Vladimir Sterescu, CGS Romania: 450 new professionals to be hired exclusively through online interviews

Computer Generated Solutions (CGS) Romania, the leader of the local business process outsourcing (BPO) market, aims to increase the team in the next period with approx. 450 new employees to support projects already underway, but also new ones added even in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic. Also, during this period, the company conducts only remote interviews, either by telephone or using video conferencing platforms.

Currently, the company is looking to hire client representatives, financial specialists, but also technicians or helpdesk with different abilities. Also, these positions require the knowledge of a foreign language, from the classical ones: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, to the most exotic ones such as Dutch, Greek or Polish.

“Even in this extremely difficult period, in which many industries not only no longer recruit, but perform dismissals or send staff into technical unemployment, CGS Romania will continue hiring because the demand for support services coming to us is increasing. At this moment, we make the commitments, especially to integrate the newly signed contracts during this period, but also as a result of the extension of the existing ones. The fact that many businesses have moved online, and many companies that have support centers in Asia – strongly affected by the pandemic situation, is increasing the need for outsourcing services. As a result, we are involved in various customer support, technical support, but also back-office projects,” says Vladimir Sterescu, Country Manager of CGS Romania.

The company representative also said that, at the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, there was a decrease in the number of applicants for vacant positions, which was more expected in the context where people are more concerned about safety and health than recruitment processes. But the trend is now increasing. What is also worth mentioning as a positive trend is the degree of attendance of the candidates in interviews. If before the first interview, held mostly face-to-face, it was about 70%, now it has increased to approx. 94%, in the exclusive online interview.

“Theoretically, conducting distance interviews does not limit us too much. Recruiters may ask the same questions as before, but there is no face-to-face interaction and thus the perception they have about the personality of the interviewees is reduced. Given that the only constant element throughout the conversation is the tone and cadence of the candidate, they will be the foundation on which the recruiter will build his / her feedback later. We also pay close attention to how the interviewee expresses their opinions about the group in which he / she worked, previous professional experience and, in order to adapt to the current context, we try to make up for the lack of physical interaction by allocating more time to the candidate during the interview. online. If before it had an average duration of 15-20 minutes, now the time has doubled, “says Vladimir Sterescu.

How is the interview process working?

As so far, depending on the position for which they apply, each candidate will go through at least two interviews, and then, once hired, an integration period of approx. 6 weeks.

“The training of new employees remotely can have a major advantage. On the first day, they feel a lot of pressure because everything is new – colleagues, supervisors, trainers, procedures, etc. However, when they enter training from the comfort of their home, the pressure decreases, and the degree of adaptation and understanding of the new notions increases,” says the manager of CGS.

According to his statements, the training teams within CGS Romania must constantly find ways to ensure that new employees understand and assimilate the information transmitted. In his acceptance, the biggest challenge will remain the fact that, for a period, the personal interaction with the new members who join the team will be lacking, they are currently deprived of forming strong links and there is the possibility of becoming more difficult a unitary with the rest. colleagues. In this scenario, communication becomes so essential.

The company implemented the work from home system for 80 per cent of the 4000 professionals working for CGS Romania

Vladimir Sterescu stressed that, with the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, new projects have already been taken over and implemented. This was determined by the fact that some markets had to suffer in this context, and companies that had outsourced certain activities in these areas had to reorient to other suppliers they were already working with or to new ones from other regions, one. of these being Romania. Thus, most new projects come from clients who had outsourcing contracts or support centers in the Philippines, India or Northwest Africa, areas where the Internet connection is poor, and the implementation of a telemarketing system can only be limited.