Project example :

"Head of Human Resources with focus on recruiting"

Head of HR with focus on recruiting

The company in this project was a well-known real estate company in Hamburg. The client is part of an Italian group listed on the Milan stock exchange. Personnel Management is centrally conducted from Milan. Germany has its own local management in place. In my function as Interim Head of Personnel, I therefore reported to the German Managing Director as well as the group Head of Personnel in Milan.

Project »Head of Human Resources«

The client was looking for interim support for Personnel Management because the Head of Personnel had become unavailable due to parental leave. There was an experienced team of two staff members in the Personnel Department. However, the tasks for which the Personnel Manager was responsible could not be transferred to the team. The German Managing Director also wanted the work in the Personnel Department to be professionally secured by an expert in the profession. For this reason, the client decided to fill the vacancy with an Interim Manager as Personnel Manager.

Course of the project

Project Personnel Management had as a fundamental focus, the recruiting of new employees. In the real estate industry, specialists and managers are in high demand on the labour market. The client had set up a very frugal German operation and was specifically looking for talent with extensive professional experience. Therefore, they invested heavily in recruiting. With the positions filled exclusively through headhunters, the client's Personnel Management deemed it important for the recruiting to be accompanied by an experienced specialist in all things personnel.

Due to the difficult situation in recruiting for the brief, the client then decided to invest heavily in staff and management development. The thinking was: if specialists can only be bought externally at a very high cost, the employees should be trained internally. Since the principal in Italy already had numerous concepts in place for personnel development, it was decided that these would be adapted for the local market in Germany.

Focus on Personnel Management

The client was organised into a holding structure in Germany. In addition to commissioning and managing recruitment consultancies and conducting interviews, I took care of Personnel Management locally. The main focus was on personnel support and the support of managers in Germany. In my function as Head of Personnel, I also managed various investment companies in Germany. It was important to the client that the same personnel policy principles were followed at each decentralised location.

My duties as Head of HR were:

Operational Personnel Management
HR Operations, Personnel support from A to Z
Advice in the field of Individual Employment Law
Strategic Personnel Management
Interim Recruiting for Real Estate
Commissioning and outsourcing of personnel consultancies
Conducting of interviews with prospective candidates
Consulting in employer branding

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» The client wanted to operate uniformly in the market. The same employment conditions should apply to all employees of the real estate company. «

Lars Schott, HR Manager

Employer branding measures

In addition to recruiting, as Interim Head of Personnel, I also accompanied various employer branding measures. For example, the client had a stand at the EXPO REAL international trade fair for real estate held in Munich, where they wanted a personal approach to optimise on this unmissable platform during the duration of the event. Our team prepared the trade fair with employer branding material and at the same time conducted numerous interviews with various candidates on site. Furthermore, during the course of the project, the client initiated an employer branding campaign with a well-known recruitment consultancy, as well as a popular real estate newspaper. The goal was to show a substantial presence in the real estate industry and the further development of the employer brand.

HR Controlling & Reporting

In addition to Personnel Management, I also supported the client in the area of HR Controlling & Reporting. The principal in Italy was listed on the Milan stock exchange at the time. However, the client delisted the company and prepared a possible sale of the German companies. Human Resources can have a high impact on possible transactions. Therefore, the client expanded its reporting and took it upon himself to go ahead with reporting key company figures at regular intervals. As an external Personnel Manager and Head of Personnel, the challenge was to identify proactively the need for information from the parent company. I coordinated this information need with the finance colleagues, who were able to provide a good database on the different KPIs.

Company pension scheme (BAV)

The client continued to have extensive pension obligations on the balance sheet of the German company. In preparation for a possible sale of the company, legal issues regarding occupational pension obligations relating to BAV, as the German pension scheme is referred to, were clarified.

Conducting of employee survey

Project Personnel Management had as another key focus, the supervision of an employee survey. The client had already conducted a staff survey before the project started. This was evaluated by an external consulting firm. Together with management, I discussed the results and developed different Personnel Management measures from them: for example, following up on certain topics in the circle of managers or reacting to the needs of the employees in retention management.

A proven track record

As an interim parental leave replacement, I quickly took on the operational tasks of a Personnel Manager without a lengthy induction. Thus, the position of Head of Personnel was professionally secured. The recruiting of specialists and managers in the real estate industry was very important and required a high level of experience to be effective. In addition to the talent search, as an external HR specialist I was able to push other topics in the field of human resources for the client that the internal team was not necessarily in a position to deal with alone.