Insights from Kristian Elvefors, Managing Director, Volvo Car UK
As cars develop, so must the talent within the automotive companies producing and selling them. In a recent article from McKinsey, Björn Annwall, leader of Volvo Cars in the EMEA region, discussed how business leaders should be deliberate and hands-on when it comes to developing their people.
This is not a new strategy for Volvo Cars, as Kristian Elvefors, Managing Director of Volvo Car UK discussed in Ennis & Co’s publication 2020: The Year That Changed Everything, where he explained that Volvo’s people focus and development strategies were evolving even pre-COVID.
Along with many other automotive leaders, Volvo Cars have been adapting their corporate strategy to draw in talented individuals and road map what future skills are needed. Volvo Cars has been analysing their core competencies since before the crisis began, but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly accelerated this evaluation of capabilities.
Kristian’s leadership and forward-thinking response to the coronavirus pandemic was exceptional. Not only was he driving commercial strategy, but he also kept his focus on safety and people’s peace of mind. In addition he introduced certain measures to the Volvo UK offices for the comfort of their employees.
He said, “Due to these measures, we can now say that 100% of staff are coming into the workplace as they please. Our people are finding that it is possible to be at the workplace in a safe and secure way.”
As a result of their forward thinking and people focus, Volvo Cars was able to successfully implement the ‘Stay Home Store’, their online platform, which was brought into place during the lockdown period when many retailers were closed. Though Stay Home Store had been worked on for many years previously, it needed to be immediately prioritised during that time, so it was all hands-on deck at Volvo Cars for the 2020 roll out. According to Kristian the implementation was “quick and seamless”, with Volvo also finding that the most successful way to drive the transformation of skills is by building capabilities on the job.
For many organisations, the prospect of outsourcing training and development courses for staff members of all levels is simply not sustainable. By improving internal career development and learning-by-doing programmes, organisations can make strides towards their competency development goals.
Furthermore, by sourcing new talent into the organisation from a diverse pool of candidates, organisations can introduce individuals with those much needed digital and technological skills to hit the ground running. Ennis & Co and Autocar’s Drivers of Change competition encourages talented individuals of all ages and backgrounds to enter the automotive sector, regardless of their experience. By widening the scope of talent, we could introduce innovative individuals with fresh ideas, that might otherwise have been overlooked. The key should be to focus on the desired skills and not necessarily previous industry experience when looking to the future of the automotive workforce.
It is fantastic to see the progress and resilience of the automotive sector, despite this past year’s difficulties. Moving forwards, it will be interesting to watch the transformations within our industry, as organisations take these key learnings and use them to their full advantage.
You can read the full interview with Kristian Elvefors via the link below:
Find out more about the Drivers of Change initiative here:
