Vaillant: the organization based on trust

How relevant is it to talk about trust today?
At first sight, the answer - as predictable as it sounds - might scream “a lot”.

by Barbara Calvi, Managing Director and Partner VisionMind

L'intervista a Maurizio Rizzi e Debora Maja è stata pubblicata dal trimestrale AIDP Direzione del Personale nel numero 188 di Marzo 2019 (a pag. 12). La Redazione di DdP ci ha gentilmente concesso la riproduzione.

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We are always reading and talking about trust: from consumers, companies, markets, even the vote of confidence in parliaments, the same trust that regulates and preserves political and commercial alliances. Yet, when we step out of the custom that somehow dilutes meaning, and we step into reality, we immediately hit a wall.

The word trust now rarely arises from conversations among managers or HR people, or even an issue for analyses or focus groups.

We are looking for solutions to make people more entrepreneur-like, increase collaboration, improve effectiveness, solve conflicts, and think in perspective. We take for granted that we can build a house, even architecturally bold, without checking foundations first.

Trust is assumed, contractually implied. As if working together, sharing values up a wall or engraved online, being competent, having a role were enough. Or as if it weren’t: a fundamental value, definitely, but only as far as private matters are concerned.

If we stop to think for a second on how important it is for us as human beings to rely on someone and be credible, in any context and situation, then the issue of trust within the organization is back on. It provides the key we need to improve and help those who work with us grow, streamline processes, overcome hardships, and have the energy to all aim together at the same goal. And get it.

Trust is a serious business, as it is an element with a significant impact on business results, as Vaillant knows very well.

An internationally renowned German group, in Italy since 1990, that produces domestic heating and cooling systems with several brands, Vaillant holds trust among its company values.

We have talked about this with Maurizio Rizzi and Debora Maja, respectively HR Director and HR Business Partner in Italy

The first question is personal: what does trust represent for you?

Maurizio: To me, trust means to be sure that someone, at home or in the office - doesn’t matter - is doing what is expected, the way it was expected, at the scheduled time. As for people, I associate the concept of trust with gravity, intellectual honesty, collaboration, transparency, fairness, accountability, while if I look at organizations, I might add reputation, quality, and certainty.

Debora: To me, trust means having a positive evaluation of yourself, a relation, a circumstance, and an organization. If we see behaviors we like, this evaluation will eventually become less and less an act of faith and more a certainty that carries the peace of mind with it. Real trust is profoundly and concretely different from “I’m going to let me fall, you’re going to catch me,” and it takes time. That’s why it’s so precious because trust compels us to patience and persistence in a fast-moving world. It can be made more accessible but only relatively expedited.

Trust is one of Vaillant’s values: How much is this value perceived within the organization?

M/D: On a scale from one to ten, our most recent survey scores 7.5 in terms of the ability to live company values daily, proving that we are on the right track, but there’s still room for improvement. More concretely, last September survey’s results show high levels of trust in managers and teams, but lower levels among different groups.

In your opinion, what are the main resistances to a concrete development of trust in Vaillant?

M/D: Theoretically, we think that no one objects to the value of trust. Having said that, trust must be earned and deserved, and this takes time, and it’s very easy to lose it, and it might be lacking following behaviors/attitudes/choices that are fair per se but might be unwelcomed. How many times have we said, “I didn’t expect this from you”? Main resistances are distinctively human and not specific of the organization: fully trust someone means giving up being the sole arbiters of our choices.

Can you give us an example of a situation where lack of trust generated a negative result?

M/D: Rather than lack of trust, I'd say insufficient quality to give trust and articulate through communication.
One department of our organization was supposed to show the viability of an innovative project by reaching specific KPIs in a pretty short time.
The manager felt responsible for the project's success and started controlling any small details of their team's work. The collaborators took this behavior as a lack of trust. They felt belittled, and their responsibilities taken away, drop in motivation, loss of drive and proactiveness, and the slowdown of execution.

How are you helping your people to develop trust-oriented relations and collaborations?

M/D: The Vaillant Group introduced its current values (Trust, Passion, Entrepreneurship, Integrity) in 2012. We have since then set up a program to explain the meaning to all our collaborators. Specifically, the work on trust had a rocky start, as mapping how much these values had already been experienced within the company had pointed out that Passion was the most present, while trust ranked last. And talking about trust in a historic period of national economic crisis and a company crisis, upon appointing a new CEO and building a new organizational structure was not a walk in the park.
In this scenario, we have tried to understand the reasons behind low trust in the company by involving employees and listening to their inputs through workshops and focus groups. We have developed structured and direct channels of communication, such as the intranet and what we call “meeting people”- all-hands meetings we would run three, four times a year to update people on objectives, results, challenges, strategies and projects, both at Group and local levels, by trying at the same time to increase mutual knowledge among people within the organization.

How does Top Management question itself on the issue of trust?

M/D: Top Management has always committed to the purpose, and it took on the responsibility of first years results that were below expectations and tough and unpopular choices in terms of resource management. It stayed true to its transparent and direct communication actions, whether for good or bad news.

What was the organizational and business impact of the initiatives you have pursued?

M/D: Working on trust meant working on behaviors, getting rid of some, and embracing some others. The result is not yet definitive, and we are not done yet, but it’s like a redeeming virus is spreading across the organization and making it more natural to stand up for your own decisions and be determined to turn visions into operating projects, not struggling to talk about what is still not working and how it should and be more prompt in meeting market needs.
In business words, due to the increase of trust - obviously, not only that - 2018 has been the fourth year in a row with positive results. This allows us to comfortably approach a series of reflections on future strategies, which are necessary for a rapidly changing market and in the face of new competence and attitudes and increasingly ambitious results the Vaillant Group has put forward for the upcoming years.

It’s definitely worth it to work on the issue of trust, and there are no drawbacks.

How are things with the head company? Is there trust?

M/D: Absolutely. We have the trust of the Group's leaders, and we have earned it precisely because of the behaviors we have talked about earlier. Transparency, the ability not to deny challenges, and the ability to propose (luckily!) successful solutions have let us work in a medium-term perspective without worrying about short-term result evaluation.

Are you going to continue working on developing trust within your organization? If so, how?

M/D: Trust is the cornerstone of company culture. It's the most potent driver we have to gain results, teamwork, shared responsibility, and credibility.
For all these reasons, we will keep focused on this for many years to come.

Among others, two of the projects involving trust:

1. Vaillant aims to be greener in every possible way and is analyzing structures and processes to make them even more sustainable. It's a long way ahead, and we believe we must do our best and fully become a company that operates transparently. We can't manage without trust-based relations.
2. Along with the head company's HR team, we have a massive project in mind that will involve many usually considered "HR" projects next year, which will shift the emphasis on managers who will become our spearhead in the business and their team's growth.

In your professional experience, why is it worth it to work on trust, and what are the drawbacks you have found if any?

M/D: There's no doubt that working on trust is worth it, and there are no drawbacks at all. First, because it takes so much to lose it and start over; secondly, because we are growing and expanding our staff, and we need to make sure that newcomers feel and adjust to our level of existing trust in the company. Lastly, because trust simplifies and accelerates relations and processes, it also helps manage those inevitable conflicts that are now the expression of organizational dialectic and not (bad) personal relationships.