HR historically has been focused on hiring, firing, policing the organization, making sure everybody is compliant with the company’s rules. Now, HR professionals have to explore the notions of experience, employee engagement, people data and analytics; they have to work with disruptive generations like Gen Y and Gen Z; they’re expected to embrace concepts new to them such as design thinking and organizational change.

Employee engagement is at a historic low level. Customers are employees, and they don’t understand why they can’t have the same type of experience from an employment brand that they can from a consumer brand.
The HR function must become more human centered, not process or administration centered.

David Ducheyne is a former Chief People Officer, now a keynote speaker, author and advisor, based in the Brussels area, in Belgium. David held HR leadership positions in large organizations in Europe, and even served as Chief People Officer AND Customer Experience Leader at Securex, a 1600+-employee organization, where he combined the people role with his role as business leader in which he focused on regaining profitability, innovation and leadership. 
He is now a well-respected advisor, author and speaker, working with clients such as Deloitte, Johnson & Johnson, BNP Paribas, and Kluwer.
He also launched hrpro.be, Belgium’s first national association of HR professionals.

Today with David we talk about:
- What trends he’s seeing in the HR space in Europe.
- What he means by saying “it’s mistake to focus on the internal customer first. Instead, we should always focus on the external customer first”.
- Who should own the employee experience within a company.
- What’s next for the HR function and for HR professionals.
- Why HR can’t be responsible for employee happiness in any organization.

Note: you can follow David on LinkedIn, Twitter and his consulting business Otolith, the hrchitects blog, and the Belgian Association for HR Professionals.



This episode is brought to you by Fusion Alliance. Fusion Alliance delivers holistic solutions fusing together data, digital and technology to redefine customer experiences and move your ideas to execution. That’s why businesses across multiple industries have relied on Fusion’s expertise and partnership for over 25 years.

If you want to send me feedback, suggestions for future topics or guests, you can reach me at [email protected] or on Twitter @eX_Summit. 

Thanks for listening.

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