Radu, two weeks ago you took on a key role for the group and its more than 700 employees across 5 companies. How were your first interactions with your new colleagues and the teams?
R.P.: An intense start, with my first week spent largely in Cluj, where I met many colleagues, both from the management team and from the human resources department. People are open and eager to collaborate. I expect us to continue in this way and to be able to address any problem.
Your professional experience is impressive. You led HR operations in 28 countries for IBM on a critical subject, especially in IT: the acquisition of new talent. You have held key positions in the past in the UK at SAB Miller and in Romania in large groups such as UTI and Ursus, companies with hundreds or thousands of employees. What convinced you to join the E-INFRA team?
R.P.: First of all, I was drawn by the group's ambition and the healthy growth it has had since its founding. In this respect, and perhaps more important to me, there is the opportunity to build. Although progress has been made in human resources, I believe there are a great many things to do and, above all, to start. I am motivated by the building itself and by the chance to succeed in a private Romanian company. I want us to have human resources standards and practices comparable, in both modernity and performance, with any top multinational company. This is not a dream but an achievable opportunity, and I am fully convinced that if we take the right steps, we can have a company to be envied. In my choice I would add my impression of the quality of the people I met at the interview, Daniel Farmache and Adrian Florea, and later of the others I got to know in my first week. In conclusion, trust in the company and in its people.
Your challenge is all the greater as you will coordinate HR activities for the group's 5 companies, with different profiles and with teams spread across several cities in the country and even abroad. How will you adapt the strategy and still stay close to each of them?
R.P.: I am used to such challenges; it was routine for me to jump from one hour to the next, from an issue in one country to another 7-8, and between companies and divisions of diverse kinds. Without doubt, we have work to do on structuring the E-INFRA group. What role will it play? How will we lead the human resources functions strategically from the centre and, at the same time, support the group's companies operationally? We need an umbrella strategy at group level and, beyond that, distinct voices within the companies. At group level and in all the companies, I expect us to adopt the same principles, standards and values without hesitation. At the level of an individual company, we can differ according to industry and specifics, and it is good that we stay that way. To give an example: the performance of teams and individuals must be reflected across the whole group as a guiding principle; it would be abnormal, for instance, to recognise and pay for performance in one company and for length of service, regardless of results, in another. It would be abnormal to do a sloppy job in one company or location and to bring in people who are professionally underprepared or of dubious ethics. How we do this in terms of systems and practices may differ, and, as in an orchestra, we must leave room for the distinct voices of each instrument, but also be able to play together, in a fluid and coherent way. However, I would not want us to "reinvent the wheel": if there are transferable practices and systems, we will apply them consistently everywhere. I would also like us to encourage, where appropriate, flexibility of movement between companies, divisions and locations. A group means, first of all, synergies, agility and flexibility.
The concept of HR has evolved a great deal in recent years and is no longer limited to employment contracts or certificates. How would you like the group's employees to perceive your role?
R.P.: Without question, we have a great many things to do, and my role will be, among others, that of a catalyst for major changes I would like to see in human resources practices. To list just a few of the lines of development that I consider absolutely necessary and that are, at the same time, essential support for achieving our business objectives: implementing an appropriate performance management system, which will allow us to translate the company's objectives into individual, measurable objectives. The contribution of the teams and of all employees to the company's performance is an imperative of any human resources construction. A judicious link with the elements that recognise individual performance is just as important. We also need proper talent management in the organisation, a process of identification and of continuous development. Here, training and development play a key role. Building career paths and succession plans are equally necessary stages in this construction. Communication and collaboration between companies and teams must be facilitated, not least through the contribution of technology. I firmly believe we must adopt modern technology, including different ways of connecting via video conference and other forms of collaboration: systems that increase our efficiency and productivity. Last but not least, the climate of employee satisfaction and engagement, and the actions that result from it, will be high on our agenda. And yes… I am "obsessed" with measurement, with objective criteria, with performance indicators; I do not believe in poetry and impressions in human resources.
Among the things that matter to each of us are the opportunity for professional and personal development and career progress. How do you plan to support the teams in this direction?
R.P.: My approach, in principle, is the following:
- Professional training programmes focused on both technical and managerial skills, which must cover the entire organisation in line with the needs identified and which will concentrate first on raising performance in the role. This will therefore also be organically linked to the performance management process.
- Development programmes in line with succession plans for key positions and, respectively, determined by the development of the new skills needed when you are promoted, for example, to a new position at a higher level of complexity.
- Possible support for individual development through scholarships and other forms of funding, based of course on transparent eligibility criteria.
And in all of this, I stress, we are talking about a new, deliberate process, followed at the level of the whole group. In addition, I would like a process in which, on the one hand, the company identifies the training and development actions needed, but also meets halfway with individual development plans. I am a believer in the principle that we are responsible for our own individual development and that we should not always wait to receive, as at school, a plan made by others. I would also like to stress that all these training and development processes should not be understood rigidly, as courses. Nothing is more effective in a person's development than the actions that resemble the real, practical requirements of a new role: on-the-job training, concrete development projects, coaching and mentoring and, not least, we should all ask ourselves as managers in the company: what can we do to expand the content of current roles so as to allow initiative and personal development? This presupposes, of course, that we will also have role-model managers, focused on supporting teams and individual objectives.
What do you think are the group's other HR priorities for this year?
R.P.: Of the areas I listed above, if I had to choose just one thing to do really well this year, I would choose Performance Management and, linked to it, strengthening and developing managers and team leaders. Measured, recognised performance, and managers able to instil role models and support the activities of their teams. All of this, of course, in the context of an organisation that feels involved and recognised in the collective effort, because without this collective effort we will not achieve the results we want.
Finally, what message would you like to send to the teams at the start of the road?
R.P.: Quite simply, to trust that we can build together.
