Monika Paszkiewicz joined Oras Group at a very busy time – but it doesn’t spill over to her evenings or weekends, as the Nordic company holds leisure in high regard.
Before being contacted by a recruitment agency in Poland, Monika Paszkiewicz had never even heard about Oras Group. After the first meeting, it suddenly seemed to be everywhere.
“No matter where I went, I remember observing faucets,” she recalls, “and when I saw the Oras logo, I thought: that might be my company in the future.”
At the time, Monika was working as a team lead for a gigantic multinational company. After hearing about the opportunity at Oras Group and its new shared service center in Wrocław, Poland, she decided to take up on the offer.
“At a global company, you’re a small fish in a big pond; but in a medium-sized company like Oras Group, you can get more personalized connections with people and understand the processes thoroughly,” she explains.
The job title sounded impressive, too: German key account coordinator.
“Previously I was a team leader, so working as a coordinator was a really interesting opportunity and development in my career path. Now I am now able to work in three languages: German, Polish, and English.”
Transition phase took a toll – but paid off
The shared service center was established in October 2020. Monika was recruited to be part of the – at times stressful and not always easy – transition process.
“Everything was new. We had to move various complicated processes from Stuttgart and develop relations with the rest of the company and gain their trust. Another demanding factor was that we had to implement the transition without any delays in providing services.”
The global pandemic added to the mix of challenges, as people weren’t working together in the office. Monika solved the problem by organizing team meetings and one-to-ones in order to get to know everyone and build the team.
“My first piece of advice to all team members was to build relations with other peers, as it allows us to work more effectively together and reduces stress. Yes, we were all pretty stressed!”
The hard work paid off, and recently the service center staff celebrated their one-year anniversary.
The best possible team
During the past 12 months, Monika’s responsibilities have grown from managing a team of six to managing three entire teams: back office, front desk, and export and master data, comprising of over 20 team members. She says she’s been lucky, as everyone is well prepared and aware of their own skills and potential.
What also helps is that in the beginning, Monika worked very close to the processes, so she could observe what her team members were good at and enthusiastic about. This way she can best support each one of them to fulfill their professional ambitions.
There have been plenty of learning curves for Monika herself as well. In her previous roles, she worked with logistics and supply chain management, and now her focus is on customer service, which, in a way, combines all other types of operations.
She believes that the center is now in a stabilization phase.
“There’s still a lot more work to be done, but also huge progress has been made,” she explains. “Our services are at a stable level and all customer inquiries are handled with care, quality, and in a timely manner. Of course, there are global issues with things like deliveries and supply chain breaks, but from a customer service perspective, we’re doing our best to help our customers. As we are a customer service team, they are the most important to us.”
Impact and influence
Becoming a big fish in a medium-sized pond still feels like the right choice. After joining Oras Group, Monika was quickly promoted to a manager position, which is something that wouldn’t have been possible in her previous workplace.
“At Oras Group, everyone is able to develop their skills and have influence and impact on the work we do."
“In huge corporations, getting approval for simple changes can take a long time, but in medium-sized companies, you can have direct contact with and support from the top executives and it’s much easier to find an approval to implement your ideas for improvement.”
On top of a broad range of duties and a competitive salary, Monika has been happy to notice that Oras Group also holds the Nordic style of work-life balance in high regard.
“As most things are well organized and prepared, I no longer get calls after working hours,” she tells. “If we can’t get something done on Friday afternoon, there is still enough time to handle it on Monday.”
