As close as possible to staff

More commonly known as HR, a human resources team is an essential department in any company. And the more employees there are, the more the HR department becomes important. As the first point of contact when starting a job at a new company, we have regular contact with HR. They know a lot about us. But what exactly do we know about them?

Today, we discuss all of this with Frédérique Dricot. She has been a very busy Talent Acquisition Lead, as at Keytrade Bank we are regularly looking for highly diverse profiles.

What is your role and how long have you worked at Keytrade Bank?

As a result of the arrival of our new Head of Human Resources in September 2019 and our constant development, a new HR structure has been put in place and our team has been reinforced. I joined Keytrade Bank in April 2020 to take over and develop the Talent Acquisition section. Since then, four new staff members have joined us, allowing us to better cover key areas such as recruitment, Compensation & Benefits, staff development and internal communications. Our team is now at full strength.

How did you find starting a new job while working from home?

In general, Keytrade Bank’s transition to home working for all staff went very well. Our HR and IT departments did a great job in arranging this new, mandatory way of working.

From a more personal perspective, taking on the role of Talent Acquisition Lead during the Covid pandemic has been a real challenge every day. You have to assimilate the Bank's values, understand everyone's needs, detect urgent issues, challenge yourself and your colleagues to select THE perfect person with the best skills, and so on. And, all of this, from a distance with no 'informal talks', while trying to build up your credibility within the Group. I have to admit that that’s been quite a challenge!

What’s been helping me from day one is the fact that we are working according to the Agile methodology. This, in my view, helps us work effectively from home. Our 'stand-up' meetings are the perfect opportunity to connect with the entire team several times a week, and to keep informal conversations light-hearted while remaining focused and moving forward in our respective projects. Truly, a genuine source of motivation.

What are the duties of Human Resources? And why are they important to a company?

Beyond any doubt, our greatest asset is our staff. Human Resources' duties are wide-ranging, essential and at the heart of the management and development of each and every one of our people. It is our responsibility to find, secure and develop employees and make sure that their talents and ambitions are in line with our needs and objectives.

Our strategy is based on five pillars covering all aspects an HR department faces: attracting talented people, keeping their motivation high (which translates into retaining them), developing them by offering them growth opportunities, giving them the tools they need through our Compensation & Benefits approach and our HR procedures, and finally, inspiring them through the development of our CSR approach, our Engagement Programme and our internal communication plan.

During this period of Covid and mandatory working from home, we focused on the wellbeing of our staff to maintain the strongest possible cohesion within teams and in relationships with management, and to keep everyone motivated. We achieved this through newsletters, competitions, videos, and paying attention in all types of small ways. Through our wellbeing survey, we were also able to monitor morale among staff and take any action necessary.

What qualities are needed in order to be a good fit for Keytrade Bank?

As you know, Keytrade Bank is not a traditional bank – a third of our people are highly experienced technical and IT staff.

In my opinion, an entrepreneurial spirit focused on projects and solutions, complementary personalities within the teams, being proactive, the ability to bounce back, and being a match for our values are essential aspects (alongside many others) for an applicant to be professionally happy at Keytrade Bank.

Most of my work revolves around talent acquisition. During interviews, it is important for me to be sure of the personal qualities new staff members bring to the Bank, in addition to the technical qualities verified by the manager and/or colleagues. Both aspects are crucial and are assessed alongside each other.

And as far as language skills are concerned, everyone at Keytrade Bank speaks their own language. We have 30% Dutch-speaking staff, 64% French-speaking staff and 6% who have neither French nor Dutch as a native language. A wealth of diversity! In order to work in the IT department, it is vital to have a good command of English in addition to one's native language.

Are there specific HR tasks in a bank?

It won't surprise you to learn that the banking sector is highly regulated, probably far more so than any other industry. Working for a bank therefore requires a certain number of key skills for which each employee must take part in mandatory training and follow several procedures (compliance, ethical rules, risk management, etc.) which are specific to the sector as well as the Group. Compliance with these rules and procedures can be found in all areas of HR. It is therefore essential, at our level, to be familiar with the various professional domains and to understand the risks to which staff may be exposed so that we can support them in their training and guarantee that they acquire the knowledge needed in the long-term.

Vacancies?

To give you an idea, we recruited 54 people in 2019 before the Covid pandemic. In 2020, 52 new employees came on board, and so far in 2021, 32 people have joined our teams.

Keytrade Bank is continuing its journey and is constantly evolving... its ambitions and projects are important. We are always looking for new colleagues to strengthen our teams. I encourage everyone to follow us on social media and check out our offers on our LinkedIn page on a regular basis. Those who are interested can, of course, also send us their CV to cv@keytradebank.com.