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French Natixis reaches 1,500 people in Porto and will increase its team in 2022

French Natixis reaches 1,500 people in Porto and will increase its team in 2022
O Jornal Económico · 13 Dec 2021
The centre of excellence of the global financial company will have new teams next year, namely in management, regulatory and credit risk.

The second-largest innovation centre of the French bank Natixis is located in Porto and has reached, even before the end of the year, the goal of having 1,500 workers in Portugal, mostly technological talent, from 20 nationalities. Those who enter this excellence hub soon feel like they are in a Silicon Valley-style multinational, full of colour, post-its, rooms with table tennis courts and PlayStation, scooters parked in the cubicles or community vegetable gardens. It is the possible answer to the war for human resources, which not only insists on not disappearing but is becoming more acute with the increased competition in the sector and the digitalization of society.

"There is a fierce fight for Portuguese talent. We go to the universities because we need new graduates, but clearly, there is competition. So, we also go outside, to Brazil, India and Africa", as Jornal Económico (JE) was told by Etienne Huret, Managing Director of Natixis in Portugal, who arrived at the leadership of Natixis' Portuguese market in August 2020, after stamping his résumé in companies such as the Société Générale bank or Accenture.

Initially, when Natixis set up in Invicta in 2017, the financial institution aimed to recruit 600 people in the area of Information Technology (IT), but since February of last year it has also started hiring in the areas of Management, Economics, Finance and Law, making it one of the largest investments in human resources ever made by the group at a worldwide level - which resulted from the merger of the investment and asset management operations of Natixis Banque Populaire and IXIS. The building owned by Soares da Costa, which interior eminence goes unnoticed to anyone passing by on the street, is located in the parish of Bonfim and has in its neighbourhood unicorns and renowned technology companies such as Farfetch, Feedzai or Blip.pt.

"[The innovation centre in] Paris has 8 or 9 thousand people, and it is not in our ambition to get there, but we will continue to grow in IT, in operations and [in the financial] risk department. I am satisfied with the path we started almost two years ago of diversifying our activities. We are going to create some new teams, from the finance division, for performance management, regulatory reporting and credit risk", Etienne Huret told JE, as he walked the floors of his "vivarium of talent" in the North.

With almost three decades of experience in the banking sector, Etienne Huret believes that his connection to India allows him to be a more aware and curious managing director because of the connection between human beings, simplicity, and the fact that it is a very emotional country. In fact, he was able to attract 15 highly qualified Indian professionals to Oporto, and today seeks to retain them with Diwali celebrations in the offices and other similar initiatives.

"I think I am a better person since I lived and worked in India, with all the life knowledge that is gained, but I still have many things to learn”.

"We should never think that something is forever because everything is constantly changing rapidly. Personally, today it is my 16-year-old son who is teaching me a lot of new topics about artificial intelligence, blockchain... We should never feel in the position of being able to say "it's done”. At Natixis this doesn't exist", he assures, in front of corridors and open spaces half empty because 70-75% of the employees are telecommuting.

Despite believing in the hybrid model, Etienne Huret guarantees that you don't learn as much when you're alone at home. "You can't catch hallway conversations, the humour and concerns of employees... When you are face to face, sometimes you can understand their challenges", he says, joking with the example of a friend who had a personal trainer during confinements and realized that the trainer was becoming much more demanding because through the video calls he couldn't see the amount of sweat that was already pouring out of his pores.

To the JE, the general manager of the company makes a "very positive" assessment of recruitment initiatives in Lisbon such as the "Natixis Open Day LX Edition", which goes beyond the number of interviews and new employees hired as a result because it aims above all to publicize Natixis in Portugal, its culture and growth plans. Currently, the retention rate of trainees stands at 85%.
"The recruitment campaign targeted at junior profiles, which ran from July to November, allowed us to attract nearly 150 young talents. As soon as the pandemic context allows, we are working to take Natixis Bus to other universities, such as Minho (Braga and Guimarães), Porto, Aveiro, Coimbra and Trás-os-Montes (Vila Real and Bragança). The initiative will be called "Purple Tour". The goal will be to contact students interested in doing their end-of-course project/internship at Natixis between March and July. We have the centre of excellence in Porto, but we believe that talent is everywhere", said the manager, who has a long-standing relationship with Portugal.