Finding the right challenges
31 March, 2021
Recently, the new HR Director for our Division Industry, Johan Boelaert, was interviewed by a Belgian HR magazine: https://hrmagazine.be/nl/posts/internationale-uitdaging. As it turns out, Johan really appreciates the international challenge in his job. Indeed, being challenged keeps us on edge and ensures that we can do our best to help ourselves and also our employers grow. At BMT, we aim to provide the right challenges to our people.
No ordinary job
Johan Boelaert, the new HR director for our business line Industry, will be supervising the HR policy for the different plants over the world. This will be a challenging task as our plants are quite diverse within the complex division that is Industry. “My main task is to ensure that our 1 600 colleagues can help our customers healthily and with commitment.”
He goes on to say: “I want to contribute to a coherent company culture and way of working that respects our diversity. Meeting colleagues in our plants worldwide would certainly help that plan along, although we currently have a pandemic to contend with. I’ve already met certain colleagues through Microsoft Teams, which went well, but a personal encounter always offers a bit more. That being said, working from home has been introduced and will certainly remain in one form or another.” Although Johan has so far met his colleagues almost exclusively via Teams, he has been impressed by their results-driven mindset.
Creating a strong HR department
Johan’s aim is to make the HR department a strong sparring partner for the business that challenges it positively. The department’s insights and advice should be aimed at becoming even more competent. We’ve already implemented SuccessFactors within our entire group and are preparing our activities in Belgium, Romania and India for the future. Also, using data more actively will be a vital part of our strategy for the coming years. Lastly, we should also pay attention to the social fabric within our organisation. That can be quite challenging as we are active in different cultures all over the world. It’s clear, then, that many international challenges will be waiting for Johan in his new job. Backed by a committed and enthusiastic team, though, he’s fully ready to get going.
