Over the past six months, CLIQ has embarked on a journey of transformation, growth, and development. Initiating collaborative leadership schemes, enhancing interpersonal relationships, and prioritising employee personal growth are key elements of this path. In this interview with our Head of Human Resources, Jenny Baerveldt, we gain insights into the key events and strategies that have shaped CLIQ’s first half year of 2023 from a cultural perspective as well as our approach to leadership and team building.
Hi Jenny, could you summarise CLIQ’s key events and developments from an HR perspective over the past six months?
This year, our focus has been on organisational design, change management, and leader and manager effectiveness. To lead a team effectively, you first need to be able to lead yourself and to be able to lead yourself means that you take a deep look at who you are, where you have strengths and weaknesses. When you become aware of who you are and are comfortable with that, leading others becomes a lot easier. For this reason, in the past 6 months, we have developed and started tailor-made leadership programmes for all our managers and Operational Management Team (OMT) in cooperation with our external L&D partners. Through this programme, our managers and OMT have already gained deeper insights into themselves and their colleagues, which has led to optimised work relationships and improved team cooperation.
What are the objectives of leadership development and team building and how are they aligned with the overall goals of the company?
Leadership development training programmes, along with an overall focus on Human Resource Development, bring numerous significant benefits. It increases the morale of our employees, it will improve productivity, build better teams, and train future and current leaders in creating a management style that is valuable to a positive and professional working atmosphere.
By offering tailored leadership programmes, individual coaching, and internal team-building workshops—hosted and managed by CLIQ’s HR department—we aim to foster a growth mindset among teams and individuals, an essential ingredient for helping CLIQ achieve its ambitious targets.
Can you share some success stories from the workshop participants and how it has positively impacted professional growth?
Overall, feedback regarding the leadership development programme indicates that our managers have gained increased insight into their own behaviour. They now better understand how they can influence the performance of their entire team as well as individual contributors. Also, it is creating a stronger bond between the managers which will improve interdepartmental relationships. Plus, we also started facilitating cooking workshops for each department which show how the different teams work together. By observing how teams make a 3-course dinner together, we can make the group aware of they function together.
Next to leadership development, CLIQ has also invested in Personal development and the overall well-being of its employees. Can you explain to us why this is important and what results you have seen so far?
The overall wellbeing of our employees is of utmost importance. For example, our mental well-being has a huge impact on the way we think, feel, and behave. It affects how we handle stress, how we relate to one another, and how we make decisions. It’s no secret that work-related challenges can impact our mental well-being and the same is true the other way around, our emotional well-being can impact our work performance.
CLIQ wants to ensure that our employees have access to all the tools they need to support them with their mental and emotional well-being – both at work and at home. Our partnership with OpenUp aims to give all Cliqers access to a safe space to communicate openly about anything that affects their well-being. And we provide unlimited access to the LinkedIn Learning platform and facilitate or contribute to other professional courses to support the professional development of our employees.
All in all, personal and professional growth in the workplace will advance skill sets that will link to our employees’ personal ambitions and professional career roadmap. At the same time, it will help develop employees to fill strategic and critical roles in the company that need to be filled. It’s a win/win situation!
And lastly, could you tell us a bit about the follow-up strategies that are planned for the upcoming quarters of 2023?
It is clear that we will continue to grow further on all levels. We will work further on overall leadership and start with a new workshop concerning cross-departmental cooperation and communication. On top of that, we are currently in the process of enhancing our recruitment and onboarding procedure by implementing a variety of processes and systems. We will dive deeper into the realms of diversity and inclusion, creating clear policies, and further educating our Cliqers, a diverse group comprising over 38 different nationalities. As for our employees, our HR department keeps on learning and improving to help make CLIQ an even better workplace going forward.
