Developing 140 management potentials at the BESIX Group

As the BESIX Group, one of the world’s leading international contractors, continues to evolve from a construction company to a multidisciplinary construction-oriented provider of services, it wants to help its people reach their full potential. The Group contacted several big providers in the market to help it measure its top 140 management potentials, and ultimately chose VALPEO. So, why did BESIX make that choice, and how did VALPEO help?

Let’s get acquainted with the BESIX Group. In a nutshell, what are its main activities?

Active for over 100 years, the BESIX Group is a multidisciplinary company in construction, property development and concessions. It has a workforce of about 18,000 employees in 21 countries on five continents.

Why did BESIX call upon the expertise of VALPEO?

To future-proof its leadership, the BESIX Group wanted to assess and develop its top 140 management potentials. Revealing current and future potential would allow it to define realistic career paths, detect     retention risks, support mobility, and structure development, succession and recruitment needs.

Geert Aelbrecht, Chief People Officer at the BESIX Group testifies: “Measuring potential is important but complicated. We had contacted several of the big providers in the market, but didn’t feel their approaches would deliver the same results as VALPEO.”
“VALPEO’s approach is unique because it looks at talent, both now and in the future, from three complementary angles. This helped us understand what our future leadership could look like. We are looking to apply this approach further in the organization.”

What makes VALPEO’s approach so unique?

BESIX was interested in the unique insights that VALPEO can offer into aligning leaders to specific contexts. Most traditional assessments only focus on understanding behavior. VALPEO analyzes three different orientations (complexity, values and behavior). The holistic perspective based on these three orientations helps companies broaden their understanding of people’s talents and the best way to shape their careers.

Geert Aelbrecht: “Leadership programs are expensive, so we had high expectations of the development centers. The overall objective went beyond assessing individual leaders. We wanted to strengthen the teams so that the overall performance of each team would benefit. To drive the success of our management development program, we needed more information than could be provided by traditional behavioral assessments. Leadership programs are most effective when they are tailored to groups in which the people are at the same complexity level. Complexity Orientation is a high-value insight that only VALPEO’s approach can provide.”

How was VALPEO’s methodology applied in practice?

Each of the 140 candidates at BESIX completed three online surveys and a face-to-face interview with a certified VALPEO consultant. The assessments allowed VALPEO to provide HR with a detailed analysis of every individual’s potential. Equally important, aggregate data revealed important insights into the characteristics of the entire group. This enabled HR to understand how the group would evolve, and to come up with plans to deal with risks and opportunities regarding retention, conflict, micro-management, unblocking succession requirements and rotating people.

What was the outcome for the BESIX Group?

As a result, a tailored leadership program was designed to prepare candidates for their next role. Some were promoted (including a new regional General Manager), other candidates were given the opportunity to move to other geographical locations or functional domains, where there were better and more suitable opportunities, which were in turn better aligned with their future capability path as revealed by the executed development centers.

In other words, by revealing the current and future potential of its 140 high potentials, BESIX was able to:
●       define realistic types of career paths and detect retention risks
●       support functional and international mobility across BU’s, countries and regions
●       structure detailed development, succession and recruitment needs

What impact would VALPEO’s methodology have on your organization?