Testimonial - Tarkett

Testimonial - Tarkett

Name: Wim Van Medegael
Role: Plant manager

TARKETT GROUP

Tarkett is an international market leader in innovative flooring and sport surfaces solutions. With a wide range of products including vinyl, linoleum, carpet, rubber, wood, laminate, artificial turf and athletic track, the group serves customers in more than 100 countries worldwide. Tarkett sells 1.3 million square metres of floor space every day for hospitals, schools, homes, hotels, offices, shops and sports fields. Headquartered in Paris, the group has 12,000 employees (500 of them in Belgium) in 34 production sites. Its turnover in 2021 was €2.8 billion. Tarkett is a listed company.

You can read more about TARKETT by clicking this link.

What are the objectives for the Teamleaders’ training programme?

I have been Plant Manager in Dendermonde for over 2 years now. Quite soon after I started, it became clear to me that many of the Team Leaders did not really know what was expected of them and therefore did not feel very comfortable with some of the aspects of leading a team. The communication between the different layers of management was also not always smooth, and cooperation across departments was sometimes difficult. The path we had in mind had to help address this.

I also noticed that some people thought back to the ‘Desso’ era with a lot of nostalgia, a time that is now about five years behind us. We are now part of a large international group headquartered in France, where the distance from the final decision-makers naturally feels like a very big deal to people on the floor.

Why SANGOO?

We really liked the approach SANGOO proposed. The approach makes people reflect and creates awareness. The years of business experience SANGOO offers is also clearly a differentiator from what other suppliers offer. SANGOO clearly made us curious during the preliminary process and this curiosity certainly contributed to our decision to choose SANGOO. What also helped is your personality: down-to-earth, you mean what you say and you are convinced of your added value. Perhaps you should initially further highlight the richness of your offering. You really offer a wide range, with many options to choose from. On the other hand, we have now built the programme of the Team Leaders together …

How do you evaluate the cooperation so far?

The logic of going through the SANGOO process with the management team first has clear added value. It helps to support the rest of the organisation through the process afterwards. It creates a terminology that wasn’t there before. As a manager, you should expose yourself on a regular basis to something that makes you reflect.

The interactive SANGOO story takes people along, convincing participants in a different way than the classic classroom/teacher concept. Participants are given very practical, recognisable concepts, along with a manageable way to put them into practice.

Your flexibility is also an asset. You have enough knowledge and experience to adapt to our needs. I remember that at the beginning of the process, we did not have a clear idea what the content of the entire programme was. Indeed, it was not clear to anyone what the specific needs of the team leaders were. You ‘forced’ us to help build the pathway for the team leaders, which ensured that it was better embedded. The fact that we started working on this together and were able to shape this together is definitely a plus.

How do you perceive the added value?

For me personally, the process had added value from the start. The enjoyment you guys exude is very infectious …. I never saw you as trainers, rather as partners. You don’t deliver a ‘training trick’, your training sessions are really of a higher level. I definitely think the team leaders’ programme is a success. After each session, I noticed that the team leaders grew in their role: they stand up for their opinions in a constructive, respectful way. They come up with good suggestions on how to tackle things. They dare to ask questions …. At the management level, the picture is a bit more diverse: the managers who also look at the human side of professional cooperation clearly benefit.

Do you find the programme a success?

For the ‘technical’ managers, it is a bit more difficult: it might be a personal enrichment for them, but they find applying it in practice more difficult. Towards the future, I think the alignment between the management layer and the team leader layer needs to be further strengthened. We have already seen the first positive results here, but it is still fragile. We recognise that we still need to provide additional support.”