International Women’s day - An interview with Emilie Viallon

Emilie Viallon - Head of People - Screencloud

1. Can you tell me about what you do?

I am the Head of People and Culture for a cool start up in London. In short, my job as Head of People and Culture is to work with People and help Businesses go from good to great thanks to an inclusive, empowering and fun approach to People strategy.

2.What are your main responsibilities and achievements at Screencloud?

I have joined the Business only 5 weeks ago so I am still settling in and meeting everyone but my main responsibilities as Head of People everywhere I've been working for the last 7 years, includes everything you can think of when you think about HR / People strategy. 
So, at Screencloud, which is already a successful Business with already 90 People on board, my mission is to prepare the Company and our People for the Scale up world. Together with a Team (that I am recruiting) we have the exciting mission to build the best team working on our amazing product and the find the Talents to advocate it, we will ensure that our People grow and are fulfilled by their mission. All this will be possible only if we scale the great culture we already have from Bangkok to LA.
When I choose to work in HR 12 years ago, I had a vision that an HR team could bring so much to a Business. I believe that treating People with respect, working with a positive mind and with a common understanding of the business objectives - we can really make a difference and have happy People at work. And happy People have happy Friends and Families. I believe that People Teams can help businesses achieve this.

3.Did you always want to work for a Technology (Fintech) Firm?

Actually no! But I am glad I made the decision to move to London 7 years ago and start my start-up adventure with Checkout.com.
I started my career working for big names such as Nissan and Airbus where I spent 3,5 years. I enjoyed my time there, I had the chance to work abroad and work alongside great leaders but I knew something else was calling. So one day someone planted a seed in my head by talking to me about London. So, I said to myself, why not moving to London? Few days later, I started to apply, naturally for other big names - I wasn't really exposed to the start-up world at 27. I applied for 1 month, maybe sent 50 CVs (and no, we didn't have the easy apply function on linkedin back in the days). I didn't receive any reply so I was about to give up when I saw Checkout.com - HR Manager position on Linkedin. This job description was very different from the Business Partners ones that I've been applying for before in the sense that it was all about building an HR department from scratch and be responsible for everything, from recruitment to payroll, from performance and development to culture in order to support the business in its mission to disrupt the online payment landscape... And it worked, I got the job there! It was a risky move as they didn't even have a website at that time, but I don't regret taking this leap of faith. I had the chance to help set up the foundations of what is today a double unicorn with 500 People on-board worldwide. 
Tech / FinTech can give you golden opportunities like this and this is why I am still in the space 7 years later, ready to roll up my sleeves to help another business flourish.
I think it's an amazing place to be when you work with the right founding Team. It's a lot of fun, it's a lot of work, but you learn so much about how to make a good business when you actually participate in building it. And I believe it makes a big difference with the HR Team, when you have us on-board early, we are part of the DNA and can actually make a difference because we understand your business and we know everyone (we recruit them all :)). In a Tech start up we can be creative, we can innovate, we need to wear many hats, we do a million different things but most importantly, we are living a little adventure at work every day.

4.Do you think there is a lack of women in senior HR positions?

Oh yes, and not just in HR. This is a well-known fact.
But if we really think about it, numbers are increasing and it's encouraging. 
But we also need to be patient and put things in perspective, if I look at my personal case, my grandmothers didn't work, my mother spent her life with a nice but low paid job, I am the first one in my family to have a Master degree, so... Certainly I am in a leadership position today because there was also more female in my classes at Uni than during our mothers' time.
When I was looking for my next opportunity in 2018, I only met 2 females with C-levels positions vs 20 males, I was a bit shocked to be honest, and then I matured about this by putting things back in perspective. 

It's obviously a shame that there are not enough women in top positions but give it one generation and things will be very different, the way to manage people will also be different, we will forget about genders. By educating people and having better leaders we will have naturally more female amazing leaders. My dream is that we don't even think about this anymore and that one day quotas become obsolete. One day! :)

5.What barriers have you faced, as a woman, in becoming successful in your field? How did you overcome them?

Politics. I am not interested in engaging with politics in business. For me it's a waste of time and it generates a lot of negative energy and things would be so much better without the power mania. So sometimes I can be a bit politically incorrect when I am facing these behaviours, so I am trying to avoid these environments as much as possible.

6. Is there anyone (male or female) that inspires you in your career?

I am very aligned with Simon Sinek's infinite vision of business. I am really inspired by the conscious leadership he talks about and I think that it describes really well what business / the world need. More simplicity, kindness and an environment creating trust for people to thrive and be themselves.
I think that the business world needs a shift as, same as what we see with the environmental crisis, the craziness of the money empire needs to be reasonable again and this can only happen if we have better Leaders. A better Leader is a Leader that cares - and this goes from the President of a country to your corner store manager.
So, aligned with this I am trying to create a nice working environment where the business goes well and people are happy to come to work and create something together. 

7.How important is it for women to lift each other up and what does that mean to you?

I believe that Female communities are sacred and a place where female can lift each other up. But in my opinion, they can be a real asset and also a risk, both the same time if we are not careful.
Indeed, if we take 'a female only' approach, we take the risk to adopt the same codes than the ones we are trying to change/ need to change. I have never been part of such groups to be honest, never really attracted in being a feminist. But I think these groups are great to feel part of a community and a first step towards lifting each other up. In that sense, I believe that Female communities are a real asset if we work together and have an inclusive approach to feminism, where we approach things a bit differently and welcome everyone to the table. In the last few years I have developed my female connexions, I am someone who always had more male friends than female ones. But developing my female network and relationships inside these communities has made a difference when I wasn't in a great place and I can thank each and everyone of them for the role they've played. Being surrounded by strong and resilient women has made me a stronger and a better person.  I realised that I wasn't the only one struggling with how a women 'should' be in this world, how unfair things were for us, how hard the simple things are (try to have an agreeable temperature in your office). But my most important realisation is that things look promising for the future. Things are changing thanks to the women who are showing up everyday with a smile, thanks to the ones who dare shaking the old trees and to the ones who are here to lift up others. The support I received made me want to share more, so I am learning different techniques (yoga, Reiki, life coaching) to share with the world (not only females :)) and hopefully I can do my bit to help make the world a better place by lifting People up at work and outside of work.

8.On International Women’s Day what is the most important message you want to send out to young women starting their career today? 

Whatever you feel is right in your guts, is the right way to go! Sometimes people won't hear you, so even if it is hard to be surrounded by 'the old mindset' - we need to always remember that we are the new Leaders and that change comes with time, change comes with us. So let's not give up and let's have faith. We will make it to the top - whatever the top means for you- we don't all need to be CEO to be happy but we all can be happy Leaders in our communities (Team, Family, Friends, Charities etc etc.) .