adaptability, companies are looking for workers who can adapt quickly to changes in business dynamics, technological evolutions and where workers seek companies where they can work in multidisciplinary teams, from anywhere in the world.
Where work-life balance is valued above salary parameters, where diverse and inclusive cultures are organizational drivers, sustainable organizations that extol social and environmental responsibility, foster the ability of employees to find sustainable solutions in their work.
In this context I consider the management of multicultural teams as a challenge, but also a thrilling opportunity to cultivate creativity and innovation in the workplace.
Let's start with the definition of a multicultural team as a group of people with different cultural backgrounds, values, norms, perspectives and competencies working together towards a common goal.
Leadership of such a team can be complex due to cultural and communication differences that can affect team collaboration and performance. Factors such as language, cultural traditions and values, decision-making and conflict management, among others, need to be taken into account to ensure effective team leadership. Therefore, it is important that leaders are informed and adequately prepared to manage these differences and promote an inclusive and respectful work environment.
In conclusion, managing multicultural teams requires a conscious approach and a reverent attitude towards diversity underpinned by a number of competencies that are key to helping a multicultural team work together effectively and achieve those common goals.
Biases in Executive Search can negatively impact the process and result in bad hiring decisions.
They can cause overlooking qualified potentials who don't fit the stereotype of the ideal candidate for the role.
It's important to be aware of unconscious biases and ensure that the assessment process is fair and objective.
It's crucial to be mindful of these biases and take steps to reduce their impact on the Executive Search process.
In many cases, AI can reduce humans’ subjective interpretation of data.
It is clear that AI can quickly screen every applicant’s resume for specific requirements like a degree or a specific amount of experience. If a hiring manager has a certain bias for or against a certain university or region, that bias can be eliminated with AI. At the same time, extensive evidence suggests that AI models can embed human and societal biases and deploy them at scale as underlying data rather than the algorithm itself are most often the main source of any issues.
“In theory, AI can help remove biases and subjectivity from the executive search process. By relying on data and algorithms to make hiring decisions, AI can help reduce the influence of human biases in the selection process. However, it's important to keep in mind that the algorithms used by AI systems are only as unbiased as the data they are trained on, and any biases present in the training data can be reflected in the results produced by the AI system.
To ensure that AI systems are used in an unbiased and effective manner, it's important to regularly monitor and evaluate the results they produce, and to address any biases that are identified. Additionally, human oversight and involvement in the executive search process is still important to ensure that candidates are evaluated holistically, and to provide a personal touch to the recruitment process.”
Lorraine Wrafter is a Supervisory Board Member and Chair of the Nomination & Remuneration Committee with Ignitis Group.
It is already more than a year since the new Supervisory Board of Ignitis Group, one of the largest energy companies in the Baltic states, was elected. The collegial body of the Group comprises five independent members with international experience and two representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Group‘s majority shareholder.
Our colleagues in Vilnius talked to Lorraine Wrafter, the independent member of the newly elected Supervisory Board, about the role and value of a collegial body in a listed company with the state as a majority shareholder and what it takes to be successful as a member of such a body.
In the Supervisory Board our role is to look after the strategy, key risks (managed risks), ensure business compliance and performance.
My role as the Chair of NRC is to lead the committee and ensure the company is using the right tools and processes to develop the capabilities through succession planning and building the talent pipeline and to engage and reward people. Our role is also to propose an effective organisation structure for decision making and offer assistance in the hiring for Board positions within the Group companies.
The Supervisory Board's first meeting was online and we continued to work online for six months due to Covid and then start of the war in Ukraine. One of our first meetings was to get to know each other, who we are outside of the board room. We had weekly/ fortnightly meetings for the first few months to get us all up to speed on the business. The Supervisory Board and NCR meet monthly.
I was new to the Energy sector and my colleagues were a great help to get me up to speed quickly. I had one to one online meetings with all the Supervisory members to learn about the industry, state and a publicly listed company. We can also call each other whenever we have questions.
