The Swiss company of SIG Geneva Industrial Services (Services industriels de Genève) offers to more than 200,000 customers in the canton of Geneva services for the management of energy, water, optical fibre and waste management networks. In the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution and in view of the rapid changes in the labour market, anticipating change is vital for this first-rate public law institution. Skillspotting was therefore commissioned to support a panel of SIG employees in a reflection on their profession.

The challenges of this prospective approach

Take an active part in the evolution of your profession

For the forty or so SIG employees invited to participate in 3 workshops led by Skillspotting experts, the aim was to learn how to co-construct the evolution of their profession. The idea being, in the longer term, to create an internal market of administrative and technical-administrative skills that are available in the company’s ecosystem.

Adapting to remain competitive

These challenges require a good knowledge of the company’s skills capital: “When it does not have it, it is important to quickly acquire it, either internally or through specialized tools. If this is not done, it will be impossible to adapt to market changes. It is a question of competitiveness and therefore… medium-term survival,” recalls Jean-Bernard Girault, a specialist in strategy, innovation and performance.

“The great strength of Skillspotting’s coaching is that it allows people to project themselves and co-construct the objective of this projection; they can thus implement their own solution, based on the visible gaps between “today” and “tomorrow”.  »

Jean-François PROBST

Head of Skills and Professions in SIG

An essential step: overcoming the fear of change

Take into account the expression of fears

As Benjamin Sylvand, PhD in philosophy of logic and cognitive sciences and holder of a master’s degree in communication, rightly points out, “the first thing to do to manage change, i. e. to accompany it from a human point of view, is to recognize that change can have an effect, an impact, on people. »

Because it is indeed the fear of change that generally causes reluctance and resistance. The employees of the SIGs were no exception to this rule. To break out of the unviolent circle of internal rumours (assumption of job losses), listening to fears was essential.

Proposing a step back

At first, as the main purpose was to dispassionate the debate, the study of a concrete case based on a profession not represented in the group made it possible to prevent individual fears from becoming a blockage.

Focusing on skills

Assessing them to anticipate transformations

By comparing their previous position (ten years ago) with that of today, participants not only established a precise list of all their skills (technical and behavioural), but they were also able to reflect on the skills and attitudes that will be useful to them in the future. They have realized that their profession has already changed: they now know that if they have successfully negotiated this change before, they will be able to manage the future evolution.

Map them to discover the extent of their employability

Once the key competencies were listed, the corresponding positions were created by the participants in Skillspot, and an account was assigned to each of the forty employees in the tool (on a dedicated platform, in the colours of SIG).

Before the last workshop, everyone had a few weeks to compare their profile to their workstation but also to workstations registered by other institutions; they could also invite colleagues to connect and receive their ProfilScan personality analysis report.

A well initiated change in SIG

The discovery of effective career management

Thanks to these workshops, the various participants understood the challenges of business transformation and experienced the importance of forecasting analysis, competency frameworks and soft skills. In the Skillspot tool, the gap analysis allowed them to visualize positions that would be perfect for them: “People do a trade at a given time, then that trade changes, and they have finally accumulated many skills that make it possible for them to find themselves in the “target” of jobs they would not have thought of. From this point of view, Skillspot’s graphic mapping system is really impressive,” says Jean-François Probst, Skills and Business Manager at SIG.

The benefits of quality support

According to Jean-François Probst, this project was one of the great successes of the 2018 SIG year, since it showed that change was possible in this large organization, whether in terms of business development or digitalization. “In 3 sessions, we went from people who were not happy to be there to people who wanted to take the process further. In their heads, it developed possible futures, both collectively and individually. It’s really been a great success in change management,” he says enthusiastically.

In the end, all participants understood the importance of evaluating their skills and having a dynamic tool to manage their career.

Like SIG, get support from Skillspotting experts to build a bridge between your current skills and your future needs… Skillspot4talents

The project in a nutshell

Client :Services Industriels de Genève (SIG)Geneva Industrial services

Business sector:Distribution of local services

Area of activity: Canton of Geneva

Website :ww2.sig-ge.ch

Mission :Pilot project to enable a panel of employees to better understand and apprehend the transformation of their profession.

Consultant :Skillspotting

Implementation:3 workshops.

Main advantages: Definition of skills, business mapping, performance evaluation, change management.

Sources :

– SIG Website : https://ww2.sig-ge.ch

– « Manage change », Manager Go !, 10/03/2017, https://www.manager-go.com/le-mag/le-mag-43-la-gestion-du-changement/manager-le-changement/

– Jean-Bernard Girault, « Transformer ses métiers pour réussir la transformation de son entreprise », FocusRH, https://www.focusrh.com/tribunes/transformer-ses-metiers-pour-reussir-la-transformation-de-son-entreprise-par-jean-bernard-girault-29260.html