The world around us has changed rapidly since the onset of the global pandemic — and so has the way we work. As we adapt to a constantly evolving environment and accelerate towards the future, we need to adopt a balanced approach to HR that considers both short- and long-term solutions.
To meet these challenges, organizations need to continuously adapt, reinvent how they work, and transform their businesses to build value, flexibility and sustainability. Join us to learn from each other and share ideas on creating future-ready organizations.
The 2021 Europe Rewards Virtual Conference, with the theme Adapt. Reinvent. Transform. Accelerating towards the future of work, took place on Wednesday and Thursday, 6-7 October. The event brought together nearly 300 HR professionals from across Europe and beyond in a virtual environment - offering them a unique opportunity to network, share experiences and hear from experts in the industry on innovative approaches to some of the most pressing current HR challenges.
Delegates learned and exchanged perspectives on reinventing HR for the future via:
He is the founder & curator of the hugely popular Exponential View newsletter which explores the political economy of the Exponential Age. It reaches more than 200,000 readers around the world. Azeem also hosts Exponential View podcast which is distributed by HBR and brings together thought leaders from diverse backgrounds such as Elif Shafak, Yuval Noah Harari, Mariana Mazzucato, Nick Clegg, Nina Schick.
Azeem began his career as a journalist where he was a writer for The Economist and The Guardian and later spent 25 years as an analyst, entrepreneur & active early stage start-up investor, with multiple exits to the likes of Microsoft and Amazon.
He is a fellow of RSA and sits on the board of the Ada Lovelace Institute and on WEF's Global Futures Council on Digital Economy & Society.
Azeem has been chosen LinkedIn Top Voice in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 with a following of 424k +.
Azeem has advised CEOs of global corporation and is frequently invited to share his insights on climate tech, venture capital, start-ups, the internet.
In 2020, Azeem co-authored the State of Climate Tech, a global analysis of venture capital trends in climate change investing, with PwC.
His first book, Exponential, which explores the transition to the Exponential Age has been published by Penguin Random autumn 2021 to great acclaim.
Originally from Mexico, an Engineer by education, 20 years ago began his carreer in Human Resources but through this period has also worked in multiple financial jobs which eventually has taken him to hold a dual role heading both organizations (Finance and HR) at T-Systems Iberia. Worked also in the US for 10 years before moving to Barcelona 4 years ago. Married and father of two teenage girls and passionate for making work fun and engaging.
Anabel is the Group Head of People Innovation and Transformation at Zurich Insurance Company. To drive large change throughout the organization Anabel works directly with business strategy to deliver an integrated career and rewards framework as an approach toward strengthening Work Sustainability. Anabel’s distinct approach to People Innovation was influenced by her work as a strategy consultant and as a leader in corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Anabel gets energy from driving enterprise-wide large scale transformations.
Nia is currently the HR Director at Calor Gas, the UK's leading LPG supplier.
Nia joined Calor Gas 2 years ago and since joining has been leading the business response to Covid. Also during that time Nia has developed the people strategy for the business, which is undergoing a significant transformation to become a renewable energy company.
Prior to joining the Calor Gas team, Nia spent time with the Mercerdes Formula 1 team and a significant time at Royal Mail, supporting one of the biggest cultural transformation within the UK. Nia is particularly passionate about ED&I and over the past 15 years has been supporting organisations identify ways to deliver on EDI commitments.
Nia grew up in Cardiff, Wales, went to University in Nottingham, completed her Masters in London and now resides in Stratford-upon-Avon with her husband and three young children.
Judith Jungmann was born in Munich, Germany. Following her 2nd law degree in Munich, Ms. Judith Jungmann joined Siemens in 1996 as Labour and Social Law specialist. After 2 HR roles she moved to Danone Germany and was promoted Director Human Resources in 2005. In 2008, she became HR Director, Baby Nutrition in Amsterdam and four years later, she became Regional HR Director for 12 countries. In 2015, she became Senior Vice President Human Resources and Communication at Scout24 Group. Since March 2018, Ms. Judith Jungmann has been Chief Human Resources Officer at Beckers Group in Berlin.
