The Human Resources department plays a pivotal role in a company’s overall growth strategy and is an integral part of any modern-day organization. In the last years, the responsibilities of the HR department and HR managers have grown considerably, and now a professional HR department encompasses many roles and activities.

Being an HR professional requires commitment and dedication. After all, they are responsible for managing a company’s human capital, its most important asset.

Besides managing the employee life cycle like recruitment, hiring, onboarding, training and firing, employee relations, and benefits management, they are also responsible for protecting the employee’s well-being and keeping them satisfied. They also play a crucial role in shaping and reinforcing the company’s culture and creating a positive working environment while focusing on company values.

Given that many activities in the workplace are impacted by HR, a strong human resources department is the best way to ensure employee satisfaction, productivity, and future growth, thus setting the foundation for a thriving company.

The HR strategy at Cosmic Development is simple – be a high-performing company and a great place to work. Our HR team is our partner in business. They are the company’s driving force because they manage the most critical and valuable resource we have – our people.

Cosmic HR managers and other related professionals work hard together to support the needs of our employees at various stages of their careers. HR ensures that they have the right tools and resources to perform to thrive and maximize their input.  They focus on employee well–being and offer professional support in addition to compensation, benefits, career advancement, and work-life balance.

HR has always been important, but the past two years have demonstrated why it is instrumental in keeping businesses afloat. We successfully navigated the challenges in recruiting, retention, and safety and managed to assist our employees during the pandemic’s stressful circumstances.

The best way to acknowledge employees’ roles, efforts, and achievements is to celebrate them throughout the year. Today, to mark the International HR Day and recognize the hardworking and dedicated HR professionals, we will offer you a glimpse of the individuals who work hard to help Cosmic Development constantly improve, accelerate, and grow. Meet three ladies of our HR team.

Who is Marina?

Marina is a graduate economist in the accounting, finance, and audit section, but as a person who loves to work with people, her career path took her to human resources. She spends her time with her loved ones and friends, reading books, and cycling.

When you joined Cosmic Development, you had the chance to become part of a rapidly growing team with a lot going on. How was that experience? What do you love most about your job, especially here? 

Joining a rapidly growing company was challenging to do on the one hand. Still, it was like an adventure to discover and learn new things, get more professional in my experience, and meet new people. The work is very dynamic but having flexible working hours and working remotely when needed gives me the freedom to manage the tasks properly. The flexibility and the right HR team besides me are the things that I love most about my job.

Who is Liljana?  

Liljana is an IT recruiter at Cosmic Development. She has a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management and enjoys working and communicating with people. She loves encouraging employees and strives to create a happy workplace. When Liljana is not busy recruiting new talent, she enjoys spending time with her sons Matej and Luka.

Your expertise is recruitment. But what does it mean to be a tech recruiter? What traits do you need to be successful in your field?

Yes, my specialty in Cosmic is recruitment. To be a recruiter, you have to be many things. You need to be curious by nature and ask the right questions. You need to have excellent research skills and be up to date with the latest trends. You also need strong negotiation skills and be able to communicate with potential candidates effectively. People skills and knowing how to listen are essential for building relationships.

Another important thing is to be a good storyteller and tell stories that answer questions and provide the information the candidates need to decide if the company is a good fit as an employer. Storytelling is the best way to connect potential candidates with your brand and work culture and communicate what a company offers. The same skills that apply to sales marketing, like communication, strong organization and negotiation skills, and patience, apply to recruitment. You need skills to “sell” the job to the candidate and “sell” the candidate to the client. 

Who is Andriana? 

Andriana has almost five years of experience in the human resources field and has been Cosmic Development’s HR manager for the past nine months. She has a Master’s degree in Business Informatics and Management from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and started working for Cosmic just a few days after finishing her studies. Initially, she began as an office manager, moving to the HR assistant position, and finally, the most recent, HR manager. 

