Vlerick Expertise in Human Resource Management

To survive and excel in a volatile business context, it has been argued that organisations need to adopt a more purpose-driven approach in doing business that transcends profits. Creating and establishing such strong and shared corporate purpose, however, can be a complex process. In the whitepaper ‘The Case for Purpose: Demistifying the field’, Professor Koen Dewettinck and researcher Emmy Defever aim to provide a clear understanding of what purpose is and why it matters.

Vlerick’s Centre for Excellence in Strategic Talent Management has identified five career trends that have changed dramatically over the past few decades. These shifts are forcing organisations to change their approach to career development. A one-size-fits-all career path no longer exists. Instead, HR teams must provide frameworks and structures for people who want to craft their own journeys through professional life.

The Covid-19 pandemic is not only shaking up business thoroughly, it also has a high impact on reward management. In a series of 3 ‘Business Watcher’ videos, Professor Xavier Baeten explains how we need to (re)think about the key dimensions of total rewards, being pay, benefits and non-financial rewards. In order to turn that knowledge into action, he has developed – together with Hudson and Claeys & Engels – a downloadable Total Rewards Checklist.

The Corona virus has an enormous impact on our daily work and the way we work together. Most of us are no longer allowed to physically go to the office and are now full-time working from home. This is radically changing our HR policies with trust becoming a crucial factor. In this Business Watcher video, Human Resources Professor Dirk Buyens gives practical advice on how to address issues emerging from working at home.

In today’s world of work, careers are no longer a sequence of hierarchically ordered jobs, performed within one and the same company. Yet, for many people careers are still taking a very central role in their lives, providing them with a strong social identity and substantially influencing their overall happiness. Instead of radically abandoning career-thinking, individuals are instead changing their perceptions on how to conceptualise their professional lives, considering careers as continually evolving gatherings of work-related experiences for which every employee carries individual responsibility. In this white paper, we distinguish five evolutions in individual career development, all impacting the practice of career management.

The CEOs of Belgian listed companies earn less than their French, German, Swiss and UK counterparts. What’s more, 40% of the Belgian companies have seen their top salaries drop over the past three years. Lastly, the CEOs receiving higher remunerations were those of companies that have fragmented shareholderships, predominantly international boards of directors, and executives with extensive networks. This was revealed in the annual survey of the salaries of the CEOs of listed companies carried out by the Executive Remuneration Research Centre.

In this Business Watcher video, Vlerick Professor Xavier Baeten gives three reasons why Dominique Leroy wanted to leave the Belgian telecom operator Proximus

Best Workplaces™ excel at creating added value with their people practices. They go beyond what is expected to achieve their organisational objectives. As a result, they create opportunities for building strong relationships of trust. By analysing the data of Belgium’s Best Workplaces™, we have identified 7 key areas that are of great importance when defining people programmes today. The paper ‘Creating high-trust cultures’ examines each of these areas, looking into the current trends and analysing the differences between Best Workplaces™ and other organisations.

For the fifth consecutive year, Hudson and Vlerick Business School have joined forces to organise the HR Barometer, a survey that analyses the trends and challenges in the Belgian HR sector. So what are its main findings? Firstly, HR focuses on many different things, going beyond mere recruitment and staff administration. Secondly, HR analytics is not a priority for Belgian companies (or at least not yet). Lastly, HR managers would love to focus on agile working, but meet with resistance, even from senior management.

Although our society is becoming increasingly diverse, this diversity is not always reflected in our companies. There is still an employment gap between newcomers and people of Dutch origin. This gap is more pronounced for the low-skilled than the more highly educated - 19% versus 11%. How can we ensure that companies and newcomers manage to find each other? Vlerick Business School and Talentree have joined forces and developed some practical toolkits. We asked Vlerick professor Dirk Buyens and Hannelore Waterschoot, founder and managing partner of Talentree, to tell us more.