What helped me to prepare for the role was the education I received from the Institute of Directors and two advisory Board positions. In addition, Ignitis Group invited me to attend, on behalf of the Supervisory Board, a programme run by an external company to understand corporate culture and governance in the Baltics. They also invested in Sustainability and the Board‘s role.
It is a Energy business, with a fast growing Renewables business that is competing in global markets. We acknowledge the tensions between being both a local Lithuanian company and growing internationally (in Europe) within a highly competitive market. Ignitis Group is a strictly regulated and listed company that has to manage the demands of the state and private investors. All these factors add to the challenges for the business particularly in finding the right talent to run the business and to reward people.
The complexity of the Group structure and decision making processes was one of the first areas the Supervisory Board identified that needed to change. Ignitis Group is now introducing a new structure to help them make faster decisions across the group while ensuring accountability and controls are in place.
We, in the Supervisory Board, were happy to see the resilience and proactiveness of the Group Management team / Executive Board when facing the challenges related to the war in Ukraine – ensuring the energy supply to customers and at the same time moving forward with the agreed strategy, not stopping with growth, especially in renewables (the company "Ignitis Renewables" which expanded quickly in terms of people during the last year).
Challenges were more for the Management Board – our concern was for the Management Board and employees' well being. It has been a very tense year for the business with the war, energy challenges, growing the business and meeting their financial commitments to the state and private investors. During this period employee engagement remained high confirmed by the recent eNPS results.
The role of the Supervisory Board is evolving and the area of focus is the growth of Renewables from reviewing Renewable Projects, preparation for bids, sourcing talent around the world and paying competitive market rates.
Firstly we are a diverse team. There are seven members with seven different skills sets and six nationalities. This gives a great balance of perspectives. We all have an expertise and at the same time we can contribute and challenge each other in their area of expertise.
We are functioning very well as a team.
Being new in the Supervisory Board and also in the Energy market I think it is very useful to get an overview/ knowledge both about the specifics of business, corporate governance and culture at the early stage.
We talk, ask questions, and are open to being challenged and are of course supportive of each other.
Another important area is setting clear accountabilities and boundaries with the Boards of the Group companies so that each collegial body feels accountable, acts within the boundaries and decisions are made on time.
At the end of our meetings we have roundtable time just with the Supervisory Board or Committee members. At these sessions we reviewed what went well and what could be improved and share this feedback with the Management Board. There is no defensiveness.
We have an annual self-assessment of the Board and committees done by external company – another opportunity to reflect and improve the effectiveness of the Board.
Our interactions with the Boards of the Group companies are limited – mainly strategy meetings and business updates. Each of the Group companies has its own board to manage the business and controls. The Group Supervisory Board does not need to get involved with them. They have the controls in place. Our goal is to ensure the Group organisation structure and decision making processes are in place for transparency and in line with anticorruption policies while supporting a fast changing and growing business.
Another important thing in ensuring effective governance is implementation of the principle "Nose in, Fingers out". We, as the Supervisory Board, are responsible for hiring the right people for the Boards and making them accountable, for guiding them based on overall business perspective ("business lenses") and support in decision making – but not making decisions for them. It is a challenge for all of us – especially in a fast growing business, i.e. Renewables, where we say "We are flying the plane while building it".
The Group Organisational Development Director, Executive Board member, and I have a good working relationship; we are open and direct and we learn from each other. It is a two-way process. Before each NRC meeting we have a pre-meeting to review the agenda items and the materials. We discuss areas on which to focus, what could be contentious topics and how to manage the discussions. I play "devil‘s advocate" to pre-empt what questions could be asked by the Board members so that the presenters are prepared.
NRC has varied activities such as agreeing a new Expat Policy, Succession Planning, Female Talent Pipeline, Engagement and Reward programmes. One of the biggest challenges is around Reward where we try and balance the needs and concerns of a state-owned company that is operating in European/Global markets and is publicly listed.
During the last year we did a lot of hiring for the Boards, currently we are also looking for the members of the Committee for Risk Management and Business Ethics Supervision, with the focus on Safety and Health.
