The Success of a Talented Culture: El Dorado Mattresses

Block 1: Introduction and Presentation by Verónica del Pilar

Julia (Magneto): Coffee Break with Magneto, a space to talk about artificial intelligence and the transformation of work. Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Coffee Break. Today we have a very special guest, because we are going to be talking about Building a culture based on talent at Colchones El Dorado, and Verónica is with us. Hello Vero, how are you?

Veronica: Hello Julia, very good and you?

Julia: Very good and happy to have you here, Vero. I'll tell you a little more about Verónica del Pilar. Vero is a business administrator with a specialization in Human Talent Management and a master's degree at the University of Barcelona also in Human Talent. And it has more than 10 years of experience as an integrator of all human talent processes, also managing to generate a Expertise and Return human talent as a strategic partner of the organization which aligns with the strategy and its expected results. Hey, Vero has managed to work as an expert in payroll, selection, hiring, training, welfare, development. And before we started this conversation we were talking a little bit and without a doubt you can see a passion for talent, but also for knowing the people behind it. And well, Vero has done an exercise in getting to know that culture very well, eh, and the people who form and create that culture in Colchones El Dorado. So Vero, tell us a little bit about El Dorado Mattresses, about you as a company and about that trajectory that you have also had there.

Veronica: Well, thank you very much for the invitation, Julia. Hey, yes, we carry El Dorado mattresses more than 65 years in the market. Hey, we are characterized by the innovation, quality, technology. And in what we were talking about, Julia, this not only translates into the products that we manufacture and market in the market, but it is also translating into a quality relationship eh with our eh workers, with our people. It is a family business with an important family tradition where our founder, Gomerindo Gómez, was always very close to the workers, and when we talk to them they always remember that relationship and it continues to have it, and it is part of the general management strategy where this is still a flag, where there are no barriers to that closeness, and this has meant that during these years, the last 5 years, Colchones El Dorado has grown and in an important way, not only in its subject of sale, but also in the Human talent that we have. Today we are a significant number in the market and it has been important to maintain that closeness and that familiarity.

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Block 2: Tradition, Quality and Innovation in El Dorado Mattresses

Julia: Well Vero, so you put together or join two elements that seem fundamental to me and I think they go very hand in hand, and it is tradition and quality. Definitely 65 years in the market of a family business generates that feeling in us as consumers. But you're talking about a third element that you don't necessarily find living together in traditional and quality organizations, and that's that topic of innovation. I would also love it if you would tell us a little about that trajectory, and in that process that you have been working hard in culture, how does innovation come into being not only a response to the products and, let's say, the services you offer, but also to the management of that talent and the formation of that culture?

Veronica: Well, here's something key, and that's, uh, general management that Finally, it drives us from the various processes to innovate, not only in the product, as you mentioned, but internally how do we innovate in automations, in making methodologies more agile, in getting closer to people, in alleviating that operational burden a little which sometimes does not allow us to think differently. And it's a challenge that general management initially comes with, let's say, accompanying. Second, in the support that she finally gives us in the processes, and the thought, “Listen, this has to continue to grow in a different way, let's do different things, let's not always do the same thing and offer that well-being with people in that type of innovation”. What do we do to face people so that this is real and that they live it real? And it is, uh, in the company of different areas and product engineering, for example, we do uh or promote initiatives where Can you propose an improvement to a product or propose a product for El Dorado, is evaluated and encouraged. So, uh, at one of the home fairs we were at, the protagonists were our workers at the production plant, because they were the ones who They innovated in that product that we showed to the customer and we wanted to show that story to the client, yes, it was that it was born of people and that it was driven by work teams. So you're making a culture, right? And this has also been permeated by, “Hey, I want my area to innovate today in processes and offer a more agile service”, for example in human talent. So how do we offer automation to people with this technology challenge, for example? And in our operational part where sometimes it's not that easy to have access to technology, so we're trying, The cell phone is no longer prohibited in training, no, quite the contrary, bring your cell phone because from there we are going to interact. So there has been an important change in that culture and people are already seeing it, they are more open to what they ask for on a daily basis.

