Joana Franke - Team Coordinator in HR Service Recruiting

It has been more than two months since Joana Franke and her seven colleagues sat together in the large HR office in Zeven. Since then, Recruiting has introduced a rotating office service with a split presence so that they can continue to process postal applications and enquiries quickly. “Fortunately, even before coronavirus our applicant management system meant that we had a nearly paperless office and weren’t tied to a particular location,” she says.

This has proved extremely valuable because it’s vital for DMK that the HR Department continues to work smoothly. As a large food producer, DMK is an essential service and so vacancies need to be filled. Recruitment is therefore continuing at full speed. This might not be clear to applicants, so Joana Franke is proactive in her communication, using the careers website, letters and adapted e-mail signatures.

From preparing job postings to scheduling and conducting interviews – work remains mostly the same for our Recruiting department. The biggest difference is that these things now have to be organised from home. “Even after two months it still feels strange, particularly because the impersonal communication does not fit with DMK at all. Of course, we also like to get to know potential new colleagues personally. In the current situation, video is better than nothing but it doesn’t replace human contact.” For DMK, it’s extremely important to at least conduct the final interviews with applicants in person - “of course in extra large rooms and in compliance with all hygiene regulations,” explains Joana Franke.

Even though the lack of personal contact with colleagues has made work harder for Joana Franke and her team, the Team Coordinator is impressed with the way that the DMK HR Department has handled the situation, “I am very proud of how we, as a department that depends on personal contact, have worked together without contact and from different locations. I hope that we will be able to maintain our new-found flexibility and use of digital tools even after the coronavirus period. At least then something good would have come out of it.”