Will Peachey, Head of global talent & HR, Infrastructure Services, Capgemini

Will Peachey opened the session by talking about the challenges that Capgemini faced when they faced new competition which meant that they had to put a renewed emphasis on their people. Will suggested that we need to focus on the long-term (not short-term) value of people and this is what will drive business results. One example of this was taking employees from the service (help) desk and putting them through training schemes to be able to put them in different roles in front of clients. Although this came at a cost, there is a significant ROI in terms of the increased fees paid for the people who had been trained. These business results, based on an employee value model, justified the increased L&D spend. In the examples cited, it was recognised that there wasn’t a 100% success rate, but managing this as a portfolio of investments meant that this could be easily managed. Some people investments would pay back quickly, some more slowly, and some will never pay back.

Focusing on  maximising people value (and the portfolio of initiatives to deliver that) has been much more rewarding than focussing on the people process.

Focus on the value and benefits that you create.