The World Employment Confederation (WEC) is the professional organisation representing the Human Resources (HR) service industry at the global level. Founded in 1967, it covers a wide range of HR services, including agency work, permanent recruitment, career management and training, etc. It represents national federations and corporates in employment services worldwide and has members from all over the globe.

“Our goal is to build and manage this community of members and to represent our industry vis-à-vis the external world and the major international organisations dealing with the world of work and that includes of course the European institutions, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Organization for Economic and Co-operation Development (OECD), the World Bank, to name but a few.”

WEC seeks to be seen as a thought leader in this changing world of work where adaptation and innovative solutions are crucial.

Denis Pennel has been managing the association for sixteen years. He talks about his role in membership development, managing the day-to-day activities, making sure everything works smoothly and promoting WEC’s expertise in the future of work. Having written a couple of books on the evolution of employment, you can hear he is passionate about the topic as he speaks.

As Managing Director of an association with members from all around the world, from Japan to the US, and from South Africa to EU countries, he particularly likes the idea of bringing together very different people from different organisations with different cultures and making sure that they all understand each other and that they can do something together.

After reaching a stage of development and maturity, WEC and its leaders thought it would be valuable to reach out to other organisations and to learn from other associations. That is one of the reasons they decided to join FAIB three and a half years ago.

They particularly appreciate being able to learn from other similar organisations in terms of best practice sharing, ways of doing business, etc. They also like getting expertise from others and therefore find the different workshops and seminars organised by FAIB very valuable.

From Paris, Denis Pennel moved to Brussels all these years ago to take on his role as Managing Director at WEC. As a great fan of architecture, he loves being able to uncover and see many different styles of architecture in the city, such as Art Nouveau, Art Deco, architecture from the 1950s, ... He very much enjoys finding Brussels’ hidden beauty as he walks the streets of our capital.