Q&A with Adikteev HR and office manager, Valentin Decroix
What better way to get to know Adikteev than by talking to the guy who keeps everything running smoothly? We interviewed our all-round HR and office manager extraordinaire, Valentin Decroix, on his work spanning 8 years and counting: how he manages a team in 4 different time zones, implementing a hybrid work model post-pandemic, and what he appreciates the most about Adikteev.
Watch the full video here:
How long have you been working at Adikteev and what is your job title? How did you end up here?
I’ve been working at Adikteev for a bit over a year now as the office and HR manager, working for mostly EMEA and APAC since the first of January this year. Basically I’m in charge of making sure people feel at ease— from the edition of their contract (bringing them everything they need while working here) all the way to making sure, if they do have to leave, it goes well in a smooth manner.
What’s your experience been like working in a variety of HR positions? How does Adikteev compare?
My experience as an HR in different companies taught me that HR can sometimes really be repetitive and has a lot of admin tasks— which is a bit the opposite of what I’m living through at Adikteev where every day there is a new project coming onto the table. We do have many ideas on how to improve the lives of everyone. I think, since I started last year, there’s been some new things that weren’t there before and the employees seem to be happy about what we have implemented so far. So, a lot of diversity. And also, I think the people are really the main difference with my previous experiences. It’s really diverse in such a human-sized company. It’s really nice to take advantage of that and all the differences and everything that people bring to the table.
You started at Adikteev when we were still almost 100% remote due to COVID. How was that experience as an office and HR manager?
As an office manager, it was the part of the year where we were slowly moving from a full lockdown to going back to the office. So, it was the right time to renew the ancient company rituals that were making people happy to come to the office. And also, creating new ones that could replace, or at least complete, the remote meetings that happened during the lockdown. So basically as an office manager, it was the right time to slowly invite people to come more to the office— making sure that everything was ready for that, both in terms of safety equipment and also in office supplies; and making sure we were ready to have everyone back in the office.
As an HR manager, nothing really changed. The team quickly adapted to the new paradigm, moving to this more hybrid system where people are remote and could come to the office whenever they want or in a flexible manner, at least. It didn’t bring so much change as people really were quick to adapt to that.
A big part of your role is maintaining a positive work environment and creating fun initiatives for us. As a company with a hybrid work model across many time zones, how have you managed to foster that team spirit?
We do have people spread out everywhere in the world, from Thailand all the way to California. Teamwork helped a lot on that. Since I was quite new in the role, I really worked with Julia (my counterpart in the US) to immerse myself in what was already done. She brings a lot of ideas on what worked in the past, what didn’t work, how we can make them better. And on my side, I tried to bring new ideas that I’ve seen in my previous experiences. I try to make people happy to come to the office or to at least participate in the weekly rituals that we have— where I bring my touch of crazy with some quizzes that relies on teaching people new things (but in a fun way) based on our CSR pillars/values or also sometimes just topical quizzes depending on the time of the year. But the idea is really to make sure that people are happy to just interact with each other even if it’s on a very specific topic.
What are you working on right now that’s got you really excited about your job?
I’m really happy that we’ve added a new perk to Adikteev’s employees— that was the 4.5 day work week. This was, I think, a nice surprise and a bit of work on our side. But those transitions are really going smoothly. And right now, I’m really focused on our moving to a new office that will happen at the end of the year, which really brings a lot of new missions to my role. Now I can be a real estate agent.
How has your experience been at Adikteev overall?
I think my experience at Adikteev, and probably the one of many here, is working with people from all over the world. We do have 20+ nationalities in a team of a hundred people now. So, it’s really a mix of different cultures. However, it’s really easy to interact with people. They don’t really focus on, “okay, where are you from?” It’s really “what do you do?” “What do you bring to the company?” and working on common objectives. That’s a big energy I felt when I moved to this role— and I still do a year afterwards. And also the people, it’s really something. They do tend to be nice at Adikteev, which I truly appreciate. Working on a job where sometimes you do have to be the one who says “no,” the one who says “not possible,” or the one who brings not-so-good news. It’s nice to count on teams that are there for you. And yeah, you can interact with them on all kinds of levels, basically.