I am glad to work with a management team which is very motivated.
I am excited to work in such a team and I am excited to talk about it.
We work very well together. We talk very openly, have discussions and debates, looking at things very objectively from the business perspective – actually we do not have many disagreements, and when we do, we manage to find solutions. Always looking through business lenses, and never with any emotional load when discussing the questions – maybe this is why we are working well.
The independent Supervisory Board members are from 5 different countries/ different nationalities, we all worked for private businesses where the things are done differently than in state owned companies (less bureaucracy and faster decision making).
It is good and useful that we can share our different experiences/ ways of working in different cultures. Two of us in the Supervisory Board are not from the Energy sector (myself and Tim Brooks) – so we have all the opportunities to learn about the Energy sector from other team members.
It is also very useful that we have very open minded members representing the state – through them we 'educate‘ the Finance Ministry on international business best practices.
I really enjoy being a member of a Supervisory Board. I 'have got' everything: state owned, publicly listed, changing and growing business with a truly diverse Supervisory Board. It is a business that can have a big impact on the planet too. I am passionate about the Company and my role in terms of how I can contribute to the business
Be proactive, use all the opportunities to network and let people know you are interested in obtaining a Board position. Take on advisory Board roles to gain experience. I would recommend attendance at a Board/Director Programme for collegial body members – to better understand the role and responsibilities of Board members and understand the governance issues. It also shows potential Boards you are serious about joining them.
Burnout is a widespread leadership topic that has grown in importance recently.
According to the World Health Organization, burnout is a clinical condition resulting from extreme, unaddressed workplace stress and can affect both employees and executives. The hot question of 2023 is not if executives will experience burnout - but when.
Dealing with burnout is a prevalent theme that appears not only in leadership development coaching sessions but also seems to be a major driver of senior managers wanting to change their jobs.
Commonly recognized as an emotional state where a person feels exhausted and out of touch with their work, burnout is also a well-known term in psychology and management used to explain why some people quit their jobs and look for new opportunities.
A recent Deloitte survey shows that nearly 70% of C-level executives are considering jobs that might better support their wellbeing. Although not on the same scale, we can say that our experience with executives confirms this trend.
Burnout becomes a serious challenge that may undermine the success not only of the career seekers but also of many businesses.
Knowledge about most typical signs and symptoms of burnout state is crucial. This can be a starting point for taking further actions or seeking and providing support. Physical symptoms like headaches, stomach-ache, neck pains combined with concentration difficulties, mental fatigue, impatience, cynical reactions, lack of motivation, anxiety and depression may be solid indications that burnout is there.
If an executive identifies these signs in their state and behaviour, a possible solution could be starting looking for a new job. However, if this new job is not in a less stressful environment, this solution could make the things even worse.
Taking a sabbatical - a long break from work that will help executives recover from the work-induced stress. It can be paid or unpaid, and companies usually have a sabbatical policy that details the application procedure. Sabbaticals can help if the senior managers feel overworked or need some time to recover their creative capacity. However, if the burnout is due to some underlying issues in the team, or some personal reasons, it will be better to choose a different solution.
Downshifting - Starting a gradual process of changes that makes the work life balance easier, quieter, balanced, and much less stressful. This can happen by reducing work hours and/or responsibilities and may impact managers' incomes.
Working with a coach – taking this approach may help to constructively deal with burnout symptoms, identifying stress points and building new habits.
Finally, businesses contribution can make a huge difference. Prioritizing executives’ and employees’ well-being is essential for growth-oriented companies and building a strategic approach for prevention and support in case of burnout may turn out as significant competitive advantage.
We all have an opportunity to think about work in a new way, to seek greater empowerment and flexibility.
Over the last three hundred years we have had several revolutions, but this one means the optimisation of work could be managed not just around profitability and productivity, but also around humanity.
However, we need to redefine the "how, what and why" of work — and evolve the conversation beyond the single issue of remote working. This responsiveness to individual preferences will result in a new kind of competitive advantage around the battle for talent.