Marc Muntermann joined Siemens Energy March 2020. Marc Muntermann holds a graduate degree in vocational studies and economic education from the University of Cologne where he specialized in the fields of Vocational Education and Corporate Development and Organization and a Master‘s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) where he specialized in Accounting.
Within Siemens Energy AG, Marc is leading the Global Compensation and Benefits team as well as the Executive HR team. In this position he is responsible for the design and governance of the Managing Board & Executive remuneration as well as all other personal matters. As global C&B Head, Marc is responsible for the entire compensation and benefits strategy and execution with a strong focus on digitization.
Before joining Siemens Energy, Marc had various roles within Siemens AG. Beforehand he was practice leader in Willis Towers Watson’s Talent & Rewards line of business where he was responsible for Global Data Services and conducted consulting activities with regards to non-executives, executives, executive board, and supervisory board remuneration.
Chiara is a social researcher with over ten years' experience of managing research on different topics for global organisations, public sector and academia. A specialist in qualitative research, she enjoys working with unstructured data, designing fieldwork, running digital focus groups and sentiment surveys. Over the last year, she’s been leading qualitative projects on the Future of Work, Hybrid Working, Feedback Culture and Future Skills at HSBC, engaging nearly 6,000 employees globally. She has a background in anthropology, holds a PhD in Human Geography and a MSc in Sustainable Cities, and is passionate about the small data that help uncover human behaviours.
09:15 - 09:20 am | Welcome: Emcee welcome & Day 1 Housekeeping
Speaker:
Kim Abildgaard
Senior Partner, Career Europe Leader, Mercer
09:20 - 10:00 am | Keynote: Preparing for the Exponential Age
Speaker:
Azeem Azhar
Entrepreneur, Investor and Author
We are entering the Exponential Age, a period where society and business will be transformed by accelerating technologies. Azeem Azhar will explain why this acceleration is happening, why it is hard for organisations to adapt, and what the future shape of industries, economies and the workplace will be.
10:00 - 10:15 am | Reflection and setting up the scene
Speaker:
Kate Bravery
Advisory Solutions & Insight Leader, Mercer
In this session you’ll hear from Mercer’s thought leader Kate Bravery on her most recent reflections on the dominant talent trends of our time that are re-shaping work. What changes from the pandemic are set to stay? What will recede and what may emerge? And what will influence the future of rewards?
10:30 - 11:05 am | Plenary #1 - Case Study: Navigating into a skills based future – Are you ready for it?
Speaker:
Anabel Fall
Group Head of People Innovation and Transformation, Zurich
Zurich Insurance case study – Hear about how the company has transformed by deconstructing jobs to units of skill and updating talent models so skills become the basis for defining work, deploying talent, managing careers and valuing employees. Making the move from jobs to skills has changed how they approach workforce planning, reskilling/upskilling, performance management, internal talent marketplace, succession planning, and talent acquisition.
11:05 - 11:50 am | Breakout sessions
Rewards trends across Europe
Speakers:
Patrick Gutmann
European Leader Industries and Networking, Career, Mercer
Alice Harkness
EMEA Client Excellence Leader - Employee Benefits, Mercer
The rewards experience is ready for reinvention. Organizations are spending too much time on intensive merit processes and struggle to retain their key workforce. With the pandemic we have seen tighter budgets, amidst heightened awareness on systemic pay inequities, location decisions and flexible work. Join this session to get an overview of the latest economic and rewards indicators and pick up on the latest trends transforming rewards.
HR as a key driver for digitalization
Speaker:
Armin von Rohrscheidt
Global HR Transformation Leader, Mercer
Digital work has arrived and it is here to stay.
The strives technology made all around us extend to what it means to truly digitize HR. Self-services, real-time analytics and many more advances take off the administrative load from HR but also require new skill sets and capabilities within the function.
