On March 31, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) presented its first BIL Challenge Cup Awards. These awards recognize the best organizational, environmental and customer projects proposed by its teams of intrapreneurs.
Organized on March 31 by Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL), the “BIL Challenge Cup Awards” ceremony is the festive culmination of a long-term challenge initiated in September 2021 following an internal call for ideas.
The event rewarded projects conceived and developed by multidisciplinary teams of employees in three categories: the development of new business opportunities (BIL Clients), the ESG (The world around us) and projects focused on BIL’s organization (BIL as an Organization).
Beyond the potential added value of the projects presented, the approach behind the BIL Challenge Cup Awards was twofold: on the one hand, to boost the entrepreneurial spirit among staff and, on the other, to encourage collaboration and team spirit after two years of confinement and teleworking.
“The objective was to bring together, within multidisciplinary teams, people from different departments of the bank, and to let them express themselves on ideas that we would not necessarily have thought of,” explains Pierre-Olivier Rotheval, Head of Marketing & Innovation.
“We discovered a strong enthusiasm and involvement among our employees that allows us to look forward to the future with optimism.”
Karin Scholtes, BIL HR Director
3-month hackathon
“It was a real hackathon lasting several months, during which the teams invested a lot of time. To enrich their projects, they were accompanied by a mentor and the expertise of figures from the Luxembourg entrepreneurial and start-up ecosystem. I would like to emphasize that the projects were carried out outside working hours. In view of the quality of the projects presented, I can say that this extra-professional commitment is quite simply remarkable.
Based on several dozen submitted ideas, 15 projects were initially selected. After several rounds of selection, six projects were finally chosen by a jury composed of entrepreneurship experts and members of BIL’s executive committee. After deliberations, four prizes were awarded: one in each of the three categories and a “coup de coeur” prize.
Category “BIL as an Organization”
BeIncLusive : Introduce an Inclusion and Diversity Council and Champion at BIL to foster inclusion and diversity at the bank
Category “BIL Clients”
BIL ‘ink : Create the ability to book an appointment with your Relationship Managers via BILnet
Category “The world around us”
BeeMob : Transform the current car allowance into a true mobility allowance that can be used for alternative modes of transport other than cars
Jury “Coup de cœur”
Green Miles : create a BIL community promoting alternatives to car commuting, through information sharing, targeted events and joint initiatives.
The winners were duly celebrated during an Oscar-like ceremony, and all received training vouchers.
“We were impressed by the quality and maturity of the projects,” says Karin Scholtes, Group HR Director. “We discovered a strong enthusiasm and involvement among our employees that allows us to look forward to the future with optimism. We were also able to identify talents, especially soft skills and entrepreneurial skills, which we would never have discovered otherwise.”
While some ideas can be implemented immediately, other selected projects will certainly require further adaptation and development before they can be launched. They will then be deployed as such or integrated into internal improvement and change projects already underway within the banking group.
In the end, the results of the action are very positive and make it possible to envisage other editions in the future.
