Two years of “changing the code” for HN Services in the recruitment process

Two years of “changing the code” in the recruitment process

We are now already “celebrating” two years of remote recruiting and onboarding practices for new consultants at HN Services Romania. During this time, we developed our internal tools, own ways of attracting candidates and keeping them engaged and far and foremost, we have kept our motivation among ourselves and triggered innovation out of all processes.

Where are we now and how do we see the future of changing the codes in the recruiting process at HN Services? George Petrache, our IT Recruitment Team Lead, gave us some insights about how we kept our company a great place to join.

How do you see the last 2 years in terms of recruitment process? Are the candidates more willing to make a career change?

If someone asks me to describe the IT recruitment process during the last two years, it would certainly be “Adaptive”. This period was very volatile, and everything led to changes in the professional environment. All the recruitment processes in HN Services had to adapt to the new conditions, and the first effect was seen in the openness of the candidates for new opportunities. Everyone was reluctant to make a professional change, but as expected, this didn’t last long. It was just a matter of time until everyone understood that we don’t have to stop, but we need to adapt.

As a plus, due to the online recruitment process and flexibility of remote work from our partners, new possibilities emerged. Many of HN Services clients from the local market started to transform their on-site openings into full remote positions and this was the transition that the IT professionals needed to become confident again. Moreover, I can say that in two years, the recruitment processes became even more dynamic, the so – called “unreachable candidates” became open to new professional changes, the recruitment processes reached new cities such as Cluj Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, Craiova, etc.

How did HN Services ‘’changed the code’’ when recruiting new candidates?

I can proudly say that we were at the core of changing the code in IT recruitment. Being connected to a large variety of clients from different industries, we had a lot of exposure to companies’ policies regarding the career paths in pandemic conditions. Firstly, this variety combined with the “new Work from Home policy” allowed us to offer multiple options to our candidates, and secondly, it came with multiple challenges in staying connected with them, keeping them up to date with all the processes. A lot of work, of course, but all to a higher purpose, becoming closer to our employees, candidates, clients, and people in general. We are proud to have virtually maintained the company culture and employee engagement.

Which are the most in-demand IT roles that HN is currently looking for and challenges that they bring?

There are for sure some IT roles in high demand, but here we can notice a fluctuation.  HN Services was originally known as s provider of Cobol Java, or .NET professionals because of the internal Training Center. But, as I said, adaptability is a strong word for HN Services and we are always open to new areas of expertise. As we managed to gain a large variety of clients, we also expanded the internal IT profiles such as:  Business Analysis, Project Management, IT Infrastructure, DevOps, IT Support, Automation and Manual testers, Data engineers and the list can go on. The internal COBOL training center is still our strong point with the largest expertise in the domain, but we keep up with the trends in terms of IT professionals and technologies.

What is your key of success and how do you see the future of HR?

There is no secret recipe, I think it is all about some basic work principles like commitment and adaptability. Considering the pandemic context, I had to find some new perks of my work. Working mostly remote, I had some unofficial, strong, permanent and unconditional help provided by my dog, a Chihuahua named Zeus (smart, right ?). In a more serious tone, activities like spending time with family and friends, Zeus included, or working from Brasov, were considered a boost for my work motivation.

The last two years showed us that the future of HR can smoothly and professionally work online.  There is no doubt that working with humans requires also social interaction.  I think that this aspect can be solved with a hybrid schedule because it is demonstrated that every team needs unity and this can be achieved, among others, with informal interaction.