Giovanni Manchia is the CHRO at I-SEC International Security in Amsterdam. He started his HR career at Shell, before working at companies like American Express, Rabobank and dfcu Bank. Alongside working across various countries and jurisdictions, Giovanni’s career has also taken him to Africa. 

Tell me more about your organisation, I-SEC, and the culture there. 

I-SEC is an organisation mainly focusing on aviation security. We have more than 6,000 people across the world. We are based at a number of airports in different markets, where we can provide the services for making sure that you and your family are able to travel safely. 

If you look at our overall strategy, and also how we position ourselves as a business, we clearly say we are a people's business. I know this is a remark that a lot of companies are making, but in essence, this is the only thing we have. Our business is not about big machines, it's about people.

We rebranded our core values. We discussed the essence of our company and the things that really distinguish and characterise us – that was a big exercise. In the end, we decided on four different things.

The first was: People first. We said that people first is not only for employees, but also with our clients and passengers. Whatever we do and whatever anyone does in this company, it always needs to put people first. So, always make sure that if you need to choose between processes, systems or people, always choose people.

Secondly: Achieve impact. This means, whatever you do, make sure you have an impact on your colleagues, on your organisation, on yourself, and - most definitely - on our clients and our passengers.

Thirdly: Enjoying our work. We need to have fun, but we also need to make sure we do it together, because enjoying our work is crucial and we are part of a bigger community.

The final one was: Respect rules. Other companies will say, we bend the rules, but - if you're in the security area or the safety industry - people need to know where the thresholds are. So, we said, whatever we do, we need to make sure that we provide safety for everyone and that means respecting the rules all the time. 

How do you embed these values in the organisation?

To make sure that everybody acts in the spirit of these core values, you need to translate them into very tangible behaviours and make it as pragmatic as possible.  

One of the biggest challenges in every organisational is transformation and really making sure that you are focusing your organisation on the desired behaviour. It’s easier said than done, but what I've seen so often with HR people is they tend to like the first part - the design, the conceptual, the high level – but, how do you then make sure that it works in practice with everyone in your organisation? I would say a million mini steps help to ensure it will happen.

What do you perceive to be the biggest challenges over the next 12 months for your business and your role?

HR is quite fun in this organisation and this industry, because it really has an impact on the bottom line. Our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity for growth is making sure we get sufficient qualified staff. Perhaps that’s a no-brainer, but that’s either blocking or hindering our business.

If you talk about recruitment in this business, this is not about one, two or ten people; this is about hundreds and hundreds of people. It’s volume recruitment and, at the same time, you also have quite a lot of quality checks. By the time you have assessed and monitored everything, you don't have that many people left. 

You need to get large amounts of people into this funnel, and that's probably the biggest challenge that we have. Looking at how to we attract and retain these people, while also keep them motivated and happy, that is a challenge.

How would you assess the economic and business outlook?

Nobody can predict the future, but - if you look at the current projections now from the airlines and airports - the growth that they foresee is still quite significant. We're not yet at the 2019 levels, but they expect that we will be there in the visible future. 

Obviously, our business is specialised, so we had a really tough time during COVID, when all of a sudden everybody stayed at home, but people now are keen to travel. Business travel has picked up and people still want their holidays to foreign countries.

I was particularly interested in the time you spent in the Managing Director role for the business. Can you tell me how that came about and how it changed your responsibilities within the business?

I had operated for a long time in a dual role - I was the CHRO for the group and also the HR Director for the Netherlands.

At a point in time, the Managing Director, who I had a very close relationship with, was out of the business for a number of months. So, we decided - alongside our group CEO – that, for the interim period, I would take over that role. 

If you're in HR, in a people intensive business, you’re in the position to have an influence on the total enterprise, and it was a good opportunity for me to take over the whole ship. It was an interesting experience, because it happened at the time when travel picked up significantly and every airport in Europe, including Schiphol in Amsterdam, had these challenges. 

It gave me the opportunity to look at HR from a distance. As a specialist, you tend to think that everything is related to your specialist area. Well, now you need to do things in balance, so you need to look at things more holistically.

I know it's a cliché, but it's lonely at the top. At the end of the day, you need to make decisions, you need to say whether you go left or right, and often on insufficient data. You have to have the guts to make that decision and live with the consequences.

It was a very interesting, unexpected assignment and I enjoyed it.