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Block 3: Worker-Driven and Benefit Innovation

Julia: Spectacular! And I would also like us to talk about how, there you told me some specific elements of the topic of culture, but right now you were also talking about a topic such as benefits in innovation eh, well or innovation in benefits, sorry, because innovation in products is spectacular and I also give you space to tell us a little bit about that, because it seemed to me, I arrived, I wrote down the task of going in to check my mattress to see what upgrade we're going to have. But also tell me a little bit about that innovation in benefits And how did you do a job of not only understanding that DNA where tradition, quality and innovation coexist, but also this topic of talent, that DNA, how did you also manage to work on it from the subject of well-being?

Veronica: Well, what is important and we mentioned it a while ago, Julia, and that is Human Talent has an important challenge of being a strategic partner in the business, yes, I know that sometimes it's difficult due to different circumstances, but that's how that human talent shows management that need for talent, right? , talent management. And there it is Get to know the business, for me it's key, Julia, every time I'm in an organization I know the business in detail, yes, from the smallest to the largest, because in the end you have that identity to be able to talk about it, yes. Hey, when we first started talking about how we become strategic, you already know what the need is from each area, right? So sometimes, uh, managing from a position is different than being on the field with people and ask the person, “Hey, I want to involve you in this process.” When people start to feel included, then ideas start to emerge and you are already starting to make very tailor-made wellness plans, for example, yes, or really decant what we're needing. So, in a conversation with management last year, we talked to him like we don't want to shoot in the air on issues of well-being, training and training, but rather make a baseline, understand people and start directing efforts. So that has been key and starting to include leaders, “Today, what is the need in your area? How do you see your area?” And that conversations don't become like, “Hey, we have to do this with this person finally”, but, “I want to develop this person and conversation opportunity, we want to bring coaching, we want to talk to people.” And that has been important for well-being.

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Block 4: Inclusion, Personalization and Leadership in Wellness

Julia: Spectacular! And here I'm going to get into it a little bit because I imagine that one consequence of all this that we've been talking about is Loyalty of that talent, because I think that on many occasions, to have that ride that Stakeholder as important as management is in having mentors, Coaches What are significant costs for organizations is, then my talent rotates or what happens if I teach him, train him and then he leaves? In commercial exercises like yours, where you then carry out consultative sales on the commercial teams that you have, let's say how have you seen this too? What does this loyalty issue impact? How did you also sell this as a strategic partner to management and to the family as such so that they would invest in this and say yes to all these processes?

Veronica: Well, part of the strategy came first Make a measurement, yes, and Show how we are today, is the photograph of the moment, climate, culture, knowing how people are doing. And this helped us to say, “Hey, we want to remain a close company, a family business, hey, we want to take that step closer to a slightly more corporate structure with the same family essence”. And this led us leaders to even take on a greater challenge and that is How do we maintain this important rate of growth with the familiarity and alignment of the teams. So, uh, we started more with identifying those of those competencies, those abilities of the management team that we're in that process so that we have all the tools. So, pretend that we want it, what we want is to give as Human Talent, management, the toolkit for leaders so that every time something new comes up, “Hey, I have my tool, this skill that I'm training, I'm developing to have that alignment with the teams”, yes, how to replicate it with a model of ambassadors.

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Block 5: Model of Ambassadors and Strengthening of Leaders

Julia: Exactly.

Veronica: So we know that hey we did a job in the last 2 years of working very well on the basis of our operating team, of our commercial team, in looking for comfort and well-being. Now we need to work in a cascade effect, in a pyramidal effect. So when we are already aware that as leaders we must continue working and strengthening ourselves so that we can be that ambassador to our teams, then we want culture to be seen more by example. We all learn by example, yes, it's like children, so I observe and learn and model, so that's what we want to do, to give us the tools to be those ambassadors and to forge that culture that we want. Yes, and there are two target audiences that I would like to go a little deeper with what you tell me, and that is clearly the operating team, you told me that you have two important production plants, and the commercial team. How does the commercial and operational team also experience this benefit, since sometimes in corporate companies it is easier to link these strategies of well-being, of development, eh, but I need the commercial one at the point of sale serving customers?

