How did Sanofi unlocked the potential of its talents by working with Authentic Talent and Hogan Assessments ?
In this article, Marina Gridneva, Global Talent Partner at Sanofi, talks about the work we did together and its impact on the attraction, hiring and retaining strategies at Sanofi.

Client Company

We are Sanofi, an innovative global healthcare company. We chase the miracles of science to improve people’s lives. Our team, across some 100 countries, is dedicated to transforming the practice of medicine by working to turn the impossible into the possible. We provide potentially life-changing treatment options and life-saving vaccine protection to millions of people globally, while putting sustainability and social responsibility at the center of our ambitions.

Website : www.sanofi.com

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/sanofi/

Introduction

Hello, I’m Marina Gridneva, a global leader with extensive experience in strategic HR roles across consulting, banking, and healthcare.

With over 20 years of expertise, I am an accredited coach and facilitator, holding certifications in Hogan Assessment and Hogan Advanced Interpretation.

As the Global Talent Partner at Sanofi, I lead strategic talent development initiatives that drive business success through innovative and creative problem-solving.

Unlocking potential of Sanofi talents with Hogan Assessments

In 2023 we partnered with Authentic Talent Consulting to integrate Hogan instruments in our global talent acceleration initiative, and it turned to be an ultimate success. We aimed to enhance the ownership of our talents over their development and career strategy. As a result, we have elevated the impact of development activities and brought partnership between talents and people leaders to the next level.

Context : developing talents at Sanofi

Attraction, hiring and retaining potential has been a clear business priority in recent decades, which is becoming even more critical today in achieving long-term market advantage. Business requires motivated diverse pool of enterprise-wide leaders with breadth of experiences, skillset, and mindset ready to exceed the competition and accelerate the pace of transformation. In Sanofi we prioritize advancement of our talents by connecting employee career aspirations, business needs and Sanofi growth ambition.

In the context that Sanofi needs the best leaders to exceed the competition today and, in the future, we launched an ambitious multi-year talent acceleration initiative aimed at strengthening the leadership pipeline by preparing high-potential talent for senior leadership roles. Due to robust talent identification and succession planning process, Sanofi has identified a diverse global pool of 85 high potential talents with learning agility and ambition to grow fast. In 2023 we embarked them on a multi-year journey to acquire critical experiences, broaden leadership mindset and implement a career roadmap. This journey is anticipated to result in enhanced exposure, strengthened leadership, and to enable its participants to hold pivotal roles enterprise-wide.

The first phase of the journey emphasized increased self-awareness, guiding talents to articulate long-term career aspirations and critical experiences to be obtained. The goal was clear: participants should leave with a well-defined career and development plan. We wondered, what will be the best way to raise the self-awareness of our talents about their leadership profile, the work environment, that they strive to create as leaders and types of roles in which they can succeed. We were looking for a tool, that would have a high predictive validity, be applicable to occupational cases and adapted to a business context.

Solution/Working Together

Hogan is known as a high value and high validity tool used for leadership development and building high performing teams. It undergoes 100 validations studies every year. Hogan tools measure a person’s reputation, identifying potential performance and fit into an organization. It is available in 47 languages. Undoubtedly Hogan assessment was selected to be the starting point of the talent accelerator transformative journey.

Sanofi has been partnering with Authentic Talent Consulting for Hogan assessments and internal certification for several years. By that time on top of a Summary report with an overview of Strengths, Values and Challenges, Authentic Talent Consulting has developed a customized report providing an overview of leadership skills and behaviors according to Sanofi Leadership Frame model.

Another advantage of the partnership with ATC was that during the time of cooperation, a database of evaluation of managers at various levels at Sanofi was accumulated. The access that ATC had to industry data allowed for analysis and comparison of our data within the framework of an external norm.

The collaboration with Authentic Talent for the talent accelerator initiative was well-planned and organized in a 6-month collaborative journey.

Initially, participants were introduced to Hogan as a Leadership Development Tool and its value for their growth and development. Following this, 85 talents completed Hogan questionnaires and received personalized debriefs from accredited professionals. These debriefs helped them gain a thorough understanding of their assessment results and encouraged reflection on their individual development and career planning. The Hogan summary reports provided an overview of their personal attributes and leadership preferences. Our focus was to ensure that participants understood their motivations, which would guide their future career decisions, and to help them prioritize their Individual Development Plans strategically by understanding their leadership style.

Then, a population analysis was conducted by ATC to identify collective assets and risks of the talent accelerator cohort and compare them to global leader populations. The comparison benchmarks included Sanofi’s global population, who have earlier completed the Hogan Assessments, as well as middle managers and executives in the pharmaceutical sector. By comparing the average scores of the talent pool group with three benchmarks, ATC were able to draw conclusions about the specific characteristics of the group and to gain a better understanding of the talent pool’s capabilities and differences. We identified both their strengths and areas for improvement across various skills and behaviors. The results of this analysis will provide valuable insights for developing a tailored strategy for the talents.

Lastly, we engaged the talent accelerator participants, their line managers and development partners into informative webinars. The purpose of the “Unlock your potential with Hogan” webinars for talents was to reinforce the value of Hogan as a leadership development tool and guide them on how to leverage the Hogan Assessment Summary Report for a long-term career planning and, the Leadership Frame report for building a stronger individual development plan. “Hogan Assessment Insights Empowering Sessions” for Line Managers and development partners provided them with an overview of the talent accelerator population, based on the collective analysis of Strengths, Values and Risks. They appreciated recommendations on the way to support talents in their development with the use of Hogan Assessment reports.

The webinars were conducted by Sanofi global talent team in partnership with ATC experts. These sessions hosted over 300 Sanofi leaders and significantly increased their awareness of the value of Hogan.

Result for Sanofi talents

The collaboration with Authentic Talent Consulting in implementing the Hogan assessment initiative was a structured and successful endeavor. Several aspects of the collaboration were highly appreciated.

The personalized Hogan debriefs provided individuals with a deep understanding of their assessment results, empowering them to take charge of their own development. The population analysis conducted as part of the collaboration offered valuable insights that helped tailor the development strategy to align with global leader populations.

The empowering sessions for Sanofi leaders further enhanced their understanding of Hogan and its application in supporting talent. This collaboration with Authentic Talent and the implementation of Hogan assessments fostered a new level of partnership between talents and people leaders, with the aim of introducing the best employee experience.

In summary, the collaboration in the talent accelerator program followed a structured approach, which included personalized debriefs, population analysis, and empowering sessions for Sanofi leaders. This approach involved various stakeholders and integrated Hogan as a valuable tool and made a significant contribution to the transformative journey of talent development. The midpoint feedback survey indicated that Hogan consistently emerged as the most valuable development support throughout the journey.

Epilogue

Overall, the implementation of Hogan in the talent accelerator program has yielded positive outcomes by empowering talents, strengthening their partnership with People Leaders, and serving as a catalyst for driving ownership over development.

Moving forward, we will continue to encourage participants to reflect on the outcomes of their Hogan assessments, further unlocking their potentials. We extend our deepest gratitude to the 21 internal Sanofi Hogan certified assessors and Authentic Talent Consultants for their commitment and collaboration. This collective effort has paved the way for a promising future with Hogan as a valuable tool in our talent development initiatives.

The project team:

Sanofi: Marina Gridneva, Global Talent Partner, www.linkedin.com/in/marinagridneva
Authentic Talent Consulting: Leandra RÖTTGER, Chief of Staff, leandra@authentictalent.fr