Raising the bar Viewpoint careers advice blog

Raising the bar Chris Van Steenbergen is Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of HEINEKEN. In the latest Hays Journal, he discussed why a standout employer brand is more important than ever. Holding an executive role at a globally recognised brand is a lifelong journey for most people, but Chris Van Steenbergen, CHRO of HEINEKEN, has not had the most direct career path. Having originally trained as a lawyer, he practised for eight years at a large telecommunications company before moving to Cadbury Schweppes. Continuing his work as a corporate lawyer for four years in the company’s beverage division, it was here that he moved into the business world. He explains: “It was quite an unusual move but I was very much involved in the acquisition projects. When you are in a small group looking at these, you have to be very involved in the business. People felt I had good knowledge and must have seen some potential because they offered me a general manager role.“ “I still remember the first six months were pretty difficult. You need to learn an awful lot and rely on the people around you. I have to say, there were times when I thought it might not work, but it did.” Having managed various operations in the company, Van Steenbergen’s next role was another big change, becoming CEO of Quick Restaurants, a Belgian hamburger chain. However, after a few years he returned to Cadbury’s. It was at this point that he made his move into the world of human resources. The then CHRO of the company asked to meet with him at the company headquarters and revealed that they were in the process of making a succession plan ahead of his retirement. “He told me that they thought I would make a good internal candidate. They saw I liked working with people and that I had built good teams, so I said okay.” After a spell as a regional HR Director, the Cadbury CEO asked him to move back to the business side of things and become President for Europe, before taking on the CHRO role in 2008. Then, after the takeover of Cadbury by Kraft Foods, he took the CHRO role at Dutch health and nutritional company DSM, but missed the consumer goods industry. This led him to take on the role at HEINEKEN in 2014. He says that those who have influenced his own outlook on business the most have been the people who have taken a risk on him. From the lawyer who offered him his first job, to the person who first took him on as General Manager and supported him through his first year, or more recently the former CEO and CHRO at Cadbury’s who helped him move into HR, Van Steenbergen says that letting people make career changes can have hugely positive outcomes for companies, and is something he very much encourages in his work. Ideas overflowing Promoting the possibility of a varied and international career, with both internal and external candidates, is more of a challenge than one might imagine at HEINEKEN. Between James Bond sipping it on the big screen, and the sponsorship of F1, the UEFA Champions League and the Rugby Union World Cup, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who does not recognise the HEINEKEN brand straight away. people are being bombarded with choices, so you must stand out. That means innovation in everything that we do. What many people do not realise is the sheer scale and breadth of the company, which operates over 250 brands in more than 70 countries. This creates a particular hurdle when recruiting â€" how can this be communicated to potential hires? The answer was the creation of an exciting and innovative employee value proposition (EVP), says Van Steenbergen. “For a long time, we left recruitment to local operating companies and there were some quite brilliant things done,” he explains. “We felt, though, that there was a new generation that we needed to approach with a different experience, and we wanted to communicate what we stand for and that we are an international company with opportunities. While a lot of our people join our local companies and we are deliberately decentralised, we felt there were common threads we need to communicate.” Working with marketing, Van Steenbergen and his team crafted the message of who HEINEKEN are and considered how they could turn this new EVP into a campaign, as they would with any other form of marketing. Together, they came up with Go Places, a modern, fun and interactive video advert starring real employees. “We felt it had to stand out. There is so much clutter of brands aiming at employees. We wanted to stand out with something that was modern, digital, mobile but still telling the story that we are an international company. You can go places globally but you can also develop your career in different functions as well. I am very proud of what we have done.” Recruitment taking an innovative approach is something Van Steenbergen says will be unavoidable in the future. “In the future we may need to go mobile only and there are tremendous opportunities with new technology that we must investigate. We need to see what the next best tools are because the generations coming into the workforce will challenge us to be innovative. Good people are being bombarded with choices, so you must stand out. That means innovation in everything that we do.” Van Steenbergen also encourages local operators to put their own spin on the campaign: “We can’t just talk about HEINEKEN â€" people must know they can do a fantastic job on our other brands. We call it freedom within the framework. Go