A transformed HR function can set a benchmark for the smart use of tools and data - truly leaving the times of dusty file cabinets and manual reports behind.
And beyond their own operations, HR can take on a pioneering and enabling role in agile and new ways of working.
Pay Equity - building a fairly paid organisation
Speaker:
Lea Lonsted
Pay Equity Lead, Mercer
Lucye Provera
Principal, Multinational Client Segment Career and Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Mercer
Pay equity – or lack of the same – is increasingly making headlines. Legislators, investors, employees and external talent are putting pressure on organisations to ensure that employees experience fair and equal opportunities - and that this is reflected in their pay. Join this session to understand how you can work with pay equity in your organisation by considering it across HR processes to satisfy the needs of global and local stakeholders.
Job architecture
Speaker:
John Ambridge
Consultant, Career Product Reward & Talent, Mercer
Job architecture as the foundation for an effective workforce management. A solid job architecture is the foundation for offering a seamless employee experience along the whole employee-life-cycle – including individual and targeted development and learning activities, transparent and sustainable career path and succession planning, as well as fair and effective compensation and total reward programs. It allows HR leaders to provide predictive people analytics to the business – a major step towards strategic workforce planning.
12:00 - 12:15 pm | Fast Focus #1: Performance Management under the Power Law
Speaker:
Bjoern Hinderlich
Senior Principal, Rewards Leadership, Mercer
Performance management has been changing in Europe in recent years with a trend to de-link bonus payments from individual performance. Organisations have started to realize that this “socialistic” approach does not matches the expectations of their top performers, who expect a differentiation and rewarding of their outstanding efforts and performance. This session provides an overview on the current market trends and how successful companies apply the Power Law to reward and incentivize their top performers.
12:15 - 12:50 pm | Plenary #2 - Case Study: Ensuring business and people sustainability though transformation
Speakers:
Kai Anderson
Transformation Lead International, Mercer
Judith Jungmann
CHRO, Beckers Group
To nurture a brighter future for people and planet, we need to pick up the pace on sustainability. Previously dominated by environmental and governance risk, we will now have to take a broader perspective, also working on the social dimension of sustainability. A domain of people management, by nature, but few organizations are up to speed. Here is one that is a pacemaker in its industry.
12:50 - 13:25 pm | Plenary #3: Let’s get real about equality - inclusion in transformation
Speakers:
Michelle Sequeira
UK Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consulting Leader, Mercer
Nia Fortune
HR Director, Calor Gas Ltd
With climate change and lockdowns, the uncertainty over future demand meant that Calor needed to move towards a more agile organisational model, with a particular focus on ensuring corporate functions actively drive value throughout with a more inclusive culture. Join Mercer and Calor to understand what was done to determine their existing culture and current state needs, the outcomes and impact of this work, and advice for firms considering such transformation.
13:25 - 13:35 pm | Day 1 wrap up and intro to day 2
Speaker:
Kim Abildgaard
Senior Partner, Career Europe Leader, Mercer
09:15 - 09:20 am | Welcome: Emcee welcome & day 2 introduction
Speaker:
Kim Abildgaard
Senior Partner, Career Europe Leader, Mercer
09:20 - 10:05 am | Panel Discussion: Adapting, reinventing and transforming for the future of work
Speaker:
Jean Martin
Global Product Leader, Mercer
Marc Muntermann
Head of Compensation & Benefits and Executive HR, Siemens Energy AG
Miguel Blanca
Vice President, People and Finance, T-Systems Iberia
Dr. Chiara Negrini
Employee Insight Manager, People Analytics, HSBC Bank PLC
As we navigate a changing work landscape, we have an invaluable opportunity to reset what we do and how we do it. Maximising productivity and flexibility in a blended work environment requires examining how work gets done. To create a sustainable employment strategy, we need to focus on creating a culture of learning, building talent programs that support skill transfer and work mobility, and staying true to creating unique employee experiences. To meet these new challenges, organisations need to continuously adapt, reinvent how they work, and transform their businesses to build value, flexibility and sustainability. Join this panel discussion to learn how organisations across the region are adopting nontraditional methods to accelerate their journeys toward the future of work, and discover how HR is leading the charge.
