How do you distinguish yourself as an employer?

Magda Rajdlová: “We are a medium-sized professional company with a family atmosphere”

 

It is a challenge for every company: acquiring, ensuring the commitment of and retaining the right people. HR Specialist Magda Rajdlová and Chief Operations Officer Petr Matl explain how SixPointTwo tackles this.

“HR is closely linked to marketing these days”, says Magda. “We want to demonstrate that we are a professional company with an open, family atmosphere. Because that sets us apart from the larger companies with thousands of employees.”

One team, one task
Magda projects an image of SixPointTwo that is in line with the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy. This is based on the premise that employees work as a team. To ensure this, it is important that colleagues can find each other and remain in touch with each other. “HR staff are regularly present on the factory floor and talk to employees about their concerns. CEO Marco Wielink and Petr walk around regularly; any employee can speak to them directly.” “Marco knows almost all the 100 permanent employees by name”, emphasises Petr. “Our people feel seen”, says Magda. “Every employee gets a personal letter from management at Christmas. And on your birthday, you get a card with wishes from your colleagues.”

Informal activities
A focus on team building is characteristic of SixPointTwo. Outside working hours therefore, there are all kinds of collective activities such as sports competitions, summer parties and the Christmas Party, in which colleagues come together. “Those are also good occasions to talk to employees”, says Petr. “At the Christmas Party, we take a quick backward look at the past year, and also look at the future of our company. Team managers also discuss this and the monthly newsletter also focuses on it.” This ensures that employees remain informed as well as involved in SixPointTwo’s development.

Employees recruit new colleagues
Employees know better than anyone else what makes working at SixPointTwo special. HR therefore involves them in recruiting new colleagues. “They could be a family member, a friend or an acquaintance, for example. You receive a bonus if the candidate you propose is hired. For production, we have already acquired several new colleagues this way”, says Magda. “This approach is also successful for management and technical positions”, says Petr. “As an employee, you don’t just recommend someone without reason, that’s why it works.”

Sponsorship and visibility
As part of personnel marketing, it is also important to be highly visible as a company. SixPointTwo therefore maintains a clearly visible profile in Humpolec and in the surrounding area. “We sponsor events such as the horse races and the autocross, among others. We have also financially supported the football club in its 100th anniversary celebrations”, says Magda. “At such events, we have free attractions for the children. While they play, we take the opportunity to talk to the parents.” Pushing vacancies and advertising is not the goal here, explains Petr. “It is about letting people know we are there and that our door is always open, even when there are no vacancies. See also our poster at the main entrance of the company.”

LinkedIn and agencies
SixPointTwo does indeed regularly launch eye-catching, playful recruitment campaigns for advertising purposes. “For example, we once drove an orange tuktuk through Humpolec with a big orange balloon. That helped us bring in a lot of production workers”, says Magda. However, such campaigns are less suitable for recruiting technicians and managers. Petr: “For those positions, we remain highly active on social media. We request our employees to share vacancies via LinkedIn. We want to make the most of our network.” We also cooperate with employment agencies and sometimes headhunters as well. “To get good English-speaking technical people for example, because they are almost impossible to find.”

Discovering technical talent yourself
Meanwhile, SixPointTwo also looks for technical talent via another route, says Petr. “We cooperate with secondary technical education schools and target students aged between 14 and 18. We invite them to do their compulsory internship with us. This way, we get to know them and we can show them how SixPointTwo differs from large, anonymous companies with thousands of employees. We then try to attract promising young people. We have already achieved success with that.”

Perspective for current employees
Attracting new people remains a necessity, as SixPointTwo wants to continue to grow. At the same time, it is important that current employees remain happy and motivated. A healthy, safe working environment is a prerequisite for this. Collective activities also contribute to job satisfaction. “In addition, we encourage employees to grow.” Petr cites examples: “Production employees who started doing higher-level work after training. Operators who have progressed to technical positions and even management positions.” Those who want to do so can develop themselves by attending training and other courses. “For instance, we organise Czech language training for foreign employees and English language training for technicians and managers. And production managers can take training in lean methodology, for example.”

Start-up and further development
In personnel marketing, SixPointTwo maintains a high profile, says Magda. “Many companies attract people who already have all the skills for a particular job. For us, it works better to hire people and provide them with opportunities to develop further within the company. We are different in that too!”