People are actually willing to quit if they are not given greater flexibility at work and companies that listen and experiment early will have an advantage.
Leaders need to become even more flexible and holistic in the ways they understand and respond to their employees’ needs. Rigid models of annual surveys, office attendance policies and a single office location are all artefacts of the past.
Discussions about remote and hybrid work are simply the early indicators of a deeper shift in redefining what work should be done and how that work gets done. We also need to empower women to remain in the workforce, creating more diverse equitable and inclusive cultures, and promote health & well being in the workplace.
We are at a seminal moment that demands collaborative engagement by all parties involved in driving economic opportunity. Don't be afraid to engage and have the hard conversations necessary for change.
Vedtag fra Erhvervsstyrelsen om kønsdiversitet på flere ledelsesniveauer trådte i kraft d. 1/1 2023. Det betyder skærpede regler for krav om måltal og politikker for kønsdiversitet i danske virksomheder.
De nye regler omfatter 2.387 store virksomheder, statslige virksomheder (herunder aktieselskaber) samt børsnoterede aktieselskaber (+313m DKK omsætning, +250 heltidsansatte, +156m DKK balancesum). Her er det nye mål for kønsneutrale virksomheder, af erhvervsstyrelsen, defineret som en 40/60 fordeling efter de juridisk bestemte køn.
Det er dermed heller ikke længere nok for moderselskabet at opstille måltal og politikker på baggrund af hele koncernen. Såfremt datterselskabet selv er omfattet af reglerne, skal disse opstille egne måltal og politikker, der skal sikre en kønsneutral ledelse fra øverste ledelseslag og to lag ned.
I samme anledning, foretages der en ændring i årsregnskabslovens § 99 b, hvor virksomheder der er omfattet af reglerne, fremadrettet skal angive statistik om nuværende kønsfordeling, måltal og politikker samt status på opfyldelsen af disse i ledelsesberetningen.
Nye tal fra Analyse & Tal viser, at 44% af bestyrelserne udelukkende består af mænd, hvor det kun er hvert femte bestyrelsesmedlem der er kvinde og hvert tiende bestyrelsesformand der er kvinde. Det betyder med andre ord, at knap halvdelen af Danmarks store virksomheder ingen kvinder har i bestyrelsen.
Hos Friisberg & Partners International har vi altid haft diversitet og softskills i sigtekornet i jagten på talent. Det stammer fra, at vi er en organisation med fokus på DEI, og at 60% af vores Man. Partner på verdensplan er kvinder. Vores grundholdning er at de bedst performende teams i et globaliseret marked, er dem med forskellige holdninger, perspektiver og kulturelle baggrunde. I 2022 har vi hos Friisberg & Partners Int. Denmark sourced lige knap 900 kandidater, hvoraf kønsfordelingen har været 50/50. Yderligere har vi i disse stillinger på topledelsesniveau placeret 45% kvinder og 55% mænd, hvilket bevidner om at vi gerne vil gå forrest, når det handler om at diversificere vores kunders talent pool.
Vi har på vores nylige 117’ende konference og dertilhørende Diversity Debate i København, bl.a. diskuteret; Hvordan virksomhederne selv kan fjerne barrierer, der hindrer kvinder i at søge topstillinger. Her er 3 overbevisende fund:
Yderligere, hvordan vi kan sikre at vores kunder bliver bedre til at tiltrække kvindeligt talent, nemlig gennem;
Som en del af et Europas ældste executive search firmaer, har vi i Friisberg & Partners International Denmark, redskaberne der skal til for proaktivt at hjælpe jeres virksomhed med at fremme diversiteten på ledelses og bestyrelsesniveau. Det foregår gennem at arbejde med realistiske indsatser for at udarbejde politikker, måltal og for at tiltrække diversificeret talent. Er din virksomhed blandt de 90% som har underrepræsentation af kvinder og ønsker I at ændre dette? Vi tør godt gå forrest, tør i?
