Dear C&B,
On the eve of Valentine Day, I wanted to assure you of my continued love.
You’ve been my professional companion for the past 26 years, and whether in corporate or now as a consultant, for me, the flame is still burning bright.
I love everything about you :
- How you fluctuate based on your mood – is the organization expanding, is talent scarce and flimsy, or do we need to look into cost control ?
- How you keep me challenged – being the same, yet different in each company and each country… and changing each year
- How I’m never bored with you – employee engagement ! wellness and recognition ! analytics ! artificial intelligence ! say on pay ! due diligence ! nudge ! impact of gig economy !
- How creative you are – never the same incentive plan in 2 different companies, benefits tailored to your employee population…
- The quality of our conversations – employee total reward statements, data visualization and statistics, speaking to Compensation Committees or to all-hands roadshows across the world
When you first arrived in France at the start of my career, I didn’t even know your name as you were the new kid in town and no-one had told me about you at biz school. But then we met, and I was fascinated. I started learning more about you, and to my surprise, never stopped learning. To this day, I still learn, and I feel this will continue until I retire.
We’ve moved together across countries, France, UK, Italy (3 times !), and now the UAE for the past 11 years. At the same time, our perspective was growing from single country to massive operations across dozens of countries. My change of status in 2013, becoming an independent consultant, did not alter our relationship – on the contrary.
I even love spending some time with your relatives from time to time ! Talent management, emiratisation, communication… they’re all nice and connect me to you in a different way, like in any big family, all unique but all united by a common ideal – caring for employees and the organization.
You make me grow, you make me learn, you keep surprising me. I look forward to the next 26 years by your side.
Sandrine
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