Besides her professional responsibilities and obligations, Andriana always tries to fit physical activities into her busy schedule and spends at least an hour daily doing exercise or in nature. She enjoys traveling and visiting new places. She is also an animal lover and a devoted owner of two dogs. 

What are the future company plans and goals?  

At this moment, the company is growing rapidly, and we constantly have new positions open. In the first quarter of 2022 alone, we’ve had 16 new colleagues. In fact, hardly a day goes by without communicating or interviewing potential candidates, whether for IT or non-technical job positions. That is clear evidence of the company’s growth and makes me incredibly happy.

In the future, we will continue working in the same spirit. We already have plans to continue growing our team. We also plan to make internal organizational changes and introduce new benefits. And our priority will remain the retention and encouragement of our employees.

As the main HR Manager, what’s the secret formula to making all things happen?

HR encompasses many things—from effective communication, patience, ability to analyze and see things from different angles to planning and multitasking. What’s most important for me and most challenging at the same time is establishing a healthy relationship and collaboration with the employees – which is the essence of being an HR professional. In terms of the secret formula, I would say that besides loving what you do, you’ll also need ideas and a strong will to make things happen. With thorough planning ahead, you can achieve anything.

Final Thoughts

A company is only as good as its people and the HR team is in charge of creating and maintaining a solid team. Strong HR departments help companies get the most from their people and help people get the most of the companies. They serve as the advocates for employees and help companies recruit and retain top talent to help a business succeed. That is why investing in Human Resources should be a priority of every company.

Cosmic Development succeeded in building a strong and effective HR department. Our employees can use HR to voice concerns and experiences. At Cosmic, we believe that only by working hand in hand can managers and employees build an environment that inspires and engages.

If you want to work in a thriving company that is focused on improving employee experience at each stage in the employee lifecycle and a company that offers numerous benefits and a flexible work schedule, we encourage you to check our open positions.

The post Talk with HR: Sneak Peek at Our Human Resources Department appeared first on Cosmic Development.

The main focus throughout this period was to act rapidly and accordingly, get the employees engaged in work, detect any possible problems, find suitable communication channels, and ensure positive results by restructuring the companies. Therefore, the new situation required HR managers to connect more with the employees, listen to their needs, and react accordingly and empathically. The constant change caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has mandated that companies make fast changes in the leadership and engage the HR team in communication with the employees. This ‘new normal’ has taught us to adapt to new practices and politics, which will leave a permanent mark on companies worldwide. 

Due to these current changes, we decided to interview our HR Manager Biljana Stefanovska and ask her how she deals with the ‘new normal’ aspect of working from home. She shares some of the challenges that she faced during the COVID-19 pandemic as an HR manager. Read more about her personal experience on how to manage a business during the Coronavirus pandemic in the interview below.

What is the role of the HR Manager in one company, and what are the necessary skills for an HR Manager to be successful?

Maybe the shortest and most straightforward definition of HR Manager is “mother of the company.” As an HR manager, you take care of all employees, management, business, and everything in between. As of recently, the HR Management function has been slowly transforming into an HR business partner position. No person in the company knows the employees, the rulebook, or the management better than the HR manager. HR is everywhere, and with everyone, that is why crucial skills for an HR Manager are listening, empathy, objectivity, flexibility, tolerance, and an analytical mind. Modern HR is now more and more inclined towards metrics and predictions despite the simultaneous growth of importance and emphasis on the company’s personal development: from the cleaning lady to the General Manager.

What are the challenges that an HR Manager faces during a pandemic, and how do you, as an HR manager, help Cosmic Development in overcoming these challenges?

One of the most important challenges for an HR manager during a pandemic is the employees’ mental health and wellbeing. When I am present in the office, I can see and tackle every issue and mood swing of an employee, and I react immediately and accordingly to help this person. Given the fact that I have been an empathic person since I remember about myself, this has always been an easy task for me.

