Head of HR at Olympus Polska – about the challenges of the pandemic, recruitment mistakes and how to build antifragility in yourself.
The global pandemic has brought many challenges for managers. Could you share your experience with us?
The initial phase of the pandemic was list of kuwait cell phone numbers a period of great uncertainty and the need to cope with a completely new situation. Many companies suspended recruitment, and some even began to lay off employees. In my case, the hiring freeze also concerned the so-called replacements – if an employee left, there was no possibility of hiring a new person to replace them. The change to remote work practically overnight turned out to be a big challenge. It is not only a matter of business continuity plans, but also organizing all employees to work from home , preparing the IT infrastructure or supporting managers who had to manage virtual teams in the new reality. Although in the case of Olympus, it was not that difficult, because most teams are dispersed – that’s the specificity of salespeople’s work.
Every crisis is developmental – unless, of course, it is a crisis of values - and you can learn a lesson for the future from each one. I always try to look at a problem or challenge with curiosity. I observe and experiment, check what will work and what will not. After a few months of trial and error, we have developed methods that support us in remote work. It turns out that recruitment can be 100 percent remote. The same with onboarding or training. You can work from home, you can do it well, and even interestingly.
How has the recruitment process itself changed?
It hasn’t really changed – its formula has changed. Most recruitments are still done remotely. When a manager prefers a personal meeting, we try to arrange it. However, the process itself is the same as before the pandemic. It consists of at least developmental and two meetings with the recruiting manager and me, at one of these meetings there is a task to prepare, e.g. a presentation, and in the case of sales departments – a meeting with the CEO. We also still use a competency test.
Has the pandemic changed your role in the company?
It turned out that we can carry out projects remotely, they no longer require traveling. My first three years at the company could be summed up as “on the road” – I spent three quarters of the month in Hamburg for meetings or training. However australian companies are using ai to develop marketing strategies for this reason when everything is done remotely, our calendar can automatically accumulate more meetings during the day. Sometimes, unfortunately, it happens that meetings fill my entire day and there is no time for conceptual work.
On the one hand, I lost my tasks related to recruitment processes, but I have duties related to supporting managers in managing teams. What used to be possible over a coffee or simply in the office now requires making an appointment developmental and and adjusting to the daily schedule.
What tools or applications are useful in your daily work?
- I currently use a recruitment system to collect CVs called Umantis Recruiting . Anyone considering choosing such a tool should take care to adapt it to their needs
- I use Mentimeter to prepare various types of questionnaires during training, collecting opinions, word clouds and test questions.
I am interested in your role as an assessor. Should an assessor have any special skills? Do they see more than others when, based on a few conversations or situations, they are able to indicate a person’s future career path?
The assessor takes part in the assessment of candidates in the recruitment process or during employee evaluation. This is most often done as part of an assessment center or development center . In such a case, skills, competencies hong kong phone number and personality traits are taken into account – various types of tasks are used to check them. During such a session, the assessor observes how a given person copes under time pressure, and can also developmental and assess their leadership qualities or teamwork skills. The information will be useful when determining the path of development, e.g. entrusting a new role, responsibilities, or promotion. In this way, the assessor supports employees in choosing the optimal career path. To a large extent, they are also responsible for the development of the companies they cooperate with. I use the assessment center
method during recruitment processes. This method also works well when accepting internships and apprenticeships. It is rare that we can talk to students about their professional experience in a behavioral interview. Then I use half- or full-day processes that consist of several individual or group tasks. During these tasks, it is important to carefully look at the candidates through the prism of the competency model. The tasks are designed in such a way that it is possible to observe behaviors that indicate the intensity of a given competence. They are also described by specific actions of the candidate. For example, we can take effective communication to the workshop. One of the most difficult competences to assess in my practice was examining entrepreneurship.