Interim HR Manager in place within days during Corona

CUSTOMER: KOSAN GAS OWNED BY UGI INTERNATIONAL
POSITION: INTERIM HR MANAGER NORDIC
TASK: HR TASKS RELATED TO DAILY BUSINESS AND A GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION
DURATION: 5 MONTHS INTERIM RESULTING IN A PERMANENT POSITION

WHY INTERIM?

One of our HR Partners in Denmark had resigned with only one month’s notice, potentially affecting the administration and handling of all HR tasks related to our daily business as well as our global transformation process.

We quickly realized that we did not have enough time to recruit for a permanent position if we wanted an overlap between the one HR manager in place and the one to come. Therefore, an interim HR manager was the proper solution. It would enable us to recruit parallelly for a permanent HR Manager. 

THE PROCESS

Our previous HR manager reached out to Christian Hvashøj Schaarup from Nextt Management. I had no local knowledge in this respect and furthermore, sitting in the UK could easily complicate matters. I feared that it might be difficult to secure an effective way forward. However, within a very short period of time I was handed a shortlist of three candidates based on my introductory briefing.

To be more precise: I was given the candidate details on a Wednesday, interviews took place the day after and on Monday our new interim HR manager started. It only took three working days to set our new team. This swift handling secured us one weeks’ overlap and a full week of joint co-operation with both our existing and our new HR Manager in place.

Our interim candidate has proved to be the perfect solution – to such an extent that the interim position has been transformed into a permanent position with our Nordic HR team.

THE CANDIDATE

The shortlist of three eligible candidates was a fine basis to make a sound decision upon. The candidates were all competent and experienced for the job in question but particularly one of the candidates hit bull’s eye.

My area of responsibility is both the UK and the Nordic countries and working with HR is very different due to differences in employment legislation, working culture etc. Consequently, I must rely heavily on my local teams. This requires a lot of the individual employees, their skills, competences, and experience. Nextt Management showed a very good understanding of this. 

NO CROSS-BORDERS COMPLICATIONS

The interim hiring took place during a peak period of covid-19 when we were restricted in terms of travelling and crossing borders. Normally, I prefer to meet face to face as this tends to build better business and employee relations. Given the covid-crisis we had to make use of Teams and Zoom and base our hiring on the remote channels available.

It has worked out perfectly – thanks to Nextt’s ability to quickly assess and understand our business and combine our needs with a shortlist of three HR candidates from their database of 4.500 candidates.

Owing to their high level of service and flexibility we have been able to handle all daily HR tasks as well as continuing onwards with the HR tasks related to our global transformation project. Our pace has been maintained and deadlines met.

Every response, every point of contact has been handled quickly and with great focus. They have given us reassurance, a high level of information and on top of this a professional and friendly service. They are organized and quick to understand and interpret business needs and react accordingly.

ABOUT KOSAN GAS

The international company is one of the leading suppliers of energy solutions in the Nordics. The Nordic operation is part of one out of four regions with 17 countries in total and a turnover of approx. 2.3 bn.

The organization is going through a transformation process where autonomous organizations are merged into regions and a more centralized operation. The Nordics covering Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland holds approx. 100 employees in total.