Remus Serban, Head of Workforce Management Department – Teleperformance Romania
I have first started my professional journey as any young man that finished college and went directly in the pursue of the 1 million dollar plan but of course, the road ahead me was expected to have a few bumps and potholes.
I chose Teleperformance Romania as my career starter and I was impressed that the company delivered when they told me not to worry as they’ll be here for me from the moment I stepped into the company until I could actually “fly” with them. And so I did! Worries aside, rolled my sleeves and off to work I went. I started as an agent on a medium project with a lot of emotions and the dreadful fear of the unknown. I have to admit it that at first I didn’t know what to do but as one of the motto’s of TP said ” I say what I do and I do what I say ” so I allowed myself to be perfected by the company in this great agent that the upper management looked upon with confidence that I will always meet and exceed expectations. This was the point where I closed my eyes for a second to savor the moment and like that, I was a supervisor. My professional development continued with a series of amazing training sessions with one of the best trainers in TOPS, Flori (Florentina Lăzărescu) as many of us in TPRO know her, but still, I needed some further fine-tuning to do things right the very first time, to create and improve.
Things said and done, the acting CEO of TPRO at that time decided that it was time for me to be sent to, in my opinion, the best training and developing campus that exists in Europe: TP Institute. When I have arrived there, it was like I just arrived at NASA which I considered being a small step for our local company but a huge one for my professional career. I say small because many tiny steps were still needed for me as I was going to this institute, first as self-aware supervisor, then as assistant call center manager, project manager, and to what was to become my dream job – WFM. Never heard about this acronym and I was curious with every step to know more and find more about it. Years past, excel sheets got copied and pasted, cells were deleted and a new one took their place just like a living organism, I was able to tell a story from numbers that everybody could understand and relate to, and to my surprise I was a methodical thinker that loved a challenge and wanted to prove first of all to myself and then to what I would like to call it my employer, but after 11 years together I refer to it as, my family, that I can do it and I can improve my performance daily!
Mirela Dogaru, HR Business Partner, Teleperformance Romania
My career started in 2006 when I was a Law student and I was looking for a part time job. I found Teleperformance Romania and I started working as an agent for an outbound project. Selling credit cards over the phone, was not so easy at that time, but with the specific training and a lot of courage I managed to face this challenge. After a few months I was promoted to a Recruiter position in the HR Department. Here I learned how important is for a Recruiter to help the company grow in the most natural way, and to find the right people that will fit for a specific job opening. During time I encountered a lot of challenges, but with the help of the TPRO team I was able to fulfil all of them. Knowing the organization and the people that are part of it was my very own personal treasure that led me to the opportunity to move forward in my career and accepting a new challenge: becoming on of the HR Business Partners of TPRO. Thus, helping the HR Department in implementing all the processes and strategies, is my main duty today.
There are a lot of activities that bring me great joy – professionally speaking, business success today depends more than ever on softer agendas such as talent and organisation capabilities. As an HRBP I am centrally involved in providing the right people with the right skills in the right job at the right time. So, assessing people in the company for a better position, help them grow and develop a career, is something that always will bring me joy.
Also, I am always up for a good challenge and the role of HRBP is an extremely challenging one, but also extremely beautiful; in this new role I’m meant to be the link between HR and Operations and to help integrate all processes of the HR in order to provide customized solutions to the business areas it serves and smoothen the relation with our employees. Lastly, this is a role that constantly requires you to learn new things, develop and push your limits.
My work involves challenges but also achievements. Growing the business in a pandemic period, when a lot of companies were closing the doors, was a great achievement for my team. We all joined hands, to find better ways to communicate with the teams, offer all the support that they needed. It was obvious for me these months that be involved, be there, be informed it’s how you will achieve goals!
All my family knows about my work, because being a part of TP Romania for so many years, it has become a part of my family. In very simple words, my kids know that mommy is that nice lady that offers something to work to people that are looking for a job. Joke aside, my family know that I am the one who represents HR in all the line of the business within the company. I am the problem solver between the HR and the other departments.
When it comes to the trends in my domain, I would list work from home-employee engagement, better onboarding procedure, concentrating on inclusion.
In the end, I consider that one of the best ways to develop yourself and your career is to ensure you keep learning. Being a HR business partner requires to have new knowledge and skills and to come with ideas in order to help all the lines of the organization. My kids are the sources for my creativity and spontaneity, two very important abilities needed to perform in current HR environment.
