Humanize Programme at AEP: The Impact on Human Capital
As part of the webinar “The Impact of DISC on Organisations: Talent Management and Artificial Intelligence”, Ana Alves, Director of Human Capital at AEP, shared the association’s experience in implementing the Humanize Programme, an organisational transformation project that integrated several methodologies into the development of people, leadership and organisational culture.
The AEP – Portuguese Business Association has existed for 177 years and is one of the oldest associations in the country, dedicated to providing services to companies in general and to its members in particular.
This type of activity requires a strong focus on people, since the quality of the services provided is directly related to the commitment of employees and their daily performance.
The diversity of profiles, ages and stages of life has a direct impact on human resources management, the organisation’s culture and the way in which its activity is carried out. For this reason, people management is understood as a dynamic process that requires constant attention to employees’ needs, expectations and motivations, as well as continuous adaptation to the evolution of the organisational context.
Ana Alves, Director of Human Capital at AEP – Portuguese Business Association
The Humanize Programme
In 2024, an assessment of the organisation’s needs was carried out, and the Board of the AEP Group decided to support a programme designed and implemented by SEAL Group, focused on organisational transformation, culture and leadership. Internally named the Humanize Programme, it was developed throughout 2024 and 2025.
The initiative involved 109 employees, who took part in an assessment through an organisational climate monitor. The high participation rate made it possible to identify the main challenges and opportunities for improvement, providing the basis for the work subsequently carried out.
Based on this assessment, a programme with a strategic component and another focused on the development of behavioural skills was implemented. This work resulted in four strategic initiatives focused on human capital: talent retention, internal communication, adjustment of the services provided and member management.
The Sessions
Regarding the programme’s skills development component (soft skills), we worked with the DISC methodology. All employees were invited to complete the assessment to identify their behavioural profile, which was subsequently used in several modules of the programme, namely in the areas of communication and feedback. In these highly practical modules, it was possible to explore the importance of adapting communication to different behavioural profiles, adjusting the message according to how it is perceived and received by each person.
The Humanize Programme also included individual coaching and mentoring sessions. In this context, each participant had the opportunity to work on their DISC report in greater depth with a SEAL Coach/Mentor, with a focus on self-awareness and self-development, exploring their challenges, difficulties, strengths and development opportunities, without the need to expose themselves in front of their colleagues. For Management and Coordination roles, five (5) coaching and mentoring sessions were held, which made it possible to deepen the understanding of behavioural profiles and their application in leadership and team management.
With regard to the group sessions, it was very interesting to observe the reflection that this dynamic generated within the teams. I myself, as a Human Resources professional, found that I gained a better understanding of certain reactions and behaviours. We began to better understand why certain people react differently to the same message, document or decision, which made the relevance of different behavioural styles within the organisational context much clearer. These sessions had an impact on the dynamics and relationships between everyone.
Social Responsibility
As part of a social responsibility approach, a very interesting initiative also emerged. At a time when many employees’ children were making decisions related to vocational guidance and their academic path, employees’ children were given the opportunity, completely free of charge, to complete the DISC assessment with a vocational focus and subsequently receive individual support from SEAL.
Interested employees registered their children through AEP, and the entire process was then coordinated directly with SEAL to ensure confidentiality. Each participant received their individual report, always in compliance with confidentiality and data protection rules. In the case of minors, the information was sent directly to their legal guardians’ email addresses, and the process was conducted directly between the families and SEAL.
This was another initiative within the area of Human Capital: Talent Retention. Taking into account the characteristics of our internal workforce, with a strong female presence and employees at a stage of life when many have children of school or university age, we considered that vocational guidance could provide relevant support for families.
Social responsibility measures should be designed according to the characteristics of the organisation’s different groups. We cannot develop initiatives aimed only at a particular age group or stage of life. It is important to ensure solutions that promote overall satisfaction and respond to employees’ different needs. In addition to vocational guidance, we implemented other measures, such as financial support for holiday camps for employees’ children and health and well-being initiatives, including participation in races and walks, the organisation of yoga classes, etc.
Conclusion:
These are some of the specific measures that resulted from the Humanize Programme. Essentially, we seek to develop solutions that respond to the different profiles, interests and stages of life of our employees, while always taking into account the characteristics of our internal workforce. We can say that we developed this programme, which involved training, consultancy, coaching and strategic support, with the aim of preparing our organisation for the future, in which people should increasingly be at the centre of management.
In partnership with Disc Talent Solutions (www.disc.pt)