Places is the framework â€" the story is there and there is a lot of material and messaging â€" but we encourage our local operating companies to make it relevant. Frankly, Vietnam is not the UK. Their consumers and future employees are different. There are different cultures and we must leverage their biggest local brands.” Leveraging the best talent to work on campaigns like this, or anywhere else they are needed in the business, is an important step, says Van Steenbergen, and offering career change opportunities is something he knows the value of well. Growing up While HEINEKEN is clearly making positive steps in the promotion of its brand as an employer, the company must also tackle ever-evolving challenges. “The company has changed dramatically over the last 15 years,” he says. “It was a Dutch company going international; now it’s fair to say that we are a global organisation. This means we face greater competition from the big players like ABI. The challenge is to continue to grow in a very competitive world.” And that competition is not only coming from large multinationals. “The new phenomenon of craft brewers is growing. You have these entrepreneurial brewers selling first to family, then to friends, then to their village and gradually growing out. At the same time, this development is fantastic because it creates interest among consumers in beer.” Van Steenbergen hopes this will also help HEINEKEN tackle diversity challenges. “We want to continue to build diversity; it’s a big focus area for us. Beer is a male dominated industry, but the world is changing and we need to be better in terms of diversity. Gender is part of that but so are different cultures, nationalities and ways of thinking.” And as the company continues to grow in emerging markets, Van Steenbergen says it is important to do so with an eye on the future: “We need to face it in a systematic and sustainable way. There is, rightly, now more pressure to do things in a sustainable way and we are investing in that agenda. “One thing is for sure, we need leaders who are international and who can think and operate globally. The world of talent is very competitive, so we spend a lot of time building our talent pipeline with a specific focus on emerging markets.” Setting out purpose This year, HEINEKEN has taken steps to ensure all employees know exactly what its business is about. While the Go Places campaign has certainly boosted its employer brand, it has also complemented this with an updated set of values, WE ARE HEINEKEN. “When you talk to people who have been at the company a while, they probably don’t need a manifesto or purpose,” says Van Steenbergen. “They wake up each morning and are proud of this company and know what it’s all about. It’s in the blood. “But we need to be attractive to new people coming in, in particular the younger generations. They have a lot of choice in employers and are not afraid to move companies if they don’t like one. There were requests from our younger leaders and other people joining the businesses for us to refine what we stand for.” Van Steenbergen says discussing what sets the brand apart and distilling it into a cohesive statement as an executive team was a challenge, but the resulting manifesto really tells new employees who HEINEKEN are. “It’s our compass for everything we do. We need to leverage it to attract new people, but also help it come alive in our day-to-day work. “The worst thing you can have is a fantastic purpose, then do something different in reality. It’s key that all our leaders and people live the manifesto and that they can look at it and know, in particular when things might be going the wrong way, that we are doing the right thing. “When we are working in some territories that are challenging from a political or social point of view, this manifesto helps our leaders say ‘okay, we’re confronted with this, but this is who we are. This is what HEINEKEN stands for, these are our values and we won’t step away from them, even if that means we do not do certain things as a business’.” One of the strengths highlighted in HEINEKEN’s purpose is the trust the company has built and its desire to progress. Both areas are at the forefront when it comes to discussions around automation. “Technology can be an enabler to do certain things faster and more efficiently, without a doubt. That we should look at, but the human factor should not be taken away. When you talk with people about automation, it can be a bit scary. People are worried their role might be automated. Understanding that is important, but it will also create new roles and demands for new skills.” Van Steenbergen concludes by reflecting on technology’s impact on his own role when recruiting. “As humans we have our biases; new technologies can take those away. Does that mean humans will not be involved in the future? I doubt it. I believe companies are about human relations. Even with everything that is going digital, the success of businesses relies on human relationships and leadership.” Did you enjoy reading this Hays Journal  article? If so, here are some other blogs that will also be of interest to you: Four employer branding  trends you need to know about in 2017 How to embed a customer-led culture Why you should be encouring intrapreneurship  today Don’t let your business get caught out by disruption 5 things we learnt from Zaha Hadid Architects Global Head of People and Talent Four employer branding  trends you need to know about in 2017 How to create an engaged workforce