“It’s been a tumultuous year for everyone. This year has been all about adapting to the consequences of the pandemic while getting vital systems and structures in place that will help ensure that DFDS continues to be a great place to work and grow,” says Chief People Officer Anne-Christine Ahrenkiel.  

Here are a few of the People Division’s key developments in 2020: 

The People Division steps up as a Business Partner 

”In many places, our HR colleagues have moved a lot closer to the business this year, for instance through collaboration on how to adapt the entire workforce to the Covid-19 situation”, Anne-Christine says. HR people are increasingly part of management teams and can weigh in on and influence decisions in a more formalised way than they could before. This makes sense because when it comes down to it, we’re first and foremost a people-driven business. We focus a lot on our operational assets, but we can’t move goods or passengers without our people making it happen. With HR as a business partner, we can help ensure that we take the right people decisions, short- and longer term.” 

More focus on learning and development  

“We always need to keep developing because it’s the best for DFDS and for the individual employee,” Anne-Christine says. “Besides the obvious advantages of having a competent workforce, we also have a responsibility for our employees’ employability: we need to provide an environment that allows and motivates people to use and develop their skills to the greatest extend possible – because ultimately, these skills are people’s best guarantee for a great life-long career. This environment should be provided by three parties: by each of our employees, by our leaders and by our Learning & Development department. I am therefore happy to have recently appointed Jesper Randlev Nielsen as our new Head of Learning and Development, to help set up the necessary structures and training programmes that can help us all grow.” 

Crewing went global 

Different countries and business areas used to manage HR for sea-based employees. Now it’s handled by one organisation, headed by Gemma Griffin. “The new Global Crewing function means that we aim at having a more uniform approach to all our seafarers: it should always be clear what they can expect from us as an employer, just like it should always be clear what we would expect from them as employees. The new structure brings all the crewing functions together and helps us maximise our strengths and collective knowledge, and use scale advantages across geographies,” Anne-Christine says. 

Better resource overview and planning with data 

“We’ve implemented a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system this year, to limit manual processes and get a better overview of our workforce. The system makes it easier for new colleagues to get to know DFDS, because they’ll be able to press a button and see exactly how many we are, where we are and who reports to whom. My hope is that a digital system like this will also eventually make it easier for colleagues to say yes to managerial responsibility, as it reduces the paperwork and bureaucracy that typically comes with the task of managing people.  

“I’ve been at DFDS for just over a year now, and I’m amazed at how able, willing and ready our colleagues are to provide solutions to the many challenges we face,” Anne-Christine says. “Our culture is defined by our healthy, respectful and pragmatic approach and a genuine wish to make things work. This has been vital to us, to get through this year. At one point, almost 2800 of our 8500 employees were furloughed or off work, and our HR colleagues were focusing only on helping our colleagues and the business getting through this, whilst staying safe and healthy. I’m proud of every single person at DFDS – leader or individual contributor – for their efforts during this year. For me, DFDS is a great place to work and my goal for 2021 is to help make it even better.”   

“A diverse company is a solid company, but we have a way to go when it comes to gender. Right now, we are about 25% women – considerably more on land than at sea. We are working to achieve our target of 30% females in DFDS by 2023 and the EMT is living up to this commitment already. I commit to keeping this a high priority and keeping managers responsible not just for gender diversity but also for inclusive behaviour in a broader sense,” says CEO Torben Carlsen.

We don’t want to miss out

At this year’s Management Conference, managers from all over the company came up with concrete ways of boosting the share of women among us. “They stressed that this is not something that is nice to do, it is something that will attract talent, improve team dynamics and help us make stronger decisions. If we are all the same, we will find it hard to understand the needs of people – customers – that are different to us, and we will miss out on perspectives that could ultimately help strengthen and grow our business and culture,” says CSR Director Sofie Hebeltoft.

“Our managers welcomed the focus on Diversity & Inclusion and provided a range of practical suggestions on how to reach the 30% target. Our Vice Presidents have given personal commitments and are working on realising these. In the People Division, we are partnering with our colleagues across DFDS to help them implement their ideas and suggestions,” says Chief People Officer Anne-Christine Ahrenkiel.

Diversity is more than gender

“I have experienced how diversity has changed the dynamics of the Executive Management Team,” says EVP for the Ferry Division Peder Gellert. “And with diversity, I don’t just mean women. We have of course gone from being all men, all white, all similar ages, to now being four men and two women, but that’s not the only thing that has changed. Diversity is more than gender. It’s also backgrounds – Rune, Karina and Anne-Christine all come from other industries than shipping and transport. That brings different angles and experiences into our discussions and helps us see things differently,” he says.

“Niklas, Torben and I have all worked in this industry for more than ten years and tend to see things in the same light. Often when we discuss more strategic subjects – where is the business going, what should we do – the ‘newcomers’ to the EMT can bring in examples from how they worked or something they tried in their previous workplaces. This helps frame the situation in another way and makes us see new opportunities. I am committed to making Diversity & Inclusion a priority in the Ferry Division and intend to work actively with my reports on projects that serve this agenda.”

Where are the female developers?

In Technology & Innovation, Chief Technology Officer Rune Keldsen finds recruiting female candidates within the areas of Development, Architecture and Operations a challenge. “The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to where the biggest potential for improvement is,” Rune says. “In my leadership team, with scrum masters and product owners and project managers we are close to or above 30% females. In back- and frontend development and architecture it is less than 5%. I commit to doing what I can to increase the number of diverse applicants, like speaking at universities and letting people know that you don’t have to be a white male to work in tech. We are also working on improving how we write our job ads, to focus more on value and customer journeys rather than using the deep nerd language, to open up to a broader target group. When it comes to nationalities, culture, background and personalities, T&I is a fantastically diverse organisation.”

The rest of the EMT is committed to their Divisions becoming more diverse, too. Chief People Officer Anne-Christine Ahrenkiel persistently drives the diversity agenda and is ramping up her team to be able to deliver data to track progress. CFO Karina Deacon will promote and support the development of a mentor approach across DFDS and be a mentor herself. EVP for the Logistics Divisions Niklas Andersson is also fully committed to do anything he can to push the share of women in Logistics to 30%.

More on this to come.

DFDS’ Executive Management Team

From left:

Torben Carlsen (Chief Executive Officer)

Karina Deacon (Chief Financial Officer)

Peder Gellert (Executive Vice President, Ferry Division)

Niklas Andersson (Executive Vice President, Logistics Division)

Anne-Christine Ahrenkiel (Chief People Officer)

Rune Keldsen (Chief Technology Officer)