Smiti: Hi, everyone, and welcome to yet another podcast session on Inspiring Leaders and Leadership by AdvantageClub.ai. So my name is Smiti, I’m one of the founders of AdvantageClub.ai, which is an employee experience, reward recognition community and wellness building platform. So, we have another amazing person coming here, joining all the way from France. We have Marie, who is the HRBP of Emerson Automation Solutions with us here today. Welcome to the show.

Marie: Thank you so much, Smiti, for having me. I’m so happy to be here. I’ve been really excited to talk about my journey and what being an HR leader is for me today.

Smiti: Now, we love that, and we’re looking forward to hearing more about it as well. So, let’s start with that. Let’s start with the first question, let us know a little bit about you, about your background, your journey. You’ve had many wonderful years of experience. So we’d love to understand how you got into HR, how your journey’s been, and how you got into leadership positions eventually.

Marie: Okay. Because there are so many things I can tell about my journey. So I think I’m gonna go way back and talk about my time at high school. I had a chance to be tutored by a specific program, by a student coming from a big business school called ESSEC in France. So to get into this program, basically, they interviewed and selected candidates with a lot of ambition, good grades, but not the perfect environment to dream big. So during these three years, I thought about the project that I wanted to plan, and I decided to go to the UK, where I studied sociology and politics. I stayed there for three years of my life, and it was really amazing. And why did I choose this program? Simply because I wanted to be impactful. I wanted to help others, to change things. And then when I was younger I was like, “To do that, I need to become a politician.” That’s what I thought when I was younger. Now I don’t think the same way that I used to. I graduated in 2010 from Goldsmiths University and I obtained a BA degree. After that, for a funny reason, I went back to France, and I didn’t really know what to do with that. So I failed a lot. I’ve tried things that were not successful. But I’m proud of this journey because it makes me who I am today. I became an English trainer. I worked with a lot of people. I created my own company, and it was amazing, being able to be creative, independent. It’s who I am, it’s what I really love.

After six years, I was like, “Marie, what can you do now? What do you like to do? I love people in general, I love helping, I love being impactful, so I thought about being a recruiter. I became a recruiter from 2016 to 2020. And then COVID-19 happened. You know the story up to that. I changed my plan. Being a recruiter was great, I enjoyed working on deadlines, working with changing goals. By the end, I was like, “Okay, I need something even more challenging and I need to earn more money.” I’m going to be honest with you. So, I went back to school. I attended a master’s degree through distance learning in HR management, organization, and change management.

And I was really happy when a company called Emerson called me and it was to replace a person on maternity leave. So I was supposed to stay six months there, but after a few weeks I was like, “This is the company where I want to work in and stay there for a long time. I want to be impactful. I want to do many things in the company.” And that’s who I am. That’s why I became an entrepreneur, I love challenges. That’s why I went to London on my own when I was younger, with no financial aid from my family. I wanted to do something that set me outside of my comfort zone. So, for six months I was at Emerson to replace a colleague and I was like, “Okay, they don’t know, but I will stay. I will be hired.” So I did everything in my power to perform, to network with people, and to stay. And today I feel so happy to tell you that I got hired as a permanent employee.

So I’m working as a HR business partner but it’s always difficult to say what being a HR business partner is. I do so many things. I deal with everything that can happen in an employee’s life from the first day to a potential last day. And I support employees, the leadership team also. And that’s what I love to do. That’s what I’m doing today at Emerson.

Smiti: That’s amazing. You’ve been in the industry for 16 years and you also created your own company, so let’s talk about that. What was the genesis of the idea, and what was the point when you decided to move on and get back to the corporate job life?

Marie: That’s thanks to the family that I have. I love to follow my dreams. I love to think big and achieve big goals. I didn’t have a plan when I was younger, but I just wanted to try things that I enjoyed, so that’s basically what I’ve done. And why did I decide to create my own company? Because being independent is something that I really love. I want to be creative. I want to be able to say no to some clients. I want to be able to go on a certain path because I want to do it.

I love this, the creativity is the first thing that really dragged me to being an entrepreneur. And so I think that you can have a corporate job and still be kind of an entrepreneur. That’s what I’m doing right now. I have my HR missions that I really love. But besides that, I’m passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and I do so many things related to that topic. You probably know about ERGs. So I’m the leader of an ERG that deals with disability, something that is important to me. I belong to many ERGs, including the LGBT, Black Alliance, which deals with black employees. So it’s something that I really love. We live in a diverse world, and I don’t understand why people don’t understand the value of diversity today. How diversity can foster performance, wellbeing, and so many positive things.

Today as a recruiter, I mean, as an HRBP, when I recruit, people ask me about diversity. People ask me about environments. So I think since COVID-19, things have slightly changed. Candidates want to have a job that makes sense to their own values and aspirations. And that’s why everything is changing right now, and we need to catch the train.

