“There is no standing still at NORMA Group”

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In our Diversity@NORMA series, we highlight the diversity of personalities that work at NORMA Group. In 2023, the focus is on the various generations of NORMA Group employees. Colleagues from different departments, countries and age groups report on the experiences they have had working with older and younger colleagues and how a cross-generational exchange of information and ideas takes place at NORMA Group.

In this interview, Agnes Selva, Financial Controlling Assistant at the NORMA Group site in Briey Cedex, France, talks about the insights she has gained from 37 years with the company and her most memorable experience in terms of cross-generational exchange at NORMA Group.

Agnes, you have been working at NORMA Group for 37 years now – congratulations!

Thank you very much! This is my first real job, but I did do a number of small jobs during school vacations.

Today, I am part of a six-member team. All of us are all from the same generation – we were born between 1965 and 1969. Only my supervisor is younger than us.

What have you been able to learn from younger and older colleagues over the years?

I have had a lot of supervisors who were younger than me, and I was able to learn a lot from them about using new work tools and methods. This has allowed me to develop continuously at NORMA Group – there is no standing still here.

I can contribute a great deal of experience and knowledge about the history of the NORMA Group site here in Briey Cedex into my daily work thanks to the amount of time I have been with the company.

What do you see as the biggest differences between members of your generation and people who are both younger and older?

The differences mainly relate to the way we work and the way we communicate – we don’t have the same training in terms of the kinds of tools we use today.

When I started at NORMA Group, invoices were still written on a typewriter. So, if we made a mistake, we had to start all over again. Today, all you have to do is push a button and the invoices are created and sent directly to the customer.

“It has been necessary for me to adapt to the changing world of work throughout my career.”

Especially when it comes to technical innovations. Today’s generation already learned to use these devices from their childhood.

How do the generations differ in the way they deal with everyday work?

My generation still needs paper documents as a support to work and traditional tools such as the telephone and calculators. The younger generation, on the other hand, works almost without handwritten documents – everything is found digitally on the computer and communication is done via online tools. The new technologies have greatly changed the way we work, and I think that’s a good thing.

Have you had an interesting experience at NORMA Group that is related to a cross-generational exchange?

Yes, I have! Every year, NORMA Group organizes an international meeting with a lot of colleagues from the finance department. One year, this meeting took place in France.

I had the opportunity to be involved in the organization, which allowed me to meet my colleagues from other countries and different generations – people that I communicate with on a regular basis by e-mail but who I have never actually seen.

The personal exchange was very enriching for me, and I was able to learn a lot about new cultures and working methods – for that I am extremely grateful.

Guido Grandi