10:05 - 10:40 am | Plenary #4: Employee experience as a success factor for technology adaptation
Speaker:
Armin von Rohrscheidt
Global HR Transformation Leader, Mercer
In HR transformations, employee experience focuses on which moments truly matter and where it is worth to overinvest – also with human touch.
After all, the expectations of our „internal customers“ have evolved.
Digitization allows us to rethink the way processes and access points are set up. Without these technological innovations none of this would be possible.
But every system is only as good as its adoption by the users – thus requiring a desirable employee experience.
10:50 - 11:35 am | Breakout sessions
International remote working and virtual assignments
Speaker:
Yvonne Traber
Global Mobility Product Solutions Leader, Mercer
The debate about remote working that took HR by storm in 2020 remains a top priority for HR and mobility teams. At an international level, mobility managers are pondering whether international remote working or even “virtual assignments” will be replacing traditional expatriate assignments. As with traditional assignment types, it is important to weigh the benefits of international remote working against the considerable challenges and probability of success. During this session we will explore possible approaches and emerging trends.
Navigating the future of skills-based pay
Speaker:
Peter Stevenson
Skills-Edge Program Leader, Mercer
Skills market trends, Mercer recommendations/Best practices, and some things you can do straight away
What makes Transformation work?
Speaker:
Kai Anderson
Transformation Lead International, Mercer
As the global economy turns the corner on the pandemic, organizations are looking for ways to capitalize on the lessons learned, while transforming to capture emerging opportunities. Transformation is increasingly about creating more human-centric organizations where skills are the currency of work, and talent is engaged on its own terms.
Executive rewards trends across Europe
Speaker:
Bruno Fourage
Executive Compensation Leader, Mercer
11:45 am - 12:20 pm | Plenary #5: Responsible rewards – case study
Speaker:
David Osbourne
Strategy & Workforce Analytics Leader – International, Mercer
Andrzej Narkiewicz
Strategy & Workforce Analytics Leader, Mercer
We all know that differentiation is the key to success, but in many market places, with limited supply for talent accompanied with high demand, and with many players offering homogenous products and services - how can you make a statement that allows your company to rise above the rest? Many leading companies around the world have established new precedents for the way in which reward is addressed in order to stand out from the crowd. Innovative approaches living wage can offer companies a platform to "cut through the noise" and to voice their stances with regards to DEI and sustainability, based on evidence. Research has shown that higher fairness and equity with regards to pay, can lead to: increased productivity, lower turnover, higher profit margins, increased engagement, and lead to the formation of more sustainable business models.
12:20 - 12:35 pm | Fast Focus #2: Health on demand
Speaker:
Helena Zikova
Growth Enablement Leader, Marsh McLennan
2021 Health on Demand: Delivering the benefits employees want now! Our latest study of over 14,000 employees across the globe, looked at how employers can impact positively on the health of their people. Do you know which benefits matter most to your employees now? Do you know how to best support them in this challenging environment? Find out about the five key trends identified, including how you can use these insights to create a benefits program to boost employee well-being, loyalty and engagement during this session.
12:35 - 12:45 pm | Event wrap up
Speaker:
Kim Abildgaard
Senior Partner, Career Europe Leader, Mercer
All conference participation fees will be payable by invoice once you finalize and submit your registration.
Your invoice will be sent out to your given address close to the conference date, once you have submitted your confirmation via the registration site. Payment must be paid within 30 days of receiving the invoice.
Each European Information Package and Asia Pacific Monitor member is entitled to a free seat at this event.
For more information on European Information Package, click here.
If you’d like to know more about Asia Pacific Monitor, please contact kenjy.li@mercer.com.
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Gemma Clifton
Mercer
Tower Place West
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gemma.clifton@mercer.com
Participants are responsible for logging onto the Virtual Platform for this event. Further details will be sent 1 week prior to the event.
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