A Plea for Recognition in the Workplace

A couple of weeks ago my wife Francine and I visited our favorite city in the world… Paris, the city of lights! We had a great trip walking several hours every day exploring museums and other off the beat haunts.

I also got the opportunity of meeting my good Parisian friend, Christophe Laval. He is a fellow Recognition Professionals International CRP grad. (The only difference being he took the courses in English, his second language, for which RPI should give him bonus points!)

For the last several years Christophe has been the president and CEO of Entreprise & Personnel (the French equivalent of SHRM) and prior to that he was the VP HR for the Compass Group in Europe with about 100,000 employees.

Employee recognition has become a passion of Christophe’s and he believes it is not being used to its full potential in France and other European countries. For that reason, Christophe intends on leaving Entreprise & Personnel at year end and becoming a full time employee recognition consultant. The name of his new company is VPHR (Vision Performance Human Capital Recognition) and you can visit him at his Recognition at Work website.

Christophe just wrote a book in French on employee recognition called “Plaidoyer pour la reconnaissance au travail,” literally translated… “A Plea For Recognition in the Workplace.” You can purchase the book at Livrebusiness.com. It is a very good read and I strongly recommend it.

Christophe launched his book in Paris at the Georges V Hotel on November 7th and the launch was attended by about 75 senior level HR professionals. Afterwards, I participated on a panel with Christophe and we answered questions about Recognition Professionals International, the use of recognition and its international differences.

I believe that Christophe Laval will be a great asset to the international recognition community.