How to serve business efficiency in HR

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Inside Ardian

How to serve business efficiency in HR

  • 05 June 2025

  • Talent

Reading time: 7 minutes

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Maria Stasse

Global Head of HR, Ardian

Ardian’s recent growth has brought hundreds of new employees to the company and an expanding global presence. In response, Ardian is evolving the way its HR professionals support the business by creating closer links with each team. This is enhancing both operational efficiency and talent management.

 

"We are becoming true business partners"

Our company has grown hugely in recent years– from 664 employees in 2019 to more than 1,080 by the end of 2024. We have expanded our office network, launched new activities, raised bigger funds and massively increased our assets under management. A company that has undergone this kind of transformation must also adapt its approach to HR

The challenge is no longer simply to attract the most talented people and meet the company’s recruitment needs. Now, we must focus on helping it to grow, while also ensuring it operates as effectively as possible. Ardian is a diversified firm investing across multiple asset classes, each with its own needs and constraints. To support our teams and deliver Ardian’s strategic goals, our HR team must have a more detailed understanding of every area of our activities – our investment teams, our support teams and the diverse cultures and legal regimes that make up our global network. To succeed, we must get closer to the business. 

This is why we have created our HR Business Partners. Each of our ten Business Partners is attached to one of Ardian’s teams and based in one of our main global offices. 

  • 1,080+

    Employees

  • 10

    HR Business Partners at Ardian

  • 40,000

    resumes received in 2024

The benefits of this new model are huge. Every team now has a dedicated HR professional with direct access to the full range of support we can offer. This brings closer co-operation and better planning. The Business Partners work hand-in-hand with managers to understand how their activities will develop and what support their team will need. This allows us to take a much more strategic approach to talent management. The centerpiece of this strategy is the annual recruitment plan that we now develop with the managers of each team to deliver the business’s objectives. Our Business Partners program puts quality and efficiency at the heart of our HR strategy.

We are becoming true business partners.

Maria Stasse, Global Head of HR, Ardian

Our ambition is to retain our talent

Our priority now is to build the conditions for everyone to thrive. To achieve this, we must ensure that our talents stay with Ardian, develop their skills and build long- term careers with us.

The introduction of our Business Partners allows Ardian’s HR professionals to provide more tailored support to each of the operational teams. It also provides HR with a platform through which it can implement its broader strategy more effectively. Building a strong partnership with each of Ardian’s teams will enable the HR team to ensure that companywide policies and initiatives are communicated and implemented consistently across all departments. This is a critical factor in successful talent management.

The HR team has set out three strategic priorities for the immediate future: Organizational Efficiency, Talent Management and becoming a Data-Driven Department. Many of the initiatives launched under these headings are interlinked and contribute to Ardian’s key goals: to become more efficient, to retain talented employees and develop their careers within Ardian.

Our three strategic pillars are closely linked and complement each other. Bringing HR professionals closer to our business teams ensures more consistent implementation of our policies and business objectives. Achieving this consistency is also an essential element of our approach to talent engagement and is supported by our data strategy, which enables evidence-based decision making.

Our ambition is to retain our talent.

Maria Stasse, Global Head of HR, Ardian

ORGANIZATIONAL EFFICIENCY

TALENT 
ENGAGEMENT

DATA-DRIVEN 
DEPARTMENT

 
 
 
Business Partners are the core of our strategy

 

The system of HR Business Partners that we have introduced is the central element of our approach to improving organizational efficiency. This initiative will help us gain a clearer understanding of each team’s needs and provide better support.

A second important element of our Organizational Efficiency pillar is to make sure the strategy and objectives set for Ardian by the General Management Team are fully understood by each operational team. This will allow each of them to set targets and KPIs that align their efforts with Ardian’s high-level goals. This is vital for the success of our One Ardian initiative, which encourages everyone to work for the benefit of the organization as a whole and to collaborate across teams and geographies.

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

                                                         

                                                                                                        

 

Identifying and developing Ardian’s high-flyers

 

Ardian’s long-term success depends on retaining talented people and helping them develop long and successful careers with us. Employees must feel that their performance is assessed against objective criteria that are applied consistently across the company and that decision making processes in HR are transparent and well understood.

The Talent Program that we are developing is designed to help identify and nurture high-performing employees. It provides financial and non-financial recognition for their achievements, including opportunities to work in other teams and countries.

We place great weight on management training and leadership skills. Implementing HR Business Partners empowers managers to manage HR tasks more effectively. Equipping them with tools and setting out the company’s leadership model ensures good talent management and creates ambassadors for our Talent Program. We count on managers to foster an inclusive work environment, boosting our collective intelligence. Progress requires consistent commitment, so I&D remains a permanent element of our talent engagement effort.

 

 

                                                             

 
 
Better use of data drives better decision-making

 

Our final priority is to make more informed and transparent HR decisions by using data more effectively. We have started implementation of an HR tool that will ultimately support all HR processes including appraisals, training and compensation. Putting this in place will underpin all other aspects of our HR strategy, and provide a single, company-wide source of data for HR-related decisions.

A major benefit of this implementation will be to ease employees’ and managers’ day-to-day lives and ensure HR policies and initiatives are rolled out consistently across every team and office.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                              

Inclusion & Diversity at Ardian

We steadfastly maintain our Inclusion and Diversity efforts, believing that diverse teams in inclusive environments drive long-term success. Our I&D initiatives are vital to amplifying our collective intelligence and remain a permanent focus of our talent engagement. Since making Inclusion and Diversity a strategic objective in 2020, our HR Strategy has evolved to be more attuned to team needs and transparent. We are committed to attracting and retaining top talent, ensuring equal opportunities, and fostering an environment where everyone feels valued and sees clear career paths.

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    • Diversity & Inclusion

    • Talent

    • Human Resources