Organizational leaders aim to do what is best for both the individual and the organization as a whole. They work to empower employees at every level, applying their understanding of personality, relationships, work ethic, business and a leadership mindset to help ensure success for the company and its people.
In a world where most Leaders seem to thrive on adversities, Mrs Bettina Schaller’s path has been one of believing, accountability and engagement. Currently, Mrs Schaller is the President of the World Employment Confederations.
The World Employment Confederation is the voice of the employment industry at the global level, representing labour market enablers in 50 countries and 7 of the largest international workforce solutions companies.
Mrs Schaller had an incredibly privileged upbringing, and, in a way, she is extremely focused to live up to that. Mrs Schaller says, “So, I always held up my hand when required and more often showed initiative and proactiveness.” With that said, climbing up the ladder in the environments that I moved in was not a given.
“There were no defined career development structures, so ensuring that my work was seen and considered impactful was always a key driver. Call it “the politics”: the fact is that you don’t progress in organizations if you don’t know those rules and who the key stakeholders are, and position yourself within those structures,” adds Mrs Schaller.
Benchmarking Excellence
Mrs Schaller is admittedly more bullish in supporting female talent. She takes every opportunity to highlight and praise performance. However, she raises a point of recognizing efforts that are less visible, which often is still the case when women are executing them.
She has a few succession plans that feature diverse candidates, and she demands that recruiters submit diverse portfolios of candidates when hiring. Sharing some facts on the work culture, Mrs Schaller incorporates values like Respect. Transparency. Accountability. Collaboration. Trust. Safety. Authenticity. And Fun.
The Odyssey of Prominence
World Employment Confederation is the voice of the private employment services industry at the global level, representing national federations as well as workforce solutions companies from across the world. Members of the World Employment Confederation represent a wide range of HR services, including agency work, direct recruitment, career management, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Managed Service Provider (MSP). It is an influential and recognized advocacy organisation that sets and contributes to the World of Work’s Policy Agenda. The mission is to enable better-functioning labour markets.
“I have been focusing on bringing transparency into the system and increasing the methods of collaboration. That releases energies that lead to growth and impact. Well, that is a broad invitation. Let me zoom in on one aspect: the business world depends on people and the relationships between them. If a business does not have the right talent, it cannot operate.
And if there is no trust among those involved in business, the business will not thrive; the deal will fall through,” expresses Mrs Schaller.
Embarking Innovations with Technological Advancements
Sharing her opinions on the significant transformation in the industry, Mrs Schaller says, “The next change will come from the disruption of technology. And it will be positive: it will increase efficiencies and reduce costs (the World Employment Confederation is working on a blockchain wallet which holds every individual’s training and career history. As background checks are costly and take a long time, this will be a step-change).”
“And it will create value: the sector will shift from transactional to value-creation, in all the solution areas it touches: the sourcing, recruiting, onboarding, contracting, transitioning, coaching, development, and skilling areas to only name a few,” she adds
Mrs Schaller looks to preside over the Confederation till the end of her current mandate end of September 2023, and if the stars align, she may be re-elected for another 3-year term.
She also sees growth for the Confederation as the world needs to build the appropriate, efficient, fair, productive, and sustainable frameworks for work and employment solutions to unfold, responding to the big transforming shifts out there but also taking advantage of the great opportunities that notably digitalization offers.
Pearls of Wisdom
Sharing a piece of advice for the budding aspirants, Mrs Schaller shares, “Make opportunities happen, build networks, be a “good” person–and I am known for inciting young women to raise children.”
