She believes the team's success grows with each newly hired employee - whether in production or the office. Daniela Dániel, an experienced HR professional, wants to focus on selecting the right person for any given role. She has brought digitalization and automation in the form of an Applicant Tracking System, Nalgoo ATS, to c2i, where she is responsible for „white collar recruitment“. Read about what it has brought to the company.
Several years of experience in HR development, psychology, and recruitment helped Daniela bring synergy to the company and the employees. Thanks to her evaluation of the candidate or employee in terms of performance and personality, c2i is now a stable place that offers a pleasant, functioning, and attractive working environment.
c2i was founded by Patrik Hessel in 2005. From the very beginning, the company was driven by innovation, which fascinated its founder. The once small B2B company now supplies carbon components to companies such as Porsche, Bentley, and Jaguar. The internationally established company, based in Slovakia, produces subcomponents mainly for the automotive and aerospace industries. Many of their innovative products are truly fascinating.
The Aeromobile or Eros Ramazzotti's guitar
In addition to parts for large premium brands, c2i has also produced other interesting small products. We're talking about carbon suitcases, various motorbikes, but also the jet surf, which is a surfboard made of carbon material that allows you to surf on calm waters. For example, Eros Ramazzotti's carbon guitar or body parts for the popular Aeromobile were also created in the 13,000-square-metre production hall. Some components are even part of products used by the US Navy.
The fact that c2i is a fast-growing and dynamic company is evidenced by the fact that its turnover has increased by 250% in the last two years. The number of employees has also increased rapidly.
From 5 employees to 430
Twelve years ago, Patrik Hessel was the only one of his small team who had practical experience with carbon fibre. At the beginning, it consisted of one design engineer, a project manager, and two people in production who didn't have much experience and were learning as they went. As did gradually more and more employees.
The breakthrough came in 2012 when we got our first really big series project, the Porsche 918 Spider, which established our reputation and opened the door to other major projects with Bentley and BMW. In 2015, we also entered the aerospace industry with our components. Today our biggest clients are Recaro Aircraft Seating, and we have produced products for Airbus and Boeing," says Daniel Dániel, HR recruiter at c2i, of the company's achievements. "Of course, the number of projects has grown with the number of employees. In 2016 alone, we hired 130 new people. Our goal is to expand from the current 430 employees to at least 1,000 within 5 years.
Focus on people while having an overview
Daniela's main job as an HR specialist is an intensive employee search. There are more and more positions and candidates, and with that comes more and more paperwork. How does recruitment work at c2i? Very often, especially for positions in production, employees come with recommendations of people they know personally. This means it is quite challenging to maintain complete records of such candidates.
In such a case, how do you focus on people and at the same time have a perfect overview of candidates and the recruitment processes? At c2i, as in many other companies, for many years c2i only used Excel. Not just one but multiple spreadsheets. It was often very cluttered because each HR had their own spreadsheet. In addition, the HR agencies that c2i worked with had their own systems. Information from so many systems was difficult to find and collate so was often lost.
It was necessary to find a tool that would:
- Collate all the sources where candidates come from Profession, LinkedIn, references from staff
- Prevent the loss of information due to staff changes
- Contain a complete history of the selection and recruitment processes, so that c2i could get back to them, i.e. what the job was, why they were rejected/not accepted, how the interview went, etc.,
- Ensure 100% privacy
The solution was a tool that:
- Takes care of both the company and the data
When we decided to automate our HR processes and reduce the burden of administration, we started doing our market research. Initially, our priority was to find and test a freely available solution. However, there was always something holding us back. After all, we want to store CVs online, but who will ensure that such sensitive information is not misused?" asks the company's HR recruiter. "High data protection was crucial for us, and this was something that the solutions available for free lacked. It was actually really good timing because just as we were about to test another solution, we happened to meet the Nalgoo team.
We met at a job fair. We talked and arranged a presentation. Within a couple of weeks, c2i had already implemented Nalgoo ATS. In particular, they decided on 100% data privacy. The Nalgoo team takes care of their product regularly, data protection comes first.
- It helps to build company branding
It's important for c2i to give feedback to every candidate, whether positive or negative. When a company doesn't communicate, they're damaging their reputation. Thanks to functionality like the rejection of candidates in Nalgoo ATS, c2i is building its company branding.
- Knows the history of the company's HR processes
The number of people who have applied for positions, the number of relevant CVs received, and the overall history of HR processes. This is all information that helps the HR team function productively. The information needs to be kept together, particularly because of the turnover of HR team members. So that the information doesn't leave with them.
- Gathers all the resources
Candidates apply through job portals and social media. Another source is employee references. "I'm glad I have a clear overview of who has applied from where so I can categorize people. By having Nalgoo linked to our website, I can post job opportunities on both our website and job portals with just one click.
- Provides superior support
Any solution takes some getting used to particularly when one has been using a system for many years. The time you invest in learning how to use an ATS system will pay for itself many times over. Therefore, at the beginning, communication with the team that created the solution is essential.
"When it comes to communication with the support team at Nalgoo, it is of a high standard. Whenever there is a problem or question, they respond proactively and try to incorporate the feedback as quickly as possible. I can see that the solutions are constantly being implemented and the Nalgoo team is working hard on development. And that motivates me," says Daniela Dániel of the cooperation.