The 2021 HR Initiatives Awards distinguished 5 winning teams. Selected from among 278 teams from 50 entities around the world, these initiatives reveal the wealth of Veolia's talents and business activities . Every 2 years these Awards recognise the inventiveness of teams and aim to encourage a “copy and adapt” approach with regard to the best projects within the Group. We take a look back at the awards ceremony, broadcast live and online on September 17th from Veolia's headquarters in Aubervilliers.
All the zones proposed initiatives: Africa-Middle East (28 initiatives), North America (8), Latin America (68), Asia-Oceania (53), Europe (41) and France (91).
The 5 winners
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Occupational health and well-being category award: Management of the health emergency - Ecuador
In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the city of Guayaquil, in Ecuador, was the most affected in Latin America from the very start of the health crisis. Veolia teams have put in place an action plan to protect employees and ensure the continuity of services in the country. For example, by organizing access to care and medication, or by providing packed lunches and food to families of staff in difficulty.
Phyllis Zurita, director of human resources at Veolia Ecuador.
In Guayaquil, we have created a Covid health emergency management committee to protect the health of all employees and their families, but also ensuring continuity of service. For us, this award is proof of recognition. Our teams have shown great solidarity in a trying and painful context where we have lost 5 colleagues. But we were able to help all those who needed it and especially the most vulnerable among us.
Frederick Goetz, Occupational Health and Safety Prevention Director of Veolia added:
During this unprecedented crisis, you defended the Group's values: responsibility, by getting involved; solidarity, by forming a collective; respect, by taking into account all the dimensions of the Group; customer-focus, by ensuring the continuity of services; as demonstrated, for example, by the initiative in Guayaquil.
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Occupational safety category award: ACT for Safety - SARPI - France
The "ACT for safety" initiative aims to change employees' behaviour in relation to safety at work by drawing on the insights of social psychology. This programme is being rolled out to the 3,000 employees of the SARPI network, in France and internationally.
From our hazardous waste treatment activity, we have built a complete programme of "AtouSecurity” workshops based on a participatory approach. The principle of the workshops is the exchange of best practices and collective intelligence, where each participant commits to adopting the right behaviours, testified several SARPI managers.
Anne Le Guennec, CEO of Waste Recycling & Recovery Solutions in France:
Safety must be built on-the-ground, as close as possible to the employees. It is important to think together about the best solution to limit the risks. Collective and participative are the ways forward.
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Operational performance and development category award: Power of small changes - Polande
Power of Small Changes is an innovation campaign that encourages employees to innovate and implement small changes (incremental innovation) to optimize their daily work.
Agnieszka Blaszczyk, innovation & communication manager, who is behind this initiative:
It is the employees' commitment to the environment that explains the success of this project. And our culture of shared innovation has made it possible to mobilise more than 100 “innovators” motivated by the measurable impacts of their projects.
Arthur Thoux, director of internal communication and regulatory communication:
Grâce à un très haut niveau d’engagement, cette initiative a produit des résultats très concrets, visibles et puissants. C’est un réel levier d’amélioration de la performance du Groupe
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Development of Skills and Talents category award: Veo-experts, all experts just a click away - Latin America and Iberia
VeoExperts is a collaborative digital recruitment and internal mobility tool for short-term assignments. It concerns all the experts of the 11 countries of the Latin America and Iberia zone who will strengthen the projects in the zone by contributing their skills either in face-to-face situations or remotely.
VeoExperts is available in 11 countries, comprises 300 experts and has totalled 6,100 days of missions. This transversal collaboration makes savings for the Group. It is also an additional source of motivation for employees since it enables them to develop their skills’ abroad, explain the project leaders.
Clementine Fontanel, director of human resources for Latin America and Iberia, who is behind the project:
This project makes it possible, for example, to quickly assemble a Hubgrade in Mexico, or to carry out a market study of industrial energy in Ecuador thanks to an Argentinian expert who also trains up the sales teams. The experts gain from the experience and feel valued. This initiative breaks down barriers between our know-how and our geographical location through cooperation on tangible projects.
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Social responsibility, diversity and cohesion category award: Scholarship funding and mentoring programme - Morocco
This is a scholarship funding and mentoring program for deserving high school graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds. Objective: to promote equal opportunities and diversity in jobs that are too often occupied by men. The young girls are trained for 2 years at the Higher School of Technology and benefit from personalized tutoring, a laptop and a smartphone. To date, 6 young women have already been selected.
Nezha El Anmanari, head of the administration and information system department of Redal (Veolia), who is behind this initiative in the framework of the WEDO Group diversity network:
This project encourages diversity in companies and in technical professions where women are poorly represented. The greatest reward is seeing these young girls overcome the social and cultural barriers.
Jean-Christophe Taret, director of strategy and multifaceted performance and member of the jury, presented the award
Promoting equal opportunities and diversity in technical professions is part of the purpose of Veolia and must be copied everywhere. Diversity and gender equality in particular are a real asset and a competitive advantage for the Group.
Concluding the Awards ceremony, Oliver Carlat, director of training and social development:
These awards are a tremendous means of demonstrating our values. 83 initiatives will be brought together in an online booklet of good HR practices to be copied and adapted. These initiatives are also helping to meet our new challenges: to become the champion of the ecological transformation within the new scope of Veolia by welcoming new employees with their own initiatives.