Smiti: Absolutely. I think from a worldwide perspective, organizations have become more sensitive around the fact that they need to add more DEI initiatives in their organizations. And, especially post-COVID, when the world has come together. There are no boundaries anymore. Earlier it used to be like if you’re in France, you only interact with people or employees or colleagues in France, but you don’t necessarily talk to your colleagues in the UK or US or anywhere else. But today, everyone is together. I think putting focus on diversity should be the need of the hour today, because it matters more today than it did maybe earlier.

Marie: For sure.

Smiti: I also want to follow up on that question. Your journey’s been very interesting, you’ve done a bunch of things. You’ve delved into entrepreneurship, recruitment, HRBP, you’ve done a lot of things, but it must not have been easy to do so many things and walk so many paths in such a short period of time. So tell us a little bit about some examples of challenges or failures which you’ve learned from, which you’d like to share with the audience.

Marie: I love challenges. I love the struggles. I love when things are not easy. And I can tell you I’ve been through a lot personally and professionally. And it might sound a bit cheesy, but I always learn from all those experiences. When I think about failures, I simply think about the fact that maybe sometimes I was not trusting myself. I didn’t have enough self-confidence. I thought I was not able to achieve certain types of things. So I worked four years as a work recruiter, and during those four years, I wanted more. I wanted to dream big, but I didn’t have a plan. So that’s why sometimes I don’t talk about dreams, I talk about goals. And, when I want to achieve goals, I set a plan and I do everything in my power to reach that goal. So I think that would be the only failure, not trusting myself, not having self-confidence. As a woman, sometimes you think you are not capable enough, the imposter syndrome. Why am I here? Can I go beyond? Can I do more? And that’s what, now, I know I’m ready to do more and want to achieve big things.

Smiti: I love how you’ve done that twist, not really calling it a failure, but a learning opportunity. And I think, the more we think in that direction, the more successful it makes us because we stop looking at challenges as problems, whereas we start looking at them as good things which are happening in our life to help us grow. So, who has, who has been like your biggest supporter or your biggest mentor over the course of your career?

Marie: I am my biggest supporter. I deeply believe in myself now. I have built strong self-confidence and ambition. That’s why I’m not talking about dreams anymore, but goals and asset plans. I’m really good at setting plans, and career plans. I know where I want to go, and I know how to ask help from people who could be really above me in the hierarchy to help me achieve my goals. And now I know I have the capacity to open doors that are closed. And, if the doors are closed, I have the capacity to go through the window because I want to achieve these goals. So, I would say I’m my biggest supporter, but I want to be humble.

I also have a great family that also supports me, and I think that’s the thing that helped me go, dream, and go beyond. And when you talk about me having a mentor, I have mentors who help me in my career, and I think every employee should have at least one mentor, who you can talk to freely about anything, it could be your personal life or issues that you face at work. They can help you in your career plan. And without a mentor, I think it would be hard for me to grow in the company. Also, there are people who don’t know they are my mentors, but they are my mentors.

For instance, I think about inspiring women. When I think about women, they have very challenging jobs, which are very important in an organization. I think men are my mentors too. And especially when I see Black women, we don’t really talk about skin color in France because it’s really taboo, but when I see in an organization black females that succeed, I think that’s amazing. I’m saying, “Wow.” “I want to do the same. I want to achieve big things.” I realize I said that a lot, but that’s what I really feel and that’s what I want to do. And I think people are inspiring just because of who they are or what they do, even if we don’t really talk to each other, but what they do is really inspiring. And I have many examples of black inspiring leaders, today.

Smiti: You’re bang on right on the fact that women need to inspire more women because we’re already less of us and so we need to support each other and help each other grow. And what I loved most was that you should be your own biggest supporter. I’ve rarely heard anyone say that, but that’s the real truth of life. If you don’t support yourself the most, how can you expect the world to support you? So it’s like when you’re on a flight, the flight attendant says that you put your own oxygen mask first before helping somebody else.

Marie: Agree. So that’s my vision. But, it doesn’t mean I’m gonna achieve big things on my own. Of course, I need others. I don’t want to do everything alone, but I need to support myself, and I need to know where I want to go, and that’s really important.

Smiti: Very true. So, when we talk about leadership in general, what would you recommend are the steps which HR leaders should take to address the changing needs of employees? Because today, employee needs are constantly changing, what used to work pre-COVID does not work today anymore. You’ve been in diverse roles and have managed different types of employees. So what steps would you recommend HR leaders to take to address those constantly changing needs?