For people that are developing their career in HR and are wanting to ultimately secure a leadership role, is there any advice that you could share with them?

If you like the profession and if you really want to make an impact, you need to understand the business. In HR, you have the fortunate situation where you can relatively easily move to different industries. I have worked in oil and gas, IT, healthcare, security, banking, and financial services, but you really have to understand what makes the business tick.

We can talk about talent management, succession, comp and ben [compensation and benefits], but how do you utilise and leverage the employees in such a way that it makes the most impact in your business? Start with that and - if you do that - then you can build up a trustful relationship with your leaders, because they know you understand their business.

Always treat yourself as an equal. That's sometimes challenging in HR, because you start in roles where you're junior from an age perspective compared to the leadership you work with. Stand by your principles and believe you are the expert. If you act more junior, they will treat you more junior.

Who do you admire most in business?

One person I still admire is Kenneth Chenault, previous CEO of American Express. I was fortunate to meet him a few times during market visits, and the way he was able to establish a culture of trust and partnership, while also focusing on customer service, clients and employee engagement, was extremely impressive.

I've seen many leaders at the height of their career start to become what I call presidential. What I found so remarkable about Ken is his ability to be so humble and charismatic at the same time.

What does the future of HR look like? How is the discipline going to change in the coming years?

What really strikes me are developments like the Great Resignation. What you now see is that people are really just moving out of the corporate life at various levels. Maybe we'll enter an economic crisis, but the fundamental challenge is that there will be a shortage of staff significantly across the western world in the coming years and organisations will be competing for scarce talent.  

When we talk about Human Resources, we need to think about how we can win the hearts and minds of people. It’s all about the employee experience and making a psychological connection with your employees. We will need to learn what they expect from you as an employer. 

How do you make sure that people run the extra mile for you and are loyal to you? 

If businesses are in a situation where there are signs of a recession, senior leaders often just fall back to primary behaviours and only think about cutting costs. There are a couple of English expressions I have always loved. “Penny-wise, pound-foolish” means you can make what sounds like a logical decision in the short-term, but that may hit you in the long-term. That's the one thing you always need to keep in mind: try to have a long-term strategy in this turbulent world.

Additionally, I realise that, from a business point of view, to be able to talk about the future, you'll first need to have a future, so that's always a balance you need to have.

I also believe HR analytics is key; it’s difficult to do anything successfully without data. If you really want to become the business partner, you need to understand the data and you need to quantify what the impact is on the business. The more you can do that, the more successful the HR function will be.

You’ve spent some time working in Africa. I’d love to hear more about that and what your remit was there.

In Uganda, I was introduced through Rabobank, and helped the board and the management team of dfcu Bank to develop a new operating model.

It was a phenomenal experience, not only from a cross-culture point of view, but definitely also from an intellectual point of view. To help such an organisation in such a distinct culture with transforming their business was one of the best experiences I had at that point in time.

At the Lion Heart Foundation in Sierra Leone, I did a voluntary assignment where I worked with the board to strengthen the organisation, which is a local rural hospital. We wanted to transition into sustainability to ensure the hospital was self-supporting in the future.

We were able to create a learning culture inside the organisation, to make sure that people felt empowered to really grow. We established things like scholarship funding to build up their capability and trained people from the community to become nursing assistants, which really embedded the organisation in the community, and they became a good employer.

It was not always easy, but it was a phenomenal experience.

If you didn’t have a career in HR, what route might you have taken?

I feel blessed that I choose this profession. It has brought me to many destinations in the world, and I could never have imagined I would do transformation projects in countries like Uganda or in Sierra Leone.

There have been many times where I have thought, this is unbelievable that I get to do this, and I get paid for it, as well!

I have the dual role, because I'm also in the academic world, so if I were to move in another direction, it would probably be further into that world.

How do you relax when you've got some time to yourself?

I love to travel and I love to spend time with friends and family - I get energy from that.

In terms of travel, if you travel for business, it’s a little different than if you’re travelling as a tourist; you see a subset of the country, because you deal with local people and you get to learn more about local cultures. 

I have developed a soft spot for Africa, that's for sure - it really gets into your skin. The energy and the vibe that you experience there is really contagious.

Thank you to Giovanni for speaking to Katie Insley, Associate Director in our HR recruitment team in the Netherlands.

Views and opinions contained within our Executive Interviews are those of the interviewee and not views shared by EMEA Recruitment.