3 questions to Yves Laurent, Human Resources, Communications and Sustainable Development Director

At the helm of Human Resources and Communications, Yves Laurent shares his vision of AXA Technology Services.

Why did you decide to join AXA Technology Services?

I joined AXA France in 1999, where I headed up major transformation programs based on IT investments. I was therefore a client of AXA Technology Services. From my point of view, AXA Technology Services is a human-size company that is still “maneuverable”, built around a firm international focus, set up as an independent company in terms of its management, with a clear identity centered around only one business: information system operating services. These are some of the first reasons why AXA Technology Services attracted me in 2009. In addition to these factual characteristics, the company’s latest developments and challenges sealed it for me: contributing towards the construction of a more global organization that must constantly reinvent itself, while putting the client firmly at the heart of its concerns and harnessing the commitment of its staff represents a complex but fascinating issue. I firmly believe that the Human Resources Department can not only accompany this transformation, but also drive it forward.
 

 What are your priorities for 2011?

• Anticipating changes in skills. Technology renews itself at a rapid pace, which makes it necessary to both adapt existing know-how and develop new expertise on tomorrow’s professions and businesses in order to prepare for the future.
• Systematically putting clients at the heart of our concerns: strengthening the client’s presence in our internal communications, ensuring a stronger focus on the client’s perception within our system of performance indicators, rolling out a training program encouraging the development of the three key attitudes “Available, Attentive, Reliable” in our client relations.
• Stepping up globalization in order to deliver on our two key demands: quality of service, 24 hours a day, as well as the competitiveness of our pricing and our service offering. Leveraging our size and the diversity of our organization to pool expertise and share best practices must become standard practice each day. Developing managerial skills by helping our managers to perform their multiple roles as vehicles for communication, agents for change, promoters of our clients within our organization, coaches for their teams, and so on. This involves rolling out dedicated information, training and support actions, which we would like to ramp up in 2010.
• Contributing to sustainable development and reducing the AXA Group’s carbon footprint will also be one of my main priorities for next year. In addition to continuing with the action plan launched two years ago, looking primarily to reduce electricity consumption on our workstations and servers, the aim is now to promote the potential uses of technology as an enabler for greener ways of working within the AXA Group, such as AXA Presence, or the virtualization of exchanges and training sessions. I believe that this last issue could well be at the heart of the collective identity within AXA Technology Services over the coming years.

What about the AXA’s values and attitudes which best describe you?
 

For me, Professionalism means wanting and knowing how to maintain your focus and the right level of ambition when implementing a change program. It also means striving to build each day, stone by stone. Above all, it comes down to giving yourself the means to uphold your main convictions.

The attitude that best defines me is “Reliable”, in other words loyalty to people and ideas.