Marie: Being an HR professional is not easy. And I think the most important thing, and the first thing, would be to be close to the employees you’re working with. I know some people will not agree with that, and I don’t know if it’s the same in other countries, but in France usually there’s employees on one side and HR professionals on another one, and they don’t really meet. And I think that’s the most important thing, being close to people. I’m not being criticized for being close to people, but for me, I can’t even imagine being an HR without knowing, and being close to the people I’m working with and seeing every single day. In the company I’m working in today, we have the chance to be able to sit down wherever we want in the building. It’s really very flexible. So every day, I sit with different people, maybe for an hour, maybe for two hours, maybe for the whole day, it depends. But for me, it’s important to know and to interact with the people you’re working with.

And so that would be the first thing. And that’s really my vision of what being an HR is today. The second thing, when you get to know them, I would understand their need and their ambition. You need to create safe places where they can speak freely about what they want to do, their aspirations. you need to challenge them also. And yeah, I think not only HRs, but also the company leaders and managers have a role to play. But for that, we need to foster a positive company culture where people feel safe to be able to talk about what they want and what they need.

And, I think if there was a third step, it would be to help them, to support them, and engage them. I know people in other companies who applied internally to other positions because they want to leave their current jobs. I know people who are passionate about different topics, but their managers don’t support them. They don’t care about what they want to do, they don’t care about their aspirations.

When an employee tells you that he wants to leave his current job, what do you do? Are you gonna wait and count on his loyalty to the company? Of course, this is not working. And I’ve seen people being re-engaged and who love the company but left simply because there is no possibility to grow in the company. So I think that’s something that’s really important. Know people, support them, and recognize them. When you are engaged in a company, you want to do more. You’re passionate about a lot of things. And, as a manager, as an HR leader, I think you should recognize those talents. And that’s why I talk about retention and when I talk about recognition, it’s not only compensation, ’cause I’ve seen people leaving a company for lower salary and lower income. So recognize what they do, and put in place a program of recognition. We all feel great when people recognize if we did something great, and it’s logical. So I don’t understand why people don’t understand that. It’s a major challenge today to support the employees and to recognize their efforts and work.

And globally speaking, we should create a safe place where people feel great, and the employee experience is something that every HR leader should deal with today. Employee experience is, How do you feel in the company? What do you want to do? How can I help you? As an employee, we spend more time with our colleagues than with our family. So, personally, I want to feel great in the company. I want to feel listened to, and I want my manager to help me grow in the company. That’s what my expectations are, so I guess others have similar expectations.

Smiti: You’re absolutely right when you say that, recognizing people, supporting them is really the key to retaining them, and eventually, one of the main factors for driving a better employee experience. And what I also loved is the ideology of going and sitting with different people every day. That is really interesting because, as a person in HR, you have the flexibility to do that but not a lot of people utilize that privilege to actually go and sit with different groups every day. And not every group thinks the same, you really understand challenges in every area, in every department, in every part of the office and that’s really interesting to me.

Marie: When I talk about knowing the people you’re working with, as an HR, of course we know everybody, we have statistics and different data, but this is not knowing somebody. Being able to know people really takes time, chatting about their family, their cats, no matter what, but their dreams also could be outside of the company, but that’s the HR I am, today, and what I really want.

Smiti: I think that’s like some really good advice. One, really talk and sit with people who you are managing. Second, as a manager, it’s your job to support your team members, to help them grow and eventually retain them, and most importantly recognize.. Because the more recognition you drive in the organization, it works like magic, and salary just can’t match that.

That also brings us to the end of the podcast. And thank you so much, Marie, for your time. It was really lovely interacting with you. I’m sure our viewers would love this podcast and all the thoughts you put forward.

Marie: To conclude, the advice I would give to HR leaders of tomorrow is, including female HR leaders is to stop fearing, have big and challenging dreams, and have exciting goals. Making mistakes is not the end of the world. I know in France when you make mistakes, it’s really negative. People put you in a specific box, like, “Okay, this person is a failure.” So if you fail once, it’s complicated. People might get suspicious and won’t trust you. So who cares? Try, fail, adjust, and then try again. That’s what I want to do. Be humble, be flexible, be a life learner. You can learn from others. Could be a VP, could be an individual contributor, could be a manager. You can learn from everyone, so be humble enough to know that and listen to all voices equally, not only the people who look like you or who work like you. Being an HR leader is also being supportive, being inspiring, authentic, and, in a sense, a role model. That’s the advice I would give.

Smiti: That’s great advice. And I think humility goes a long way. And of course connecting with people, that’s one of the core jobs in HR, which I think has gone lost over time. So it’s really important to provide that company to people.

Marie: Human resources has the word human, that’s why we need to care about people.

Smiti: Great. Thank you so much, Marie, for your time today. I loved interacting with you, thank you.

Marie: It was amazing. Thanks so much for having me.