Scena HR: Inga Simanoviciute o partnerstwie w HR

W Scenie HR zawsze staramy się dostarczać najciekawsze opinie z branży HR. Dziś dla dodatkowego urozmaicenia publikujemy odpowiedzi po angielsku, których udzieliła nam Inga Simanoviciute z Agfa Graphics. Zapraszamy do lektury!

Inga Simanoviciute – HR Manager w Agfa Graphics i Agfa Healthcare w Polsce. Inga zaczynała pracę w centrali Agfy w Belgii jako specjalista ds. globalnych procesów HR i zarządzania międzynarodowymi projektami HR. W chwili obecnej jest odpowiedzialna za zarządzanie procesami HR w Agfa Graphics NV oddział w Polsce i Agfa Sp. z o.o. W 2014 roku firma Agfa Graphics NV rozpoczęła projekt mający na celu centralizację obsługi klienta w całej Europie. Centrum to powstało w Polsce. Pracując na stanowisku HR project managera Inga rozpoczęła projekt rekrutacji jeszcze mieszkając w Belgii, niedługo potem objęła obowiązki w Polsce. Oprócz rekrutacji jest również odpowiedzialna za rozwój pracowników, system ocen pracowniczych oraz politykę personalną firmy w obu jej oddziałach. Jest absolwentką Katolickiego Uniwersytetu w Leuven w Belgii, a czas wolny spędza szyjąc, słuchając muzyki, gotując oraz spotykając się z ludźmi, którzy są dla niej źródłem inspiracji.

What determines the success of HR department?

IS: When formulating the theoretical answer, the success depends on what are the expectation set by the business management and what is considered to be the role of HR within given company. Ideally business and HR meet in the middle and share mutual expectations allowing HR manager to be a business partner. Therefore HR business partner should have a strong personality, keep own opinion and protect HR values by giving open feedback both to management and employees.
Fulfilling HR business role successfully requires understanding business first of all. Knowing the business strategy allows HR to act as real partner by means of developing, attracting and maintaining necessary resources, competencies in the company as well as building business strategy supporting culture.

What are the difficulties that a recruiter encounters in his work and how to deal with them?

IS: The main difficulty remains to understand the position requirements very well and define the needs clearly and mutually with the hiring manager. When this first step in the recruitment process is not well prepared, recruiter will search for a candidate with the profile that does not match the real needs and manager’s expectations.
It is essential to have a close collaboration with the hiring manager starting from creating job description together and challenging the manager to set realistic expectations. Managers usually have an ideal candidate in their mind that most probably does not exist on the market. Defining the competencies that are required as of first day of employment and competencies that can be developed on a short or long term can help the recruiter to screen the labor market in more targeted way.

What have you learned working in HR industry?

IS: Working in HR requires a great attention to each individual and continuously keeping open mind. Being focus on different individual needs and accepting those differences as given taught me to look at various situations from different perspectives, not labeling the individuals and not seeing the situation as black or white. This consequently taught me not to impose my opinion or decision, but instead observe and listen to all parties, allowing me create a full picture to be analyzed from different angles. Then share the outcome of the analysis grounded on my feedback in regards to my observations.

What was your biggest recruitment challenge?

IS: The biggest challenge I have experienced in the role of recruiter in Poland is so called „group” recruitment. Agfa Graphics in Poland has opened an internal Customer Shared Service where we are gradually transferring customer operations activities from European countries to Warsaw. Having a waved recruitment approach we are hiring not one, but a group of employees to join the company on the same day. Some competencies, such as specific language skills, are greatly demanded on the market. Hiring 10 employees with this specific competency and other highly prioritized skills, as well as finding a good match with our company culture, is not always feasible. Not getting tempted to hire a person based on this one niche skill is a personal challenge. The time and effort saved during the recruitment will only multiply when managing employees’ retention.

What is the biggest problem in selection of the best candidates?

IS: Even if all steps are set right, well prepared pre-selection and selection process, and the right candidate joins the company, it is still uncertain if this person will fit into the organization. Will this person be able to bring and adapt all the competencies he or she was utilizing in his/her previous company? This concerns the ability to transfer knowledge and competencies while adapting the manifestation of those in the new environment. This ability is difficult to be screened during the recruitment process. Even if other skills that predict this ability are being screened, person still can fail to fit into the team, or perform under the new management style.
To attract the best candidates, who are usually „passive” candidates, we perform direct search. In this case we take a role of the ambassador of our company, not hiding behind anonymous company name, but share company identity colored with own positive emotions based on own career path within the company. Be open about the opportunity, what company can offer as well as the limitations that go along. Never oversell the position, but give a real picture putting all relevant elements into it.
Employee referral program, which again relays on the employees taking the role of the „ambassador”, has been a great success in our organization. On one hand, it strengthens the sense of belonging of our current employees by being involved into the recruitment process. On the other hand, it brings us the best candidates, since employees will not refer somebody they don’t trust will be an added value to our organization.

How do you prepare to carry out the recruitment process?

IS: As answered in one of the previous question, this is a crucial part bringing most difficulties into the recruitment process. Defining the needs and managing the expectations is a first step to be done and done in the very best thorough way.

What are the sources of inspiration for your work?

IS: There are many forums, HR conferences organized, literature available. All these information channels are the sources for inspiration. But it is essential not to create a need where there is not need existing, not to fall into actions driven by trends. Being open-minded, observing and listening to the needs of organizations leads HR to act and look for inspiration from all different channels, but very much focused on specific individual and organization needs.

What recruitment campaign has recently drawn your attention?

IS: While working in Poland for 4 months now, none of the recruitment campaigns really drew my attention. I do notice the different approaches applied based on the ownership of the employment market. In the environment of the shared service centers and IT branch the candidate is the owner of the labor market, where else it is still owned by the employer. I believe SSC’s are more „aggressive” and working harder on their employer „brand” while in other sectors the recruitment is performed in rather old fashioned way.

What are the trends you notice in HR industry?

IS: HR does go the direction in becoming a vital business partner. HR is no longer perceived as administrative work-force managing the contracts, employee data and pay-roll. On the contrary, many companies decide to outsource these administrative tasks while focusing on other HR activities managed by in-house HR business partner.

Scena HR – cykl wywiadów z osobami związanymi w codziennej pracy z branżą HR.