I recently had the pleasure of meeting Luca Balbiani, a Management Engineer Consultant working in Sophia Antipolis, ( Montecarlo ) for AUBAY, which is a consulting firm operating within IT field. By chatting to him, I got knowledge about his efforts on managing Aubay's employer branding activities for attracting talented IT Engineers even if his daily role within the company is about things completely different from these themes. He is a Management Consultant involved on IT products devolopment activities, to be precise. I was really surprised at the passion and enthusiasm he gives in running his particular mission about employer branding around Europe. He has confessed me he is very marketing passionate! So consequently I dediced to ask him a couple of questions in order to share with our readers his adventures about it.
D: So, Luca, first of all, thank you for your time and thank you for being part of our community.To start, I'd like to ask you.. Who AUBAY is, what’s your role within company and what about your mission on employer branding?
L: "...well, AUBAY is an Integration and Technology consultancy Group headquartered in Paris. Our company is specialized in information and industrial systems, networks and telecommunications.
Capable of technically and functionally developing its activities in all these areas, AUBAY is has a leading position in Bank / Finance, Insurance (Assurance), Industry, Energy, Transport, Telecoms sectors, differentiating from its competitors by offering to its customers a high value-added “know-how”.
Let me share with you some numbers about AUBAY:
With more than 2,700 employees, AUBAY is present in 12 offices across 6 European countries (France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg). We are constantly growing and improving. In the last three years, AUBAY has acquired two new companies: Adex Ingénierie in France and Selex Elsag in Italy (banking activity of Finmeccanica Group). A significant indicator proving the commitment of the company is the recruitment of 800 new consultants in 2014.
Regarding my role in AUBAY Group, I can say that in nowadays, I am carrying out a mission in French Riviera for an IT leading company in the e-travel industry sector. I am in charge of managing Product Definition activities for three Airline IT projects.
Thanks to my proficiency in English, Spanish, Italian and French and my expertise in international business, I am also working as a project manager role to bring up together IT financial service products among different AUBAY offices in Europe (mainly France and Italy).
And last but not least, I collaborate with HR and Communication department for Digital Media Marketing and Employer Branding strategies too!!!..."
D: That's very cool!! So can you please tell us What does it mean working at AUBAY for You and Which kind of value in terms of intangible and tangible benefits AUBAY can offer to IT Engineers?
L: .".well, to be honest, to address this point, instead of listing tangibles benefits offered by AUBAY, I would rather focus on the intangible ones in order to explain the value added of our offer: we propose a real opportunity for TOP universities graduates to move abroad and start an international career.
During this period I often listen to my former colleagues complaining about the lack of international environment and contractual conditions on their current jobs. Their response when suggested to move abroad is “It is not that easy”, and I agree. Today’s economic situation does not encourage companies to search talents abroad: sometimes they rather hire from national offer, avoiding costly logistic and bureaucratic issues. Moreover, the spoken language of each country might represent an obstacle.
In contrast, AUBAY is actively looking for foreign talents because our customers are 100% international, requiring and needing as many consultants coming from different countries (both EU and extra-EU) as possible. To illustrate this latter point: in my mission in French Riviera the customer’s portfolio amounts to over 120 nationalities among staff and consultants. Therefore, the creation of AUBAY international teams seems like a right move.
One of the AUBAY priorities is the talent scouting abroad, and in order to achieve it, this company invests a lot in Career Service Events of European Universities.
Finally, I would like to highlight that our HR Managers facilitate as much as possible the arrival of a new consultant in France: they provide assistance for logistic issues (like the house research) and bureaucratic tasks (such as opening a bank account and the offer of private medical insurance).
Last but not least, French courses are offered to all consultants in order to overcome the language barriers.
In my personal view, working in AUBAY means ‘’to breath’’ the internationality of the Technology Business: every day I work and I have possibility to interact with people coming from all over the world, speaking English, French, Spanish and of course a bit of Italian.
The international label is also present in the trend of the company to collaborate on several projects shared among the 12 different offices around Europe. This is not very common in other consultancy companies, which tend to keep projects in only one country.
D: But could you please share with us some initiatives you have formulated and implemented in terms of employer branding for attracting your target audiences ( IT High Performers ) ?
L: "....Despite I am not a HR manager, I have a strong passion for Digital Marketing and Employer Branding. That is why I often collaborate with HR and Communication Department for creating buzz about AUBAY brand and its values.
There are two main activities I am pursuing: to participate in ‘’round tables’’ events organized by universities and I consider crucial the HR presence at these events for all questions related recruiting and career opportunity, as the presence of a business consultant to address questions such as ‘’what are your daily activities?’’ or ‘’what are the difficulties for an Italian who wants to move to France for working?’’. I honestly think I am the right person to respond to these questions since I have experienced by myself what moving in France from Italy means and I can also explain in detail projects and activities where a new graduated might be working
Furthermore, I have created a LinkedIn group (AUBAY in French Riviera: link) where I have uploaded the video I have prepared with my colleagues to explain why potential candidates should join us in this great region (in my opinion, French Riviera represents a perfect balance between working expectations and quality of life). Thus, I would like to invite Employer Branding Revolution Community members to have a look at AUBAY video (link). Through this video I simply pointed out and communicate that from a geographic point of view, we are located in Costa Azzurra. Which is an important driver characterizing our employer value proposition. Then I dediced to ask our IT Consultants to share their own personal professional stories in order to create identification through a storytelling activity to succesfully attract high value IT performers like them...."
D: How do you find Employer Branding Revolution Community on LinkedIn for your Employer Branding mission ?
L:"...I daily follow with enthusiasm the Employer Branding Revolution Community on Linkedin. I found interesting contents that helped me do the right things so far. It's very great interacting with real experts from around the world too!
I strongly believe that continue and dynamic interactions with the Community let me find the good INSPIRATION for my daily activities. This INSPIRATION will help me not only in the Employer Branding mission, but in my project management works and career in general. All of us represent a Brand in unstable and dynamic market, so it is crucial to know how to communicate this brand in the in the most efficient way to reach brand new goals..."
DAVIDE SCIALPI
Head of Employer Branding Revolution
February 25th London, UK.
E-Mail: davide.scialpi@employerbrandingrevolution.com