Se vores udvalg af services på: https://friisberg.com/services/
Appendix:
https://www.scielo.br/j/cebape/a/WPJBgkq5ByTv7y9ZVsjBp5w/?lang=en&format=pdf
https://friisberg.com/balanced-boards-2/
https://www.ft.dk/samling/20211/lovforslag/L117/baggrund.htm
We were genuinely delighted to open an office in Ukraine at the end of 2022 and two new offices in the UAE this month, We know that we are fortunate to have strong, compassionate, innovative leaders who genuinely care about our people, our clients and the overall wellbeing of Friisberg.
We practise what we preach.
We understand that good leaders promote a sense of trust and confidence and when it comes to being happy at work – and enjoying work is very important. We strive to maintain Friisberg as a close family of exceptional people who work hard, play hard and are at the very top of their professions.
We understand that good leaders promote a safe and collaborative environment for joint problem solving; they generate innovation, a sense of achievement, and ultimately higher levels of satisfaction.
We understand that our clients will continue to battle the War for Talent – and there is an increasing demand for the right kind of talent. For leaders, this means not only targeting, nurturing, and advancing top talent within their own organisation, but partnering with firms like Friisberg to find the right people from elsewhere.
Being a global firm, we appreciate that having an inherently diverse workforce can be an excellent source of innovation. All of our people cherish difference, embrace disruption, and foster a speak-up culture so we know we are far more likely both to retain a broader spectrum of top talent. We can therefore better understand the needs of our clients who, like us, consistently look to drive growth and innovation.
2023 will be a great year for Friisberg, and a great year for our clients, because we will continue focusing on our key value: our People.
Patrick Duffy will be our new Managing Partner for the UAE.
In the United Arab Emirates since 2021, Patrick will be based in our offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The practices will offer Management Consulting services and Executive Search and a key feature of Patrick’s value is in advisory and consulting for organisation design, strategic alignment and leadership group development. He has over 25 years' leadership and management experience across numerous sectors including leisure, retail, NGO, public sector, culture, tourism, aviation and asset management. He has operated to senior executive and board positions with a strong focus on organisational capability, development and adaptive strategy.
Patrick’s leadership career in private enterprise and public institutions includes extensive experience connecting strategy with organisation design and leadership group development. Latterly, he has also trained and studied as a Management Researcher (doctoral thesis), specializing in organisation design and psychology. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics (Politics), Cardiff University, Wales (MBA), Leicester University (MA) and Bangor University Wales (MSc).
Zoltan Petho, Chair of Friisberg & Partners International, extended his welcome, “We were all delighted to meet Patrick at our recent conference in Copenhagen and it is fantastic that he is running our Friisberg offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. His immense and impressive experience will be a huge asset to Friisberg globally.”.
Patrick is thrilled to be joining Friisberg & Partners International in these exciting times and is looking forward to working closely with the firm’s clients across the globe.
CSR commitment has become an essential pillar of corporate strategy.
It involves obtaining a CSR label and the support of all the company's employees.
CSR is all the efforts made by companies to apply the principles of sustainable development.
It is based on three fundamental pillars:
80% of the CEOs of the world's leading companies consider a commitment to social responsibility to be an essential competitive advantage for their company.
The awareness of managers and their actions in the environmental and societal field is a positive development and a fundamental trend. A company's performance cannot be solely financial, it must be global.
It is therefore essential to develop the CSR strategy and management policy together.
This can be done by: implementing more teleworking, promoting diversity, paying more attention to equality issues during recruitment, and implementing CSR training.
Management makes it possible to put CSR into action. Without this, there is a risk that it will remain a more or less coherent set of initiatives, unrelated to the company's strategy, indifferent to its businesses, and outside the daily lives of employees.
CSR remains a complex, multiple and ever-changing subject.
It is necessary to create a minimum knowledge base for all players and then to develop specific skills for each business line (governance, responsible purchasing, etc.).
This requires, at the instigation of the HRD for example, carrying out generic awareness-raising operations (e.g. via e-learning), including CSR in induction courses and "business" training modules and using internal communication mechanisms (posters, newsletter, intranet, social networks) to sustain the CSR culture over time.
