Pierre Théobald: Paperjam HR Leader of the Year... What does this award mean to you? It must be all the more precious to you as it is the result of a vote by more than a hundred peers.

Lise Roda: I’m very grateful. We have a very active HR community in Luxembourg, so this award feels like recognition. It also invites me to take a break: it’s an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve achieved so far, but also to look to the future.

You are the first winner to put your name on the honours list...

These awards put the spotlight on the HR function and, at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing for me. Raising the profile of HR is one of my hobbyhorses and a subject close to my heart. Everyone thinks they know this function, but in reality few people realise the diversity of skills required to do this job, and to do it well. These awards help to support the HR community by putting it in its rightful place. Within companies, within the Luxembourg marketplace, but also with the government. It’s a visibility that’s highly valuable.

To what do you attribute this lack of awareness of HR issues?

I associate it with the evolution of the profession. In the space of ten or fifteen years, we’ve gone from a job that was more administrative, legal and document management oriented, to a multidisciplinary, multidimensional profession, with a much greater need for expertise. This evolution is what makes this profession so interesting and even beautiful, but it is also what makes it so difficult. Today, it has to be said that there is not automatically an HR director on every management committee. Pictet made this choice for Luxembourg many years ago. This shows the importance of giving this function a high profile and a strategic place within the company.

What does this award say about your commitment to Pictet over the past six years?

A wonderful human adventure, a wonderful ‘home.’ The opportunity to express a vision of what HR can do for a company, individuals and a group.

Let’s say I’ve just landed from Mars and know nothing about Pictet. What characterises your employer in Luxembourg?

While Pictet was originally a private bank founded in Geneva in 1805, the Pictet of today is an independent, privately-owned financial group specialising in investment and recognised since its inception for its long-term vision, responsible approach to business and entrepreneurial spirit. Pictet is a key player in the Luxembourg financial centre. The bank has been present in the grand duchy since 1989 and celebrated its 35th anniversary last year. With its activities, client base and 800 employees, Pictet Luxembourg is a major contributor to the local financial centre.

In 2019, what led you to join the group?

Pictet’s reputation, its image, the solidity of the group with a different business model. I wanted to see other ways of operating and thinking. Through the people I met during the recruitment process, I could already see that the emphasis was on the individual. It really is a people-based company. Since 2019, I am still very grateful to Pictet for giving me this opportunity. What’s more, at the time I had just had a baby. This is further proof of the openness of our group, which was prepared to trust me to take up this challenge when I had a newborn at home.

What were your priorities during these early years?

To support our growth, both in Luxembourg and at European level. Structuring this growth, not only within the bank’s human resources department, but also on an international scale, while preserving Pictet’s DNA, which is its greatest strength. The growth that Pictet has experienced in recent years, both in Europe and in Luxembourg, has led us to ‘change dimension,’ and this means that we need much greater support and coordination.

What do you mean by ‘changing dimension’?

I’d like to come back to this point: working in a structured, coordinated way, and also in a matrix, which is one of the major impacts of our growth. Developing the expertise of our teams and the tools at their disposal in the light of all the regulatory challenges and the arrival of AI. All these exogenous factors in the world of work have a direct impact on both HR teams and employees.

For this issue of the magazine, we asked around forty professionals to give us their views on a function that is currently undergoing a revolution. What are the most significant upheavals?

In my opinion, the transition from a ‘support’ function, focused more on personnel management, to a strategic function. As HR, we respond to employees, managers, senior management, regulators and many others. We have a multitude of ‘customers’ with whom we interact on a daily basis.

What are the biggest challenges facing you at the moment?

In the immediate term, unsurprisingly, it’s all about attraction and retention. We know that there is a shortage of talent. But this is an opportunity for Luxembourg, thanks to all its specific features, its multicultural aspect and its very special ecosystem. We need to work hand in hand with the government. The HR community is coming together to work on this issue, to overcome this difficulty by thinking outside the box.

AI is also a real challenge. We need to ensure that we support the understanding, appropriation and transformation it brings, at every level. Not everything is the sole responsibility of human resources, but we are the guarantors of the structuring and support of this transformation.

Are you sounding the alarm about talent?

On the contrary, I emphasise that this is an opportunity for us all to be creative together. To think differently. To adapt the way we attract talent. An opportunity to work differently, focusing on what’s essential: people.

And what about AI? One of the main obstacles is resistance to change. As head of HR Europe at Pictet, do you also feel this resistance?

Any change brings with it its share of questions. But let me emphasise once again the role of human resources. They are the agents of change. They identify change, anticipate it and reassure. It is above all the unknown that can be difficult to manage for a company’s employees. But as long as you anticipate things and, once again, structure a situation and support it, the result is often positive.

So that means that artificial intelligence isn’t one of the issues you’re pulling your hair out over. So what are these issues? The weight of European regulation, which many say is overwhelming and discouraging on a day-to-day basis?

It’s not so much the regulatory obligations that are a brake or an obstacle. Most of the time, they make sense and allow us to support and manage more or less major changes. It’s more the sheer volume of regulatory obligations that we have to deal with that can be more complicated to manage. The trick is to strike a balance between continuing to fulfil our raison d’être, which is to serve our customers by maintaining the excellence of our services, and meeting the obligations that are piling up.

Let’s talk about you for a moment. What makes you happy in your job? Or, to put it another way, what gets you up in the morning?

