Hello Constance! If you had to sum up VIALINK's culture in three words, what would they be?
Hello Nicolas, that's a question we've spent a lot of time on recently. Our answer is based on our three core values: benevolence, passion and rigor.
At VIALINKbenevolence is characterized on a daily basis by support, coaching and mutual assistance, both within and between our teams, particularly when integrating new members or launching new products/features.
Passion is synonymous with interest, curiosity, involvement and knowledge sharing. Whether it's through feedback, our communities of practice or internal events, we're constantly looking for ways to improve. This passion is also expressed through our activities outside work; afterwork, sports and other activities...we enjoy discovering new passions!
On the rigorous side, as we are both a FinTech and a RegTech, regulatory compliance is an essential part of our processes. We have a high level of quality and standards, and we always strive to stay at the cutting edge of technology. This rigor is also reflected in all our processes, from development and delivery to support for our customers and new VIALINKERS.
What would you say to a candidate to make them want to join you?
I'd say we're a team of passionate innovators. We share strong moments, during and outside office hours, to strengthen our cohesion. Our motto: Serious without taking ourselves too seriously.
Because our products and expertise are at the heart of today's issues: security, compliance, anti-fraud, digitization, electronic signatures, digital IDs and more. As many subjects as experts.
And finally, because VIALINK is at a turning point: growth, a new team, new products, new customers. We're growing, we're creating, we're innovating, and we need the best talent to continue our expansion, especially internationally.... and we welcome all profiles and all levels of seniority.
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It's a great presentation! What's your philosophy behind recruitment?
Of course, I've highlighted the attractiveness of the VIALINK model, but there's something deeper that I believe enables me to attract more candidates than my competitors or other companies in similar markets.
For us at VIALINK, it's our "Candidate Experience" that really lies at the heart of our recruitment process. As we're still in the process of scaling up, and the HR function is still relatively new to us, I've relied heavily on managers.
I'm talking here not only about management, but also about the managerial strategy deployed in any start-up or scale-up company, or any organization in the process of structuring and growing.
It seemed essential to me to bring these managers together to discuss our day-to-day issues and work together on setting up and overhauling our processes in line with our ambitions. And so, with the ambition to grow and recruit to strengthen our teams, we finalized a recruitment plan for around forty people.
We, the HR team, worked with managers on onboarding and the recruitment process, putting the candidate at the heart of our processes and involving everyone at every stage. The idea is that candidates always have a privileged contact at every stage, and that they know who that contact will be at any given moment. We are very transparent from the very first contact. That way, candidates know who we are, what we offer, what's in store for them, and who they'll be meeting. The candidate's well-being is of paramount importance to us, and this gives an idea of what they can expect at VIALINK.
As the icing on the cake, we have created a "Candidate's Guide", which we send out every time we make contact with you, providing you with preview information on :
- our organization
- our market and products
- our customers
- our values and rituals
- our recruitment process
You mentioned the recruitment process. Can you tell us more about it?
Our process is a hybrid one, because we want it to reflect our work organization. It therefore takes place both face-to-face and by videoconference. Face-to-face is still important for us, not least because we have beautiful premises at La Défense. This is in line with our flexible teleworking policy. We like to give candidates this flexibility. VIALINKERS choose when they want to come into the office, according to their personal schedules and professional requirements.
For the recruitment process, we have digitized the entire process and use a tool called Teamtailor on a daily basis. Each candidate has a dedicated HR contact, creating a privileged relationship throughout the process.
Basically, there are four main stages in our recruitment process. We don't want to lengthen the process unnecessarily, and add a surfeit of interviews that might turn out to be pointless.
First, there's an introductory interview with a member of the HR team. This is a discussion to get to know each other, introduce the company, the teams and the job to see if it's a good fit.
Then there's a technical interview with the manager to discuss the job and the skills required. These first two interviews are usually conducted by video.
The candidate then undergoes a technical test or use case, depending on the position. The candidate prepares this test at home and presents it on issues similar to those encountered at VIALINK, to better understand our products, our customer typologies and what might be asked of him on a daily basis. Generally, this presentation takes place on our premises.
Finally, we have a last exchange to discover the work environment and validate the culture fit, which is also very important to us.
Throughout this process, candidates are informed about the people they meet, their position in the organization, and whether or not they will be working with them. This allows them to get a real feel for the company and meet as many people as possible.
What does onboarding at VIALINK look like?
As I mentioned earlier, since July 2022, we have recruited and onboarded over forty new employees. We have thus doubled our workforce. We have therefore rethought and updated our onboarding process to welcome them in the best possible conditions.
At VIALINK, we have what we call the "Manager Community", a community that brings together all VIALINK managers. This is where we exchange best practices, and discuss the implementation or updating of new processes.
We worked together on the onboarding process, and then got the management and teams involved in its implementation. Because with us, onboarding isn't just organized by HR or the manager, it's really the whole team that gets involved.
To achieve this, we have put in place a series of tools and events, such as a trombinoscope updated as soon as a new employee arrives, the appointment of a "buddy" for the newcomer, one event a month to create links, a personalized training program, a meeting with the CEO to find out about our history, our vision, our missions and our objectives, and so on.
We have also introduced an "astonishment report " which new employees submit to give us full feedback on their experience. This feedback is very important to us, as we are constantly striving for continuous improvement.
We firmly believe in the importance of feedback in order to improve and offer the best possible experience to our candidates and employees. It's what drives our recruitment and onboarding process at VIALINK!
Do you have a best practice to share with us in terms of talent engagement?
My answer may seem a little roundabout, but it's at the heart of our approach here.
Three things are essential for us: trust, autonomy and initiative. These elements are emphasized right from the onboarding stage to immediately engage the new employee. We encourage them not to hesitate to put forward ideas, whether in their job, with their team or even at management level.
In fact, creating that opening rapport is a crucial step in building their confidence and daring to give us feedback. As I mentioned earlier, sharing is at the heart of our daily work, fuelled by our shared passion. This is illustrated by our IT demonstrations, our "product times", our "business times", our "HR times" and other get-together moments such as the Kick-off at the beginning of the year.
Communication, transparency and feedback are of paramount importance to us, as they enable us to move forward together in the same direction. These practices are what enable us today to effectively engage employees, especially new ones.
I agree with the idea that the first step in hiring an employee is to share what's going on in the company in a transparent way.
"The more an employee understands how the company works and what VIALINK stands for today, the more they'll feel included in the organization's development."
Encouraging initiative is, in short, a second essential element in addition to transparency of information. If an employee is given the opportunity to make proposals, and these proposals are listened to in order to transform or evolve the model, this adds a very strong value to the employee's commitment.
Last question: why should we NOT join you?
If someone doesn't appreciate a good working atmosphere, sharing and convivial moments, then they're likely to be unhappy with us. If they don't enjoy sampling the culinary creations of our apprentice pastry chefs, sharing moments of relaxation or even taking part in a game of basketball, soccer or pétanque, then VIALINK is probably not the right place for them. Because here, it's true, there's something for every taste and style!
Thank you Constance 😉
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