Veronica: It's been a challenge indeed, and a while ago we were talking about, “Hey, where are we heading?” And it was to start working on this in boxes, yes. So, the business need and the need for our academy equipment, for supply. So, commercial we said, “Well, we're going to develop initiatives where we bring them together on a monthly basis, also together with commercial management, we do an exercise of bringing them, talking, being very aligned, eh. There is a key issue and that is that Human Talent falls to the need for a specific person in the commercial team, for example, or operational. So this makes me say,”Hey, you're sitting with me and you're here with me and we're trying to be, we're trying to be with everyone, huh? And tell him, 'What else do you need? ' Here's 7 by 24 support and it's real”. Hey, so commercial has been more like a topic of what they need in order to start giving them that energy and connecting them. So with them we have worked on an important topic of Coaching, so every time we are in periods of significant challenges we bring them, we bring them together and we give them those doses, yes, and that has been very pleasant. And the incentive strategies also in the operational area, then it becomes, “Hey, where do we take the benefits other than just to the worker but to their family?” So there's a challenge with all the leaders, it's, “Hey, do you know Julia? Who does Julia live with? What does Julia do? Where do you live? What is it transported in?” Because that's where we started to connect. “Oh, the bike benefit, cool! So what we're going to do is to make it faster, more agile, we contribute to the environment and people say, 'Hey, you're helping me to transport myself differently. '” And the Bicycle benefit is we give them biannual bicycle maintenance assistance, yes. So, uh, a good percentage of our population travels by bicycle because that's a knowledge of going to listen there.

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Block 6: Personalized Benefits and Connecting with the Family

Julia: Of course!

Veronica: So, and then we said, “Well, there's a motorcycle accident right now, so what do we do to encourage it.” Then look how it becomes a challenge. So now people don't necessarily want money, but rather, “Why don't we provide a good market? Why don't we give it a nice time to go on a weekend?” Look, there are leaders who go like, “I'll give you a bonus eh or 50,000 pesos that you go eat ice cream with your family.” The worker values this because, “Hey, you are, in other words, you know my need and you connect me with the family.” And we're a family company, so we want to keep connecting that familiarity. So that was an interesting strategy. Our production plant has two, as you mentioned, one that is mattresses and the other that is furniture, so they are two different worlds in one, but that connection is also experienced, yes, and people live what you mentioned about product technology, so we live that day to day, actually offering the customer what we are finding today in a product because we live and work it.

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Block 7: Impact Measurement and Human Talent as a Strategic Partner

Julia: Wow, super! Yes, and part of turning an area of human talent into a strategic area and a strategic business partner is also this, because how is this reflected in the results? So, how have you managed to connect all these wellness issues, which undoubtedly for an employer brand, a value proposition that, as you mentioned just now, is no longer just for the employee but for their interest group, their family and others, but how do you also translate this into tangible results where management and where other people who are listening to us say, “I would love to but I know they won't buy the idea because how do I measure the impact?”

Veronica: Very good question, Julia, because in the areas of Human Talent we are always seen as areas of expenditure, yes, and I think that one strategy that we have done with my talent team is start to make the need visible, yes. So you can't stop things from happening and what you do is you pick up and like what are the learnings? So what could be done better? And when we talk about, then it's capitalize on what happens in the face of need. So it's about showing the need in another way and saying, “Hey, why don't we listen to people? Why don't I? Why don't we provide these solutions?” So when the same people, that is, I don't finally need to sit down with the manager but with the people on the team who themselves are the ones who carry the voice to voice, then when that sounds different they say, “Hey, come on let's work on it because it's important.” Yes, so I think that it is strategically necessary to go step by step, one would like to take a quantum step eh in matters of Human Talent, but we must not only propose the solution but also the need.

Julia: The need. OK? If it becomes a point like the problem, let's just say that one finds the easiest answer.

Veronica: Totally. Even when you start to generate and this is where Human Talent also has to generate these alliances with other areas, yes, and it's, “Hey, well, I hear you, what's your need?” Then I can tell him, “I have this solution, let's pilot it and if it works initially we go to management and review it.” So in the end I'm not the one selling it, It's the team that has the news, in other words, they are again ambassadors, not only to their teams as replicators of that toolbox that you are giving them, but also ambassadors to the management that these strategies are being necessary.

Julia: Exactly.

Veronica: Exactly, so that was key.

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Block 8: Internal Alliances, Ambassadors and Measurable Results

Julia: Spectacular! But what about in numbers? How do we see the issue of two, let's say I would believe, are very positive consequences of the issue of well-being and the issue of development, and it is on the one hand the issue of rotation and on the other hand the topic of internal mobility within the organization? How are you guys doing on these two trains?

