At LeasePlan, the integration of people and business performance is done in three ways. First, our business report card has adequate people KPIs that include leading indicators like the High Performing Organization (HPO) Index. Second, we have an institutionalized, cyclical process of interdependency that links people engagement to customer engagement. We ‘measure - analyze results, through focus group meetings with employees – prioritise actions – create KPIs – reward – measure’. It works very well for us and proves the hypothesis - happy employees make happy customers, every time. Third, we put our money where our mouth is. So, the leadership team has individual KPIs on people engagement linked to their individual performance earnings.

For us, the top HR priorities continue to be, people engagement, responding and aligning to organizational changes with alacrity, and building capabilities for a high performing organization.

LeasePlan is a close-knit organization and we are still germinal. Therefore, listening to our people and talking to our people is actually what a good part of my day is about. The conversations could be about customers or operational challenges or feedback on what can we do more to make LeasePlan a great place to work for.

As CEO, I particularly aim towards ensuring that we have the right leadership from within to create future value. The key word here is ‘from within’ – it is a zealous conviction that we hold. I spend a significant amount of time with my team, envisioning the future of our business and strive to develop our young business leaders to take that vision forward. It helps that we have a robust and progressive model of leadership development at the group level that we leverage very successfully.

Personally, I think I am able to spend adequate time on people related activities and this time has significantly increased. I can irrefutably assert that investing well in our people has been the fountainhead of our sustained, superior performance.