When we work remotely, it takes an entirely different approach to notice the switch and even more to detect the severity of distress in someone’s voice or facial expression. Yet, I am regularly contacting all employees, and we have personal coaching sessions so those who are most affected can overcome this situation. We also organized several activities for our employees under the name “Cosmic Beats Isolation” to help them deal better with the new situation. So far, our company has marked only success in every single case. 

What do you like most about Cosmic Development, and what makes this company unique from an HR perspective? How do you envision Cosmic in the upcoming years to become an ideal workplace?

What makes Cosmic unique from an HR perspective is the holistic management approach and organizational culture. I do believe that holistic and agile management are the best practice since there are no two same human beings on earth. We organize team activities. We are continually working on enhancing the team spirit within the company while simultaneously keeping in mind the needs and preferences of each employee as an individual. It means we do have a set of rules necessary for the management of the company, yet we provide the employees with flexibility, allowing them to feel comfortable and with an excellent work-life balance. I believe that we are already pretty close to an ideal workplace.

What are your favorite techniques that you usually suggest as an HR Manager, and you have used to motivate a team during this pandemic? 

As an HR Manager with ten years of experience, I can say there are no universal ways for motivating employees. Some people enjoy spending time by the swimming pool and working on their laptops surrounded by people and music, and others prefer solitude and tranquility. So, I do not practice a group approach to motivate them, but an individualistic one. Every HR Manager should spend time and understand each employee’s needs, from the software developers to the administrative assistants. And when that is done, it is quite easy to motivate them. For those who like sports, we provide opportunities for sports breaks during working hours, for those who want leisure, we have comfortable couch areas so whoever may relax. And finally, for those who are ambitious and find new skills and career development as motivation, we provide free courses and training. 

Check out how our employees break their daily work routine at the office.

What metrics do you use and suggest to evaluate team performance during a pandemic?

Another unique feature of Cosmic Development is that we are a people-oriented company, which means we trust our employees and do not use tools for control. We follow their work, deadlines, and quality, but we do not need micromanagement tools and practices. When you have highly engaged people, you do not need to control them. The basic rule of HR is the following: happy employees are equivalent to productive employees. The more content the employee is, the more productive and efficient one is. My primary concern is whether all employees have everything they need to be productive at home. We have never had better efficiency actually, which I believe is due to the freedom everyone has to organize. 

How does this pandemic influence the HR team in the recruitment and the interviewing of prospective team members? Do you think that this virtual trial will continue to be the future of recruitment?

The only change in recruitment is that instead of conducting in-person interviews, we organize them online, which does not affect the recruitment process. The ‘new normal’ brought us changes in the working policy on a global level, and now the jobs are more and more conducted remotely since there are a lot of people who work and travel. I believe this will be the future: more remote work, higher work-life balance, individual approach.

What trends, according to you, will shape the Human Resource departments over the next five years?

I believe that the future of HR Management will focus more on analytics, predictions, risk management, training, and especially on leadership and coaching. We all live in an era when millennials are becoming the majority of the workforce. What distinguishes the millennials among the rest is constant engagement, dynamics, and continuant professional and personal development. It means we should not leave them alone; we should be constantly alert of their needs and changes and make them feel like we do care. 

The dynamics of the labor market, especially in the IT industry, demands constant training and learning. I am more than happy that nowadays more and more emphasis is put on soft skills which were partly neglected until recently. Consequently, we must prepare the leadership for these changes to retain the concurrence on the market and keep the pace. Leadership is crucial in any business management, and nowadays, more and more companies are realizing that and investing in their leaders. Leaders, in my opinion, are the people who set the tone in any company. In the end, I would say that I am positive that HR Management will remain the most challenging occupation in the near future and, at the same time, most rewarding.

If you are part of the HR team in your company and need advice on how to deal with this ‘new normal’ aspect of life, contact us for a free consultation, and you will get direct advice from our HR management team.

The post The Role of an HR Manager in the ‘New Normal’ appeared first on Cosmic Development.