Andreea Ciucasu, Employee Journey Officer at Societe Generale European Business Services
Hello everyone! I am Andreea Ciucasu and my job is as great as the name sounds! I am the Employee Journey Officer in Societe Generale European Business Services, for 2 years and a half.
To start with, I must confess I always wanted a job that would allow me to do just the tasks I like to do! And I found it! After reading the job description online, I really felt it was created especially for me and I told to myself: “Andreea, this job is going to be yours!” Probably many of you heard about roles such as Chief Happiness Officer or Engagement Specialist and so on; although my role here is not entitled like this, but Employee Journey Officer, I find it very similar. When my family or my friends ask what I do, I always tell them: working for people, connecting and taking care of them.
So, eventually, I was contacted and came to the interview that went just perfect! Great connection with the hiring manager and very interested to hear about all the activities I was running as a volunteer in my previous company that were going to transform into my job here! And this was it! The job was mine; I am performing it for 2 years and a half already and still loving it! Why? Because with each new project I manage and run, I gain not only new learnings and experience, but also great collaboration with beautiful people and big satisfaction!
What are my responsibilities in the company? Well, I am in charge with the Onboarding and Induction processes, I am the one taking care of all the new joiners, I am making sure my colleagues have a complete and excellent onboarding and that they are welcomed in our company as they never had been before. Studies say that 69% of the new hires are likely to stay in the company at least 3 years and their productivity level increases with over 70% if they have an excellent onboarding process.
As I mentioned before, I want to make sure that our new colleagues are welcomed in the company as they never had been before. This is why, apart from having a very structured Onboarding process and Induction training, (things that are also seen in other companies) we are trying to surprise them. How? Simply by offering in the first day a personalized welcome pack and all the needed information and attention from both the team and the HR department. Being welcomed in the very first day by the manager and a buddy was really of a great impact for many of our colleagues so far. After a few weeks, the HR Employee Journey Officer also steps in personally in the Onboarding process with a 1:1 free discussion and friendly approach were the 2 of them discuss about the time spent in the company since day 1.
Moreover, I also contribute to all our employees’ wellbeing and, throughout the projects I initiate and run, we, as a company, are trying to create a proper work environment meant to balance their personal and professional lives, giving them the opportunity of delivering the best results in proper conditions.
Running projects for my colleagues from the entire company and collaborating with lots of them definitely means a great visibility…and I do love it! In the previous company I knew everybody and everybody knew me! When I joined SG EBS, there were approximately 1500 employees and no one knew me – I was no one to them; today things changed: throughout my job, I truly believe that the majority interacted at least once with me.
In order to work in a healthy environment, it’s very important to socialize and have fun, as a way to relieve stress, stay connected with other colleagues and maintain balance. One of the unique activities that I initiated and currently coordinating in the company are the Fun@Work events. They are meant to engage people, to interact, have fun and act as a team. This type of activities are reflecting one of the SG EBS 4 values: team spirit. They involve what I like the most about an HR job: collaboration with people, smiles, teamwork, positive energy and a huge satisfaction that in the end I was able to bring joy and happiness to my colleagues.
Work life balance is a crucial aspect at SG EBS. And we are not referring just to the monetary benefits & flexibility that we offer, but as well to the events where they can participate and learn. This type of events are meant to make them aware of how to integrate personal and professional life together, how to have a healthy state of mind while working and while at home, how to dedicate time correctly to each of them. In regarding to this, in my role I organize social conferences, workshops, webinars on different topics that would make them understand not only the importance of work life balance but also how to manage with certain challenges that they might face.
Of course, with all the tasks and responsibilities, challenges are always present. And I am glad to have them, as they make me develop, learn and gain experience. It not easy to initiate a project when you have never done something similar before, to make both the external suppliers and the employees satisfied or to improve after constructive feedback. We all know that change is not in our nature and is very difficult to accept and embrace it in our lives. In my opinion, learning and developing does not come only from the challenges, it also comes from attending courses or workshops, reading, collaborating with different departments or people either from the company or from the outside and working together, share ideas and learn from their experience.
Why is this important? Because everything changes very fast today and in order to be good and deliver the best practices for our employees, we need to be connected, informed, trained and original. In terms of originality, even if I strongly consider that interaction and personal touch is the best definition of an HR representative, technology has a very strong influence today. And I accept it as it can bring extremely beautiful projects and ideas such as Induction platforms & tools, Virtual Reality onboarding or Artificial Intelligence chatbots.
To sum up, as you can see, it is all about people in my job! And even though we are more in a virtual world now, connecting with people is still my priority and major work satisfaction.