When a company opens a site abroad, one of the biggest challenges they face is building a team that represents their values and virtue, while they get to work among the guidelines already established at home. Setting up a team from scratch is quite the challenge for companies, and many wish to delegate the task to local professionals familiar with the market in the region. IseeQ is a Budapest-based recruitment agency with almost a decade of experience in the business. Our collaboration with Continental is one of the partnerships we are most proud of, as we got over the challenges of opening their AI Development Center in Hungary and still work together on building their team. This case study was written based on the interviews with Mónika Horváth and Gábor Antal, Recruiters at IseeQ, and Balázs Lóránd Ph.D, Head of Artificial Intelligence Competence Center at Continental. If you’re curious about how you can build a crew from 0 to over 140, what cultural and operational hardships might come up and some possible solutions, read the study below!

1. How innovation can attract great talent

Inventing, developing, producing and marketing indispensable and pioneering technological solutions determines Continental’s current field of activity. Transferring new technologies and ideas quickly into mass production is both the biggest challenge and opportunity of the moment. Despite being a multinational company employing over 193 thousand people, fast-paced progress and thinking out of the box determines the way forward for the corporation. The “Future in motion” promise lies on several pillars, including

• Safety – for a future where no accident can occur by mistakes of humans, all lives are protected and resources are used efficiently to maximize the protection of people and the environment
• Information – to develop mobility to be intelligent through remaining constantly connected while driving, increase comfort behind the wheel and save time with more effective layouts
• Environment – diminish pollution to the bare minimum, keep the air clean, noise levels permanently down and maximize the efficiency of the resources used both while on route and in production
• Affordable mobility – to make mobility accessible for everyone, facilitate freedom of movement and opportunities to travel for all purposes.

With such large scale goals, Continental is one of the few companies in Hungary where individual efforts are met with enough capital to actually make a change, with visible results on society and environment alike. Talented professionals of various fields can work together to make their ideas come to life, with the stable support of a multi-environment. In the beginning of our partnership, such a selling point in the Hungarian market made it easier for us to recruit candidates into a team that has not yet existed. The professionals of foreign offices also contributed to the fast growth of the Hungarian site- experts previously working for the European Space Agency, CERN and Wigner set a great example of careers at the firm.

2. Setting up a business in another country

The first question that might come to your mind is why a company with such achievements and talents working for them would consider a country with barely 10 million inhabitants as a possible location for a site. Well, aside from the amazing scenery and great food, it is well worth it financially. Considering solely the expenses, Hungary is one of the greatest options in Europe. We have excellent, both trained and trainable professionals exiting technical universities each year. Hungarian people also have great work ethic, but living expenses are usually lower here than European average. It’s important to note that companies do not open an office in Hungary because the workforce is cheaper, but because there is great talent available. The competition for talent is fierce here as well, but it is still easier to attract people in a shorter time than in Western Europe or anywhere in North America.

Our country is getting more and more popular for multinational companies each year, and Continental joining the trend indicates that not only the traditional manufacturing industry, but firms with innovative approaches also have an interest in the region. This is a great recognition and opportunity for the country, serving as motivation for young generations to work towards their goals as they can find great challenges inland too.

3. Building a larger team in a short time

Site opening projects are always quite the challenge for both sides in a collaboration with a recruitment agency. Meeting tight deadlines while providing a company with exceptional candidates is always hard, and requires great attention, commitment and communication from everyone involved. Keeping in mind that a whole team is put together from scratch, there is always a transition phase while the first people familiarize themselves with each other and the practices, and establish a culture future employees can adjust to. There’s no shortcut to making this time-consuming process shorter or less demanding- but a recruitment agency can help to make it go smoother. We have experience in consulting firms on HR performance development, so the task was familiar to all of our colleagues working on the project. Together with Continental, our recruiters helped to establish the base recruitment processes of the company. At first, we also had to create job descriptions together, as consequential to the innovative field of business, the persona of the desired candidates was a bit blurry. Right after we laid down the ground rules and defined who we were looking for, our recruitment teams got to work and sourced tens of potential candidates to multiple open positions. Presence, presentation and talent engagement were all key steps towards the goal. The rest is history: the site is now operating with circa 140 employees.

4. The advantages of onsite recruitment

Many businesses still operate under the misconception that their recruitment function is a subservient element of the HR function. As it’s a time-consuming process and not necessarily the favorite part of work for HR professionals, many leaders just wish to delegate the task to an external source. Still, it is quite frequent, especially in the case of multinational companies, that they don’t want their inside routines to be watched by someone not part of the team. This type of resentment still exists, partly as a result of the sales-style approach to recruitment which has been present in our industry since the beginning of time. This posed a challenge for business leaders and managers that don’t want the annoyance of hiring but can’t actually deliver their services without bringing people into their company to operate it.

To make sure that all functions are supported with great knowledge and adequate attention, many companies chose to not make compromises. They started to embed recruitment practices into their operations in a way that it was strategic and beneficial. Onsite recruitment means that a recruiter works within the company as an outsider, together with internal HR, responsible for certain tasks and processes they previously agreed upon. This way, the company gains constant contact and more confidentiality with certain agents, and still gets to delegate the undesired duties.

