Today, the concept of an ideal workplace culture has evolved, becoming distinct for every industry. As organisations embrace a more flexible, inclusive environment that fosters continuous learning, HR plays a pivotal role in ensuring these elements create an attractive and sustainable workplace. By leveraging AI and emerging technologies, HR professionals can now track and implement changes that align with the ever-shifting needs of both businesses and talent.
In an exclusive conversation with People Matters, Judy Manjlekar, Director of People & Culture at Technip Energies (India & APAC), shares her insights on the ‘workplace of the future.’ She discusses strategies to reshape work environments, the integration of AI and new technologies into HR policies, and how to expand while nurturing a thriving culture.
Here are the edited excerpts:
What ‘ideal’ future workplace culture looks like today?
The ‘ideal’ future workplace culture is envisioned as one that is inclusive, diverse, and conducive to continuous personal and professional development. This culture is characterised by mutual respect, a sense of belonging, and a commitment to innovation and excellence. At Technip Energies, significant strides are being taken towards creating and nurturing an inclusive culture. Our Diversity & Inclusion Champions Network focuses on driving inclusivity and diversity through various initiatives. We prioritise inclusive leadership, raising awareness. We are an equal-opportunity workplace.
Recently, we have launched a “Future-Ready” programme, offering a 50-hour multidisciplinary learning experience over three years. This program will cover essential skills such as strategy, sustainability, well-being, diversity and inclusion (D&I), security, ethics, and collaboration. Also, the launch of Inclusive Collaboration workshops at organisation level have helped employees and managers understand their role in creating an inclusive culture for the diverse workshop.
HR plays a crucial role in building and maintaining this ideal workplace culture through counselling sessions, awareness drives on addressing unconscious bias, and creating a supportive environment where all employees can thrive. HR also plays a critical role in tracking progress towards diversity goals, ensuring accountability and transparency in these efforts.
Reshaping the workplace to stay competitive and attract top talent while navigating economic and social changes..
To stay competitive and attract top talent, it is essential to embrace digital transformation, invest in employee development, and foster a diverse and inclusive workplace culture. Technip Energies has been proactive in leveraging digital technologies to streamline operations, improve project delivery, and stay ahead in the engineering sector. We have democratised learning through “T.EN University,” which offers global programmes designed to upskill and reskill employees across various disciplines. The learning experience is structured around six key areas: Technology, Project Management, Digital, Commercial, Leadership & Management, and Culture, all with a strong emphasis on sustainability.
We continue to make substantial progress by setting impactful targets and being intentional in our decisions. This is clearly evidenced by the increasing number of women in the workplace and in leadership positions. We have set an objective of hiring women graduates representing at least 50 per cent of our entry-level intake. This objective was reached in 2021 and exceeded in 2022 (51.7 per cent) and 2023 (52.0 per cent). Recently in India, trainees were recruited across different functions, with ~60 per cent being women, demonstrating a strong commitment to gender parity and nurturing female talent from the ground up. Currently, 30.5 per cent of the employees globally are women, which is notably one of the best in the industry.
In 2023, through the implementation of our Inclusion in Action initiatives, we particularly focused on increasing women intakes at entry level, further training and supporting them for leadership roles.
Leveraging AI and new tech to enhance its HR policies and skill development programmes…
As a leading engineering and technology company for the energy transition, Technip Energies brings its customers’ game-changing projects to life and is committed to enhancing their performance. And it is the people that are at the core of our business. So, we are constantly training, up-skilling our employees through both off-line and online programmes.
Technip Energies employs AI-driven analytics to better understand team dynamics, predict future skill requirements, and personalise development plans. This enables more targeted and effective training programmes, aligning with both individual career goals and organisational needs.
Our T.EN University; a global platform providing over 18,000 online learning solutions, enables continuous learning and career development, ensuring employees have access to resources that help them upskill and reskill effectively. A robust technology driven process of self-registration for the skill development programs, empowers our employees to take charge of their upskilling.
We are fully committed to fostering an environment that enables each one of our employees to thrive and unleash their full potential, like our immersive training solution that combines traditional Operator Training Systems (OTS) with a virtual reality environment. This enables collaborative training for field and control room operators in a realistic yet safe setting, enhancing their technical skills and preparedness for real-world scenarios.
We are continuously creating a high-performing culture where every talent is supported to be successful. A detailed record and analysis of the aspirations of all employees, their Individual Development Plan and Strengths and Development Areas helps us in creating a strong pipeline of successors for the critical roles within the organisation. Also, this data provides us insights on the learning needs of the employees which acts as an important input for designing the learning interventions.
Growth & expansion while maintaining a thriving work culture..
Technip Energies has a growing employee base of 4,000 employees in India. We emphasise in creating a superior employee experience through initiatives like Smart Working for hybrid and flexible work arrangements, wellness programs, and a collaborative culture supported by advanced technology.
We undertake employee surveys periodically, and implement the outcomes. Such an example is our recently opened two new satellite offices in India – one in Ghansoli (MMR) which was to bring the company closer to the numerous employees from the region and another in Gurugram (NCR) to attract the talent residing in the neighbouring areas.
Our on-boarding processes, continuous learning and development programs are created to meet individual needs. Our clear policies for equal opportunities and recognition of talent and policy of mid-year evaluation for feedback and coaching helps our employees to stay integrated and stay aligned in the common goals of success with sustainability. The company invests heavily in upskilling and reskilling, having dedicated over 46,000 work hours to employee training recently. We look for a longer tenure with our employees as we believe in organic growth.
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Are you rethinking about any policy and initiatives at Technip Energies, and why?
Technip Energies is a world leading engineering and technology company retaining a market leading position with more than six decades especially in core engineering. The brand has stayed ahead of the curve through constant upgrades, adaptation to new technologies, innovation & research process and bringing in new policies.
One of the biggest challenges in the core engineering sector is to attract and retain women talent. Since 2021, Technip Energies has set itself the target of recruiting 50 per cent women among its new graduate hires. This initiative is in line with our Global ESG roadmap, which also aims to see women occupying 25 per cent of leadership roles by 2025. In the current season, 60 per cent of the young trainees onboarded in India are women.
Globally, Technip Energies is focussed on creating an inclusive workplace where all employees are heard, understood, and represented. Diversity in recruitment is emphasised, providing a supportive environment for employees from various backgrounds and cultures. Technip Energies India is enabling STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning for girls through a Scholarship program. As part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, 100 female engineers from economically challenged backgrounds were recently given support to pursue further studies in STEM.
Our policies for continuous learning, upskilling are in force. The recent launch of Future Ready Program focuses on Technip Energies’ transformation journey, understanding who we are as an organisation and what are the levers of change that will help us through this transformation. This holistic program offers online / virtual / classroom programs on topics ranging from Ethics and Compliance to Cyber Security and Inclusive Collaboration to Low Carbon Technology.
Also, we realised mid-year development conversations with employees is extremely important and beneficial is a rapidly changing business environment. Apart from our learning and development programs (discussed above), this initiative helps employees align their career goals with the company’s objectives and provides feedback for professional growth.