Interview with Laura Guimerà, People Director

24-03-2023

Understanding the evolution of our team and their new challenges is key to developing talent in the company. We interviewed our People Director, Laura Guimerà, about talent recruitment, employee training and the key pillars of the department.
Inibsa

  1. What are the defining features of our company culture? How is this reflected in Inibsa's values?

There are basically two defining features of our company: the oral health of our patients and the well-being of our staff.

Our culture is based on promoting innovation and excellence, the well-being of our staff, talent development and safety. Our focus is on sustainable business growth by striving to be the best partner for our suppliers and customers, while maintaining our global leadership in dental anaesthesia manufacturing.

 

  1. How have Inibsa employees evolved over the last 75 years? Does Inibsa have a typical employee profile?

Inibsa's employees have evolved as society has evolved over the last 75 years. Today we have people with more digital and technical profiles, but who are just as committed. I'd say that a typical employee in Inibsa is inquisitive, energetic, creative, efficient and eager to contribute new ideas. They are able to work in cross-sectional groups and also on numerous projects. At Inibsa, we see changes as opportunities, as challenges and these challenges help us to grow as an organisation. Not only that, but they help us to grow as the professional team that we are. So, I can only welcome all these changes that help and strengthen us in this way.

 

  1. We currently have a staff base of more than 350 employees. What measures do organisations of this type require? What are the priorities for workers in the people policy?

In an organisation like ours it's important not to forget that everyone is different, but nevertheless we have a common goal and we mustn't lose that focus. Our people department promotes and strives to maintain this focus on people. How do we do it? We do it by working on change management, adaptability and flexibility. By doing this, we want to help make the organisation more agile and competitive, to help us to overcome the challenges of the future - and the present, of course. We should consider that there are lots of challenges before us and we must be able to support our whole team to overcome them.

 

  1. For some time, people in certain roles have adopted a hybrid working model. How did this transition take place?

At Inibsa, the transition to the hybrid model has happened very naturally, although it's true that managing the pandemic helped us to accelerate the whole process. We can now say that this hybrid model has become firmly established for all office staff. It's been done smoothly and seamlessly. We know that people are very happy with this working model. I have to say that it was all thanks to them.

 

  1. Would you say that there is a strong sense of belonging to the company among the employees? How is this encouraged?

There is a very strong sense of belonging at Inibsa. In any case, don't just take my word for it, the data supports it. The latest surveys we conducted on the employee experience provided us with very positive data. The figures were as follows: 75% of the people surveyed told us that they were very or fairly committed to the organisation. 95% of them told us that they would reapply for the job that they applied for back in the day and 97% of the respondents told us that they would recommend Inibsa as a good place to work, as a good company to work for. So, in the human resources department, we promote and develop all of those actions that help us to improve everyone's well-being.
There's a direct link between people's well-being and their commitment and this enables us to grow and develop as an organisation. One thing that's very positive at Inibsa – it's a company with lots of projects, many ongoing challenges, all of which helps us because it gets people engaged and motivated.

 

  1. How important is staff training at Inibsa? Is there a talent recruitment and promotion programme at Inibsa?

The training of Inibsa's staff is vital. We are currently in a very demanding, highly competitive, volatile and uncertain environment, which means that we have to devise policies to support and develop our entire team, to allow us to maintain our position in the market and remain important to our customers. Within our area, we work on various programmes and the training plan. We could say that the programme involves more than 8000 hours of training: we work on various technical skills, profile skills.

This year, it's worth highlighting that besides the other policies aimed at developing people, we are focusing on all aspects of training, improving the leadership skills of managers, working on improving the skills of commercial and technical teams and, at the same time, this year, we want to strengthen our whole internal value proposition.

 

  1. At Inibsa there are very diverse roles, a sales network, production plant and office staff. What is communication with employees like and how has internal communication evolved to accommodate this diversity?

Communication is key at Inibsa and it is based on two pillars: it must be two-way and transparent. I'll give you a couple of examples that have recently helped us to make progress in this regard. One is internal communication app, which allows us to reach everyone in the same way, at the same time and in an agile way. Meanwhile, another area on which we have worked is the suggestions channel, which allows us to receive feedback on different areas to improve and suggestions on how to change our processes. I can say that various improvements to processes have been made recently because we have this tool in the organisation. I can add a little more on this point. If we go back to the employee experience survey which I mentioned earlier, when we talked about communication, 91% of the people who responded to the survey told us that they had a quick and agile means of communication with their manager and they also valued because it was open and transparent. We are very pleased about this and it's a great success for us, because it's not always easy to achieve this kind of communication between employees and managers.

 

  1. What role do human resources departments play in defining and implementing companies' global strategies? Do you think they should have a more active role? How can they play a bigger role?

Human resource departments are playing an increasingly active role in organisations. This was clearly demonstrated during the pandemic. People are at the heart of business and organisations - in the end people make the difference in business. Therefore, in human resources departments we must work to support this group so that it can meet the strategic goals that we have within the business.

 

  1. What are the challenges for the future in human resources departments?

For me, the major challenges facing human resources departments today can be grouped into three areas. The first of these is to have the ability to create a highly attractive professional experience, so that the people in the organisation want to stay here, while also managing to attract the great talent we need to be able to develop our business.

The second big challenge we have is to improve the whole area of diversity and inclusion. I approach this from the perspective of working with different generations in the same organisation, with different paradigms and different ways of looking at life. We have to be able to meet that challenge.

Finally, the great challenge we are facing is having the ability to prepare and develop people so that we are able to face all the new challenges presented to us by the business.