Virginia Grenón Lobato, Global Head of Human Resources Operation at Cabify
I joined Cabify a little over a year ago to run the Human Resources Operation department, and what is that? Well, labour, PRL, Analytics, OM, C&B at a Global level, and the EX and Diversity area. So, my days are fun, challenging, and entertaining.
I am 45 years old, married, and a mother of two, Santi (8) and Ignacio (6).
I describe myself as a creative, cheerful, and good-humoured person.
I confess that sometimes my 1.83m height plays tricks on me, and apart from bumping my head from time to time when people see me so tall, they are shocked and assume that I am a very serious person, but nothing could be further from the truth!
I am passionate about challenges, dynamism, and change, and apply this to almost every aspect of my life.
Do you feel that emotional salary has impacted the company’s HR strategy during its 12+ year history?
Without a doubt, a huge YES!
Cabify is a company that is truly committed to its employees’ well-being.
We do this from multiple perspectives, such as work-life balance, where we highlight our BIG WOW, our “recharge days”.
This is done by taking a day off on the third Friday of each month. This initiative has been implemented in all the offices for some years now and in countries where we are present. It is really one of the best-valued initiatives by all professionals, and why not say it, we are one of the very few companies in the market that has taken concrete measures to reduce working hours across the board for all its professionals.
However, we have many additional TOP measures for work-life balance, and we continue to work to offer new and innovative options.
But it doesn’t stop there. We understand that offices are really important spaces to live, enjoy, learn and share, so we have modern facilities, adapted to different profiles, for example, in our Madrid office we have resting rooms, a ping pong table, an exercise room, a garden, and a lot of other things.
“Finding you as a partner who could provide us with value wherever our team is and at whatever time, was a great discovery.”
Being together, getting to know each other, and strengthening interpersonal relationships is vital for us, so every Thursday, we organise afterworks, not forgetting parties, teambuildings, and events throughout the year for employees and our families.
The health and well-being of our professionals also forms part of our concerns and priorities.
What 3 elements do you think are essential for a successful employee journey?
I think that each of us is driven by different reasons, and it is very difficult for me to give you three elements that can be generalised.
I can give you my personal opinion and what is vital for me:
1- A sincere, strong working team where trust and respect are a must.
2- Flexibility and autonomy. Having the opportunity to create, reinvent, reflect, raise counterpoints, innovate, and experiment without fear of failure.
3- To feel supported and cared for, including salary, recognition, professional career, and other aspects.
How do you unify and/or centralise the care of your employees?
I think the most important thing is to involve everyone, to ask questions, and not to assume.
To get out of the “HR laboratory in HQ” and by this, I mean that, sometimes, we suggest unique solutions to problems, without understanding that we are different, with different needs, and sometimes conflicting realities.
LISTEN, but listen well! Actively!
Define a clear route. A plan adapted to different situations, or as close to them as possible.
Give concrete, grounded, and viable solutions to employees.
Measure, add, and subtract (this part is vital), estimate the ROI of what we want to do, and be critical (and self-critical).
Do not lose focus, be consistent with what we set out to do, but don’t be “stubborn”. If we have to change, we change! or we redesign; the important thing is to resolve the question we are asking ourselves, not the dogmas of faith and preconceived solutions.
Involve our stakeholders from the beginning. If there is no ownership, it is much more complicated for things to happen and to happen the way we want them to.
Did your sustainable business model influence your decision to establish an online mental well-being solution like ifeel?
The decision is closely related to one of our raisons d’être, which in turn is one of our principles: Improving cities, and although the correlation may seem strange, cities are made by people (among others).
People, through their feelings, sensations, experiences, and stories, build the world. Cities influence us, and we influence them.
So yes, we can connect it perfectly with trying to help people to live better, to be better, and ultimately to become better.
What made you choose us as the main partner for your team’s mental well-being?
The topic of mental health is a concern for many of us, and even more so in the aftermath of the pandemic.
We found that mental health was a recurring theme in conversations. Words like anxiety, tiredness, stress, loneliness, distress, etc. became part of our vocabulary.
And although some people may understand that these issues belong to the personal sphere and not the professional one, we understand them holistically: people are whole, and we do not break in half when we arrive at the office.
This is how we came up with the idea of working in this sphere: to provide tools, support, and help to those who need it. Knowing that someone on the other side can give you a hand or two when needed, generates a certain calmness and helps us face situations from a different perspective.
“When we feel good, everything goes smoothly, and life flows naturally”.
Ifeel’s proposal offered us the possibility of dealing with these issues, with flexibility, utmost confidentiality, a very powerful professional team behind us, and the feeling of security that they would be there wherever we needed them.
As a multinational company with professionals in hybrid and full remote format, multicultural, super diverse, with a wide geographical dispersion, and, to top it all off, with professionals who speak different languages, finding you as a partner who could provide us with value wherever our team is and at whatever time, was a great discovery.
Best of all, after several months with the service in place, Cabify’s professionals are very happy with the service, and we are delighted to have found a very good travelling companion.