From IseeQ’s side, Gábor and Mónika still work as onsite recruiters, they are responsible for the development of the recruitment processes, the training of the HR team, hiring managers and technical interviewers on the topic, sourcing candidates, pre-screening and interviewing them before they get introduced to the internal staff. This form of partnership has proven to be beneficial for all, resulting in a long-term contract and countless happy individuals hired to work for Continental.

5. Tips to improve the efficiency of onsite recruitment

Naturally, working onsite comes with both advantages and disadvantages. The constant contact, for example, is really effective as more, possibly important details get to the recruiters, but might be a bit tiring to maintain for higher-profile individuals. As a consequence, lots of emails and texts are lost in space, making recruiters’ jobs just a tad more difficult. Consequently, there are lots of undefined areas and channels of communication that both sides should get used to and frames they should work within. Effective onsite recruitment, for these exact reasons, is most effective if it’s regulated based on previous experiences:

• Work out a routine that both sides are able to operate on
• Establish communication rules (channels, deadlines and occasional meetings) so that everyone knows their responsibilities within the information flow
• Facilitate that information flow– with any practices possible, defined in the beginning
• Think together with the recruiter– even if a company delegates the recruitment tasks, it is still their responsibility to brief the relevant person
• Stick to a strategy– the number of hires, their field of work and level of expertise are all things that should always be clear to everyone involved.

6. How to build a startup culture in a multinational environment

The quick growth of a company is always exciting to watch, especially how a corporate culture is forming from scratch. Continental has great ambitions to transfer parts of a startup-like culture into a multi-environment, meaning

• 1. Individual ideas are greatly appreciated and encouraged
• 2. Besides serving clients with production, there’s a great focus on innovation
• 3. Knowledge from other sectors is warmly welcomed into the thinking and planning processes- there are ex-biologists, chemists and mathematic students working on AI solutions at this very moment
• 4. Diversity, sustainability and equality are top priorities
• 5. While keeping the administrative systems of headquarters, ideas are not limited by bureaucracy

This attitude in such amplitudes is sort of unmatched in the region. While employing thousands of professionals, there’s still opportunity for everyone to work on their ideas and feel supported. This forward-thinking approach is part of the reasons we chose to work with Continental: besides diversifying our portfolio as an agency we got to recruit talent into a culture we deemed healthy and prosperous.

7. The importance of building an internal talent pool

In the 21st century, many individuals switch workplaces and even careers multiple times during their active years. This tendency has been present for almost a decade now, and was widely accepted as the new normal across all industries. Recently, however, a new trend has emerged on the side of employers, aiming to train and build professionals, and valuing them so that they stay at their company for a longer period of time. This traditional model has countless benefits:

• 1. It allows people to “climb the ladder”, offers them a clear and stable career path
• 2. Long-term employees are much more familiar with the company as new hires, and their experiences are important feedback that can be used to change certain methods
• 3. Trust is higher on both sides
• 4. Emotional stability results in calmer and more focused employees

Continental, apart from focusing on attracting valuable knowledge from all fields, focuses on training its employees from entry level on. Majority of the local management team was promoted internally, which is an unusually high number. We fully support this model, as it encourages a healthy and steady growth in each individual’s career, while supplying the company with talent specifically trained for a position. This is the most effective way to ensure that each opening is filled with the most suitable person: receiving special training with adequate courses for development is the ultimate preparation for a hire.

8. Never underestimate the power of diversity

Besides ethical business practices, a modern firm should also stand for modern values. Diversity in a workplace is a good-sounding phrase companies like to use to attract talent, but many fail to interpret it correctly and recognise its importance. With an inclusive, people-first, progressive culture, a workplace can empower their employees to reach their full potential and attract the best talent for continued growth and success. Diversity is more than employing people from all races, multiple skin-tones and backgrounds. It’s all about treating them equally, evaluating them on the same scale, and giving them the same chances. Continental’s statement is also supported by numbers. Just to mention an example: more than half of management level colleagues were female at a time, and there’s a general balance in genders in important roles too. As a recruitment agency, we see that diversity results in countless benefits for a company, including:

Increased productivity

A diverse workplace allows for more ideas. The broad spectrum of talent means lots of different experiences that boost cooperation, and ultimately lead to shared productivity.

Increased creativity

As various cultures and backgrounds work together, they tend to inspire each other a lot, affecting their approaches to work, their usual routines and thinking methods alike. This is because there are multiple perspectives, creating a greater chance of a usable solution to a workplace problem.

Improved cultural awareness

A diverse range of cultures within the workplace allows companies to deal with the different nuances within a global marketplace. Foreign business partners always appreciate someone on the other side speaking their language, and it opens doors to unknown markets as well.

Our case study proves that difficult tasks that seem difficult in the beginning often lead to the greatest success one can achieve. We are deeply thankful for Continental for trusting us with their recruitment processes, and hope for our partnership to continue to flourish.