Veronica: Well, there is a very positive figure and that is that we are in 3% in rotation, yes, and this is positive to the extent that efforts and investment are, let's say, sent elsewhere. On the subject of internal mobility, we received eh with a team that we had for a similar time, which was 3 years ago, we received a challenge, and it is How today do we get an expert people who do manual work, because our work is with manual dedication, hey the generations today aren't really motivated by being in a company to do manual work, but it's another type of orientation. So what we said, “Hey, let's do a topic of polyfunctionality where we identify the abilities of the people we have today and begin to teach them”. And that is an interesting task that has also been done in conjunction with the headquarters of the of the plants, and that is, “Today, Julia, what Expertise and if you would like to learn?” So we asked people, “Would you like to learn how to do this task?” So yes, we take the same amount of time out of work and put it hey with a mentor to teach him. And this has worked because then we already got the, let's say, the most basic and easiest position on the market and we started to make them experts in the task. So there is a multifunctionality that has been working for two years and that has allowed us to contribute to the number. Then.

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Block 9: Professional Growth, Stability and Salary Attractiveness

Veronica: ... today it is a daily production of mattresses that we cannot lower or of or of furniture that we cannot lower, and that despite adversities and staff news, well, we have to solve ourselves and people see it as a professional growth, economic growth, and that makes it like, “I want to continue learning in El Dorado”, all in all, that has been important.

Julia: Yes, and those mentors are internal mentors.

Veronica: Yes, they are people who carry, they are young people, we still have people who carry 30 years with the company and that they are like those eh mentors who help in the process, but the same young people today you see and the population is between 25 and 35 years old, so they themselves generate that empathy and begin to teach people. In fact, we've recruited people from Pasto who say, “Hey, here's an opportunity because What do we offer you in El Dorado? There is significant wage competitiveness, uh I can tell you with total certainty that No one in El Dorado is always above the basic or base salary What is eh because we have incentives, because it is above, and because we do take the trouble of evaluating one by one eh annually, and in addition we offer a lot of stability, yes. So, as long as the person wants to dream they can do it, and at some point in some organization we talked, The size of the desk makes one, so and they are clear about that.

Julia: And here I am once again seeing that DNA that we were talking about just now reflected, suddenly more towards the part as an organizational company also in talent, because then it is tradition, an organization steeped in tradition, but quality employment and employment that also allows you to innovate and from your role to contribute to different areas. I think it's spectacular. A question that I cannot miss, Vero, well, clearly because of what we do and that is how do you leverage yourself in technology, above all this?

Veronica: That's very, that's really challenging, Julia, because hey sometimes we would talk and it's, “Hey, how do we get to the level of let's say of every detail of people and different areas?” In other words, it's not the same thing where I reach a tactical and strategic level at an operational level. So what we are doing is how eh through social networks where enc, that is, is to analyze where do I find my population, Yes, what do I use or what do I use to search for people? Yes, so I can't say public on an X network because then they won't have access to the person. So the talent challenge is also identify very well where my target population is and that is what we should do. In fact, what we also do and what our selection leader does is, “Listen, the person doesn't have the resume or review it, I help them build it because I have to present it to the leader”. So hey, Liliana, who is part of the team, does this exercise with people she is passionate about, so people from the beginning start as if to do it. So today what are we doing that talent and from there there is a connection between that person who is in the process with the company.

Julia: Spectacular! No?

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Block 10: Technology in Recruiting and the Worker's Journey

Veronica: Exactly, so right from the start, and what we really want to feel is that they feel that familiarity. So what are we doing? Hey, you know that from talent you ensure critical processes from payroll, from everything that is data management. From here we want to connect this whole topic of recruitment and selection with technology topics. Today we are doing some processes such as the interview, Record, you introduce yourself and we present it to the leaders and people kind of feel connected to that. Yes, We have part of artificial intelligence in recruitment issues and that decreases the opportunity, let's say, it decreases the time and opportunity to deliver candidates, hey, and we are also taking it not only to what is recruitment, but also to the agility of internal processes with safety and health at work, training, development. So, almost like you do a Journey It is also about the worker, because you talk about the customer, but so is the worker and that is the trace we want to have in the face of automation.

Julia: Spectacular, spectacular! And on the subject of Onboarding already happening, let's say that this stage of this process, how do you leverage that process there so that I can know, let's say in depth, every gesture you are telling us in these details?