CSR has long been considered a constraint, a way to manage risks or repair impacts.
It is time to realise that it is an opportunity to meet the growing expectations of customers, to adapt to changes in the economic context (towards a functional, circular and collaborative economy), to innovate (inventing new products and services) and to provide the necessary fuel for the company's transformations.
If CSR appears to be a "separate issue", it will not be carried by the management line. It is therefore necessary to try to integrate social, societal and environmental objectives upstream, from the design of the projects deployed.
This may involve taking into account new criteria in recruitment or annual appraisals, or revisiting skills guidelines or managerial charters. It can also mean introducing CSR objectives into the calculation of a part of the variable remuneration of executives and managers. Danone, Orange and Pernod-Ricard in France are among the pioneering groups in this area.
The manager is the leader of the collective project of his entity. They can make CSR an integral part of this project.
For example, the objectives of diversity and professional equality can feed into their approach to recruitment, promotion and remuneration; their company's responsibility towards the employability of employees can feed into their approach to access to the training plan, etc.
Managers can discuss the economic, social and environmental aspects of performance at team meetings.
83% of young people born between 1980 and 1995, who will represent 75% of employees worldwide in 2025, believe that companies must get involved in societal issues. The manager can innovate by appealing more explicitly to each of these issues.
Reinforcing the integration of CSR into everyone's daily work is essential and the manager has a key role to play, including by example. Any opportunity to celebrate the company's CSR performance with all employees contributes to improving everyone's positive perception.
CSR is abundantly displayed but little embodied. It is by mobilising the managerial line, the "CSR rope line", that companies succeed in taking the path of sustainable value creation but also of motivating and inspiring development.
Friisberg & Partners International believes Ukraine should remain an independent sovereign nation, and we wanted to offer more than just words in support of the people of Ukraine at this time of conflict and crisis.
Friisberg has specialised in cross-border co-operation in Executive Search since 1977. Our Partners and Consultants all share a strong desire to combine our skills, resources and networks and to share our expertise in support of an economically sustainable and inclusive future for Ukraine.
Ukraine has some significant economic advantages: its well-educated people, its large domestic market, its natural resources - including some of Europe’s very best agricultural land - and its location on major trading routes over land and sea. Despite the war, Ukrainian economic activity continues, and in time will recover fully.
Elena and her team already works extensively within Ukraine’s senior executive community, and it is our hope and intention that when international businesses decide to invest in Ukraine, they will choose Friisberg as the Executive Search firm best placed to both understand multinational business and identify talented Ukrainian leaders for their investments.
Having graduated from the TACIS Program of the HR Management Faculty at Kyiv National University, Elena now has twenty-eight years of practical experience in the HR sphere and nineteen years in executive search, with a particular focus on cross-border search assignments for international companies with a interests in Ukraine and the CIS.
Under Elena’s supervision and with her direct involvement, a leading Ukrainian law firm successfully underwent the international HR audit and certification process, and became the first Ukrainian Company and the first Law Firm in the CIS to be awarded “Investors in People”. She has also successfully completed a practical course on the Lean Six Sigma methodology and received a certificate from The European Black Belt Institute and writes extensively on HR strategies and policies.
Our new Kyiv office already counts several of Ukraine’s leading brands among its clients, including: Teva, Sandoz, PwC, AC Nielsen, Elementum Energy, VR Capital, MSD, Organon, DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, Glass Troesch, DTEK, D.Trading, BASF, Hilti, DCH, and Dr.Reddy’s.
Zoltan Petho, Chair of Friisberg said, “With a Kyiv office, we are able to offer real and meaningful support to Ukraine. We acknowledge that these are turbulent times, but we can also see the opportunities, and our new office is an expression of our determination and willingness to enable international companies that want to invest, establish a presence, and succeed in Ukraine. Whatever the circumstances, we are fully committed to extending the reach and ability of our clients to attract the best talent.”
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