we.CONECT: The pop in your job – you work as Head of HR and Keynote speaker – which tasks would you highlight as particularly interesting? What is most exciting about your role, and why are you passionate about your job?
Marcus Reif: I’m always thrilled by challenges. The pandemic brought the new people management to a new level. The former HR departments were always busy and driven by transactional tasks and nitty-gritty stuff. From the former understanding of our role and responsibilities of pushing processes, we were forced by our workforce and the management to step up to a higher level of adding value to the company and to the business strategy. Now we are in charge of delivering everyday the highest performance to our colleagues, speeding up the transformation of the teams and help our leaders to adopt new leadership principles and styles. This is really challenging and thrilling at best.
we.CONECT: You will present “REACTIVE RECRUITMENT – OR WHY WE ARE ONLY RUNNING BEHIND” at Rethink! HR Tech Europe. How would you define your approach– “it is a good example for successful…”?
Marcus Reif: Recruiting is in most practices and regions an entry position in the HR department. At SMUs it is delivered by HR generalists. The level of extraordinary performance within our delivery was always too small. Quite often recruiters were smiled at because they don’t understand the business, don’t use their voice at the table and are too bureaucratic. We still have the war for talent, which has fallen down on the agenda during the pandemic. But the competence to attract (and retain) the best talents for the company, is still priority no. 1. And it’s getting worse. Take a closer look at current surveys. They are all focussing on upcoming attrition rates.
we.CONECT: What were the most important drivers– functionality, process optimization, user/customer experience, costs reduction, or something completely different?
Marcus Reif: Recruiting is all about planning. We cannot focus on chasing candidates on existing gaps only. Recruiting is a strategic function inside every company. The capability of attracting the right candidates on time, with the right competencies and seniority is key for every business.
we.CONECT: Looking back to the initial planning, the initial phase and the first PoC – where do you see particular success in achieving the project goals?
Marcus Reif: It’s always the accuracy and reliability of the current planning. In recruiting intensive organizations sometimes the planning of the recruiting numbers is following some wrong aspects, like you don’t show the reliable attrition rates to avoid blaming on high numbers. But with the wrong attrition in the recruitment planning, everything will be far away from reality. Channel management, sourcing channels, recruitment marketing and campus marketing activities are based on failed planning, the dimensioning of the Recruitment team, as well. Therefore planning shouldn’t be done by controlling, nor the business only. It should be done jointly by Recruiting, Controlling and the Business. You will create bottlenecks everywhere with a failed planning.
we.CONECT: What were the biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
Marcus Reif: Internal communication and people-first approach are always and everyday challenges. People management needs to step into those challenges. We need sometimes a different profile in the former HR department. Up- and reskilling are our instruments for this.
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