Veronica: Look, part of the strategy you were asking me about is to create the need and then provide the solution. When we arrived in El Dorado we found that uh they were times like, “There's a person coming, so I need you to sit down with that person. Then I would take you away, it would capture you a lot of time. And what we said is, “Okay, we're going to do something, and it's Let's record some videos that we recorded alone in El Dorado and we gave the person the spotlight and put together a whole mesh of training everything”. And then every person when they came in, we would sit them down, we would present only the equipment and start doing the training through videos and evaluations and so on, with accompaniments and all that. We already have it in a data, that is, it is no longer in writing, so that made Let's optimize the time of area leaders that also the person, when he is going to introduce himself to each one, knows where he is.

Julia: Of course!

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Block 11: Automated Onboarding and 360° Performance Management

Veronica: And they are already becoming known, “I have seen this face somewhere”. Then we also welcome you on that side and it helps us with the data. In other words, today the data, I think that the technological world is forcing us today to have a data of everything, a figure of everything. So we need to have the figure on time and it's not the same thing huh make a Onboarding of an operative that of an administrator, and there hey Julia, I think there is the key to human talent and it is Put yourself in the person's shoes because it is not the same to seat an operational person as an administrative person, no more with computer management. So that's where the relationship with Human Talent is key.

Julia: Yes. What are the trends that you say, “This 2025 I can't finish without this special project, without this topic that I want to launch or those trends that you are following and you say I would love it all of a sudden it's not in my 2025 project but I do want to implement it”?

Veronica: Well, look that hey in El Dorado we have been taking important steps in growth since Human Talent as an area, hey and we are taking talent as a 2.0, in other words, we are going little by little and part of this year's exercises, of the projects, is that performance management, that genuine feedback that sometimes it doesn't happen, hey that sometimes we omit or that we run away to talk to him, yes. So we want to do it with that greater closeness to a result of setting objectives. So the challenge today is in what are our strategic objectives but How do we translate them Today from my position, that is, from the operational, the commercial, the administrative one, and that is a project that we want to, uh, carry out this year 360 degrees so we all know where we're going, yes, because sometimes I don't know the importance and impact of my role and sometimes I think I'm very small and very administrative, but you handle very important things, yes. And this accompanied by technology, is really not unknown, almost because we are also evaluating what can be better all the time, because you know that this also comes at a cost, but that is translating it into cost-benefit. So today is how we can see visuals in data or I mention the same thing in technology from all processes and we have been working on it from commercial to administrative. I think Human Talent has been very demanding these last two years for technology in El Dorado because we want to take those steps and be pioneers in those changes.

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Block 12: Role Impact and Referents in Human Talent

Julia: How nice, Vero! To close here a question that is suddenly a little bit corking, but what are those references of yours, whether they are mentors, leaders, eh or companies that you say are doing very well and that is where we want to go too?

Veronica: Well, look, my previous experiences have been important to me and I, we have made some interesting teams, I have a mentor, he is now the vice president of human talent at Sum who is Jorge Rodríguez, is an admirable person who has an important essence of strategic talent management, but a filiality eh and we say, “Hey, how cool does a Bernardo de Ramo, how it consolidates its teams, is admirable”. Hey, I worked and I know Sonia Salazar de Banty, the vice president of human talent at Banty eh and I'm still in Linding and it's incredible how they're starting to manage important things with gender, right? , hey how it also includes women as jobs that you say, “That's just a man's”, because we train women and we also give them the tool to do it. So I think that's where we have to go in that strategy and you see that they are companies that have their human talent, their talent teams and how they value people, so that's the level of maturity that we want to achieve little by little to offer that same well-being to people.

Julia: And what do you like those leaders who leave the desk?

Veronica: Totally. I believe that there is success, it is the success of leaders of human talent, total, total.

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Block 13: Final Message of Close Leadership and the Role of Human Talent

Julia: Vero, any messages to close?

Veronica: Yes, the message is that Let's not lose that essence of talent, it is sometimes difficult to be on the same day to day basis and the gigantic operation in an area of talent leads one to blur certain important aspects, but I think that sitting, talking, getting close to people, being in operations, yes, putting on your boots as we were talking about, putting on your boots and living the way anyone lives the workplace generates that filiality and we cannot blur and always be ambassadors on issues of change, automation and technology and of always thinking differently.

Julia: Spectacular! Well Vero, thank you very much for joining us. To all the people who connected today, thank you very much, we hope to see you in a future edition and that in your comments you will share those lessons with us or Takeaways who are taking away today from this very special conversation with Vero. Thank you all very much and have a nice day.

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