Pushing boundaries, questioning the status quo, helping to change things. Not least by positioning HR correctly, or strategically, within organisations. Being a partner to the various stakeholders. Shaping our future.

However, HR departments don’t always have a good reputation among teams. How do you explain this? Is it because employees still believe that HR missions are more closely associated with the interests of management than with their own?

This particular point is the result of what I mentioned earlier: a lack of understanding of HR. It’s up to us to represent it better, to explain it better. Since perception is taking precedence over reality, let’s change the paradigm.

What attracted you to HR when you chose this career path?

Like many people, I ‘arrived’ in human resources by chance. I very quickly observed--and above all understood--the diversity of the subjects covered. I also realised that I was being presented with two incredible opportunities. An opportunity to learn, because HR is a vast playground, with the assurance that I would never tire of it. But also the opportunity to work on the very structure of the HR profession, which at the time was not as developed as it is today.

It seems that the majority of HR professionals are women. Can you explain this?

In the past, the HR function was seen as something that required sensitivity, empathy and an understanding of people. That’s still true, of course, and we have to recognise that these are characteristics that tend to be attributed to women, although it’s worth questioning this assumption. As our profession evolves, we realise that these skills, which are of course still essential, are now part of the ‘base’ that is expected of an HR professional--just like a command of English. Our function is becoming more diverse in terms of gender: we’re seeing more and more male HR directors.

Are HR directors in the banking sector the same as they would be in any other business? Or are there some notable differences?

That’s a very good question. Whether it’s from one bank to another or from one similar sector to another, the HR profession differs. There’s no denying that. So I suppose that if you change industry, the job changes too.

Nevertheless, up until now you’ve spent your entire career in banking. What motivated this specialisation?

It wasn’t necessarily a choice in my career. I was attracted to the sector because of the intellectual challenges involved. After a number of years of experience, I find that the banking sector is an extremely dynamic field. There’s a huge range of professions. What’s also exciting is that the entire finance sector has a direct impact on the economy, as well as on a number of key issues for society as a whole. It’s interesting to think that we’re making a slightly greater contribution to all the global issues we’re dealing with.

On the issues that matter, such as the ecological and digital transition, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and new ways of organising work, do you think that the banking industry is ahead of others?

All the challenges we face are also faced by many sectors in Luxembourg. I see this as an opportunity to think differently, to question the status quo, to ask ourselves how we can work just as well but differently, in line with current developments.

For just over two years now, you've been head of human resources Europe for a group with over 5,400 employees worldwide. What is the impact of such a large workforce on HR?

I’d answer with Pictet’s own motto: ‘We don’t want to be the biggest, but the finest.’ From there, my role and that of my team is to spread this vision within the group, but also externally.

How are your HR teams organised in this international context?

Our team is made up of around twenty people, based mainly in Luxembourg, with some staff in Germany. We cover all HR-related issues. I’d like to thank the team and express my admiration for their commitment and expertise. They do an extraordinary job every day.

How would you define yourself within this organisation? Are you the guardian of the temple? The conductor of the orchestra? The one who sets HR policy to music for all the branches?

It’s a delicate balance between managing the various players, their expectations and challenges, and this customer focus, because that’s our raison d’être.

Coming back to HR specifically, the difficulty lies in the fact that, over and above the strictures of the EU, legislation varies from one country to another, from one branch to another?

This is a valid point. However, we now have many years of experience in this situation. My team and I rely on very solid local contacts, such as the COOs. In terms of HR, we work hand in hand at group level. It’s a real balancing act when it comes to dealing with the complexities that make the job so interesting.

In that respect, do you feel that Luxembourg labour law is more flexible and more sympathetic to current issues than other European jurisdictions?

To make a comparison on this question would be to start with ready-made answers. Labour law in Luxembourg may sometimes seem a little traditional, but it is dictated by a concern to do things properly, with priority given to respect for people. When it comes to flexibility, as elsewhere in Europe, the texts deserve to be modernised by incorporating certain concepts that are lacking today.

To conclude: if you had one piece of advice for the younger generation attracted to HR, what would it be?

We’re waiting for you! My advice would be to see the vast range of subjects to be managed as an extraordinary opportunity to build up a very broad range of skills in both hard and soft skills.

The award nominees

Paperjam HR Leader of the Year

Lise Roda (Pictet)

Laurent Derkum (Raiffeisen)*

Isabelle Faber (Post)*

Julien Bossu (CDCL)

*Both nominees received the same number of votes.

Institutional category

Myriam Sibenaler (ABBL)

Claire Audollent (University of Luxembourg)*

Alexandre Massol (Stëftung Hëllef Doheem)*

Karine Rollot (Fondation Hôpitaux Robert Schuman)*

Dorothée Schneider (Luxembourg Red Cross)

*The three nominees received the same number of votes.

Retail & hospitality category

Ann De Jonghe (Sodexo Luxembourg)

Léa Piot (Cocottes)

Robert Faymonville (Cactus)

Services category

Isabelle Faber (Post)

Ingrid Becker (Luxembourg Air Rescue)*

Matina Korma (BDO)*

Matthieu Cisowski (Luxair)

*Both nominees received the same number of votes.

Financial sector category

Lise Roda (Pictet)

Didier Lemeire (Spuerkeess)

Michaël Labarsouque (Apex)

This article was written in for the of the  magazine, published on 29 January. The content is produced exclusively for the magazine. It is published on the website to contribute to the complete Paperjam archive. .

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