Laura Rudnyanszky, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, CPL, Teleperformance Romania
I joined TP in April 2018 as first in-house lawyer of TP Romania handling all legal aspects of TP Romania group (constituted of 3 legal entities). After 2 months I added the role of Country Privacy Lead and at the beginning this year I have two new departments – compliance and security – under my guidance. Involvement in day-to-day business, with a special focus on decisions to be implemented in all areas of the telecommunications industry, with real interest in customers, special communication with internal and external customers, are essential skills to provide expertise, legal support, and meeting the objectives set by the company’s business plans. But I also deal with litigation and IP, corporate and consulting on daily business, regulatory, compliance and commercial. Areas such as intellectual property, data protection, sales, corporate or contract negotiation are classic areas of expertise needed to be a good in-house counsellor. These are areas that this role needs to master from a 360 perspective to provide valuable legal advice, and a multidisciplinary approach is also required in order to function and perform in this innovative industry. The role played by an in-house lawyer in such a complex and ever-changing structure, such as that of the Teleperformance group, is to provide support that offers sufficient guarantees for business development, in close connection with the understanding of the actual relationship with the company’s customers.
I can say that my works brings me joy! I was totally involved in the new position, openly, assuming the role that involved rebuilding the legal team and repositioning it within the company, and I want to think that time will tell if I managed to really “leave something behind” in regards to this department. I can say that the activity of the in-house lawyer within an international company like Teleperformance is a great satisfaction, leader on the market, presupposes thorough knowledge of law, but also a strategic thinking oriented towards achieving business results, at group level. It also involves advanced knowledge of complex areas of activity tangent to the telecommunications industry. I constantly collaborate with other Departments such as: Financial, Communication, HR, Commercial, Facility, Training, Quality, etc.
When it comes to challenges, I am motivated by the internal project to strengthen the teams and resources of the subsidiaries in a strong legal pole at group level. All companies are in the process of expanding with increasingly complex projects, so the future is very dynamic. Even if it took me out of my comfort zone, I appreciate the dynamics and creativity specific to this industry.
There are a lot of unique experiences in my work. Teleperformance is the agile business service partner that companies need in this digital world. Especially for the structure of the new department I’m mandated to organize and manage, it is a continuous challenge and a true learning experience to integrate as well as the compliance and security areas, specific to our activity. Each client is unique, and our diversity allows us to interact with them in a unique way. I truly believe that, despite our differences, within our company, we are connected by a common thread: our shared humanity and empathy for customers and for each other.
When I have to explain to my family what I do at work I tell them that I am the interface between Top Management and law firms to which certain projects are outsourced. Of course, especially my kids, are not really familiar to the specificities of my job, so to keep things clear and concise I tell them that they can think of me as of some sort of legal Wonder Woman working to keep things straight for both our company and our employees.
As for trends in my domain I have to I admit that, in theory, there are not many spectacular innovations in law practice. Yes, we can talk about vision and initiative in experimenting and developing new practices, skill and talent in the efficient management of a litigious case, or structuring a complex financing project, are areas where there is room for innovation. As a in-house lawyer however, the possibility of creativity in the group’s business is much wider and I have the opportunity to identify solutions and offer broad perspectives that go beyond the legal sphere in complex and difficult business matters. The feeling of local guardian of the legality and integrity of the Teleperformance Group’s business represents for me a strong feeling towards this field. From this perspective, in the context of the business decision-making process, it is essential to identify alternatives in achieving a legitimate goal, assessing the degree of risk, exposing a set of systematic and constructive options, finding a balance in the final solution chosen between competing legitimate values with a firm vision of high integrity.
I am always in search for growing. My collaborations with clients from various industries, within the law firms in which I trained as a professional, until I started collaborating with the Teleperformance Group, created the necessary premises for a deeper understanding of the business and trained me as a professional. A lawyer, who in his/ her training has interacted with clients from various industries, succeeds when he/she represents a legal department of a single client, to understand and implement more applied management policies. It is essential to capitalize on basic skills, as well as to develop complementary skills related to the specifics of the industry in which the end customer performs. This condition applies both to a business lawyer in a law firm and to an in-house GC in a corporation.