Federica Melchiorre, HR Assistant and Travel Pool Services in Cementir Holding, Sara Marzialetti, Group Organization, Talent & Development and Internal Communication Manager e Valeria Peperoni, Talent Acquisition and Development Specialist, told us about the collaboration between the HR team of the famous Group and Skilla.
Cementir Holding is a multinational group headquartered in the Netherlands, operating in the construction materials sector. We operate in 18 countries the Group has a production capacity of over 13 million tons of white and gray cement. We sell approximately 10 million tons of aggregates and 5 million cubic meters of concrete annually; we serve as a reference point in infrastructure construction and maintenance, as well as residential and commercial building.
Cementir Holding is world leaders in white cement, the largest producer of cement in Denmark and concrete in the Scandinavian region, the third largest in Belgium, and among the leading international operators of gray cement in Turkey. In Belgium, we manage one of Europe’s largest aggregate quarries, extracting 10 million tons annually. In Turkey, we are active in industrial waste treatment, using it to produce waste-derived fuel for our cement industries.
We defined a sustainability strategy aimed at reducing CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030, outlining a ten-year roadmap and a €100 million investment plan in sustainability projects in the 2024-2026 Industrial Plan, including:
- preliminary studies for the introduction of Carbon Capture (CCS) in Denmark and Belgium;
- upgrading the new kiln at the Belgian plant to increase the use of alternative fuels from the current 40% to over 70%, transitioning to natural gas in some Group’s facilities;
- preparing the necessary structures for FUTURECEM® production in Denmark;
- increasing the use of alternative fuels in Turkey and other projects to reduce climate impact in transports, procurement, logistics;
- optimise water resource usage in the production process.
In February 2024, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) validated Cementir’s short- and long-term climate objectives, deemed consistent with the 1.5°C global warming scenario. Furthermore, SBTi approved Cementir’s overall net zero emissions target by 2050.
With the Cementir 4.0 project, we have accelerated the extensive use of digital technology in our production processes in order to maintain the operational excellence and attention to detail that mark us throughout the value chain: from limestone extraction to the use of raw materials and alternative fuels in clinker production, to the creation of semi-finished and environmentally friendly products. Since 1955, Cementir Holding has been listed on the Milan Stock Exchange and is now one of the main companies in the Euronext STAR Milan segment. Since 1992, Cementir has been part of the Caltagirone Group, one of Italy’s leading private entrepreneurial groups with activities in residential construction, infrastructure, publishing, real estate, and finance.
How is Training organised in your company?
We deliver customised global training courses tailored to our needs and specific training courses based on the needs of each professional family.
The Cementir Academy serves as a key enabler of our corporate strategy and an accelerator of individual development through internal and external training initiatives spanning four macro areas: Cultural and corporate, Managerial, Technical-functional, and Onboarding.
Developing and updating our knowledge and skills, integrating diverse experiences and cultures, preserving and disseminating knowledge within our Group, promoting innovation and creativity: these are the main objectives of the Cementir Academy, our training hub.
Our uniqueness comes from the values that animate our behaviours and allow us to be a solid, international, and successful entity. Our strategy is linked to our corporate culture, which is based on five pillars: Sustainability, Dynamism, Value of people, Quality, Diversity and Inclusion.
We believe that investing in our people and giving them the opportunity to grow professionally and develop their skills, supports the development and growth of our organisation and facilitates the achievement of our strategic objectives in an effective and sustainable way.
Cementir Academy’s Mission
- CREATING VALUE OVER TIME
- The Cementir Academy is our Group’s training hub that enables us to grow and proactively respond to the challenges of an increasingly competitive and rapidly changing environment. Through the Cementir Academy, we develop and update the professional and managerial skills and abilities of our people.
- PROMOTING CHANGE AND INNOVATION
- The Cementir Academy aims to enable a culture of continuous improvement and is functional to the pursuit of corporate strategies and performance. It promotes the sharing of knowledge and best practices that allow people to develop new ways of working and managing relationships with different stakeholders, both internal and external to the organisation.
- FACILITATING INCLUSION AND CONTINUOUS LEARNING
- With Cementir Academy, we aim to promote an inclusive approach that allows our people to experience training in an engaging manner, inspiring them to invest in continuous learning. For this reason, we use technologies and web tools, along with more traditional approaches such as classroom training, on-the-job training, coaching, and mentoring.
How did you first discover Skilla?
Skilla has been a longstanding partner of the Cementir Group and our collaboration has been solid and continuous since 2017 thanks to the quality of the services offered.
We collaborate with Skilla both for the design and delivery of mandatory corporate training and for ad hoc courses, designed for specific international training and development initiatives.
What was the training need you had to face? How did you tackle this challenge?
One of the most important need we had to face was ensuring comprehensive training for all employees globally. Skilla’s platform allows us to create and co-design customised courses to develop specific skills. Some examples are the “Train the trainer” and “Basic management skills” courses, tailored for development initiatives such as the Emerging Talent Program, aimed at training future leaders, and the Global Graduate Program, aimed at hiring and training recent graduates in technical/engineering disciplines.
According to you, which are the three most important characteristics of Skilla’s offer?
The three most important characteristics are: the ability to create customised courses to be co-designed with Skilla; the fact that Skilla’s courses guarantee interactivity, which makes learning more effective; the efficiency of Skilla teams’ trainers and consultants.
What tangible results or benefits have you achieved thanks to the partnership with Skilla?
Our courses are built based on our most important internal policies (such as Human Rights, DE&I, Code of Ethics, etc.) and allow us to present the contents interactively and immediately. We also have goals in terms of training hours to ensure continuous learning and development for our employees. Thanks to the use of our LMS platform, we observed increased awareness and knowledge of relevant topics among our colleagues.
What are your future projects?
We have just launched the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion course globally to delve into topics such as diversity as an added value and the importance of inclusivity in the workplace, considering the variety of cultures in our multinational company. The next topic that will be addressed together with Skilla will be ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance), a fundamental issue for our current society.