The People Factor

At McKinsey, Martina was responsible for hiring new consultants into their German and Austrian offices with a focus on diversity. She also spent time in Dubai improving the Middle East hiring processes and attracting top talent from UK and US universities into all EMEA offices. In her final two years at McKinsey, Martina co-managed all German/Austrian hiring efforts. In 2018, she joined Personio as their Head of HR and later as Director of Talent. Under her leadership, the company grew from 50 to 1,400 employees in just 4 years. Martina understands the challenges that come with hyper-growth and is experienced in maintaining a high hiring bar. Shownotes 00:00:00 Intro & Summary 00:04:18 Internal mobility 00:07:30 Structured evaluation 00:14:00 Learnings from McKinsey 00:20:20 Start at Personio 00:31:15 Build the team before you need it 00:36:25 Attrition 00:44:17 Evaluating candidates at Mckinsey vs Personio 00:47:58 Headcount Planning 00:56:20 Leaving Personio & travel break 01:05:00 Next step and current focus Links Linkedin Martina Ruiß: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martina-ruiss/ Linkedin Thomas Kohler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/ Website, pplwise: https://pplwise.com/ Website, Podcast: https://pplwise.com/podcast/

About the guest Stefan Ries is a highly experienced Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Labor Relations Director. He served in these roles at SAP SE and was a member of the Executive Board with global responsibility for HR. With a background in executive roles at companies like Microsoft, Compaq, SAP, and Egon Zehnder International, Stefan is also passionate about sports, particularly German football, tennis, and European Handball. These days, he enjoys supporting HR tech startups as a business angel and is an external advisor for McKinsey on digital transformation projects. Shownotes: 00:00:00 Intro & Summary 00:02:25 Stefan’s start in Tech in the 90s 00:05:40 IBM’s focus on Hardware and the early vision of Microsoft 00:07:40 Microsofts expansion strategy 00:11:37 HP & first manager experience 00:14:45 Analogies from handball teams 00:20:15 Team size & biggest gap in skillsets 00:28:30 Crossfunctional teams & People product development 00:31:30 Old school HR structure, static 00:35:30 Scaling SAP from 40.000 to +100.000 people 00:40:00 From on-premise to cloud 00:45:00 SAP founders, Sr. Executives and Eghon Zehnder 00:57:50 Mergers & Acquisitions 01:04:40 Advisory & HR Tech Angel investments Links: Linkedin Stefan Ries: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riesstefan Book recommendations: The inner game of tennis: https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Tennis-Classic-Performance/dp/0679778314 Winning ugly: https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/067188400X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TROW17W0GOFF&keywords=winning+ugly+by+brad+gilbert+hardback&qid=1676287137&s=books&sprefix=winning+ugly%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C180&sr=1-1

About the guest At multiple companies, Sonita managed the entire employee experience cycle from employer branding, through talent acquisition and onboarding, to structured compensation and employee growth. With this, she owned P&L responsibility and operational excellence. Long before diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging were a trend, cross-cultural management and diverse teams have been her passion. She is a serial builder, whether it’s planning life, or growing a company, Sonita enjoys collaborating with others to create structure and plans that make sense for all involved as you can hear from the episode. Shownotes: 00:00 Intro & Summary 02:10 Sontia's career start & early days 06:50 Aerospace & first jobs in the US 07:00 HR was administrative in 2007 less strategic 16:00 Venture Developer in 2009 27:00 Solar industry & principles from supply chain 35:00 Change management, middle management & diverse teams 41:55 Peter’s principle & anticipating burnout 44:00 Setting expectations 48:22 US vs Europe 51:20 “People with freedom are unhappy” Links: Linkedin Sonita: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonitau/ Linkedin Thomas Kohler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/ Website, pplwise: https://pplwise.com/ Website, Podcast: https://pplwise.com/podcast/

About the Guest Romy is a seasoned HR professional with over a decade of experience in both corporate and startup environments. She believes that the key to success lies in the perfect balance between structure and agility. Romy’s passion is to help people and organizations grow both strategically and operationally. With a strong focus on HR development, she has expanded her expertise to include all aspects of HR management and is a skilled networker who loves to connect with people. Shownotes: 00:00 - Intro & Summary 02:08 - Early career days & 2008 crisis 09:39 - Small Startup experience 15:42 - Casper’s customer obsession 21:18 - Managing layoffs at Applift 24:15 - Hypergrowth at TIER from ~200 to +2.000 people 27:35 - Growing Romy’s people team from 20 to +80 30:00 - Entrepreneurs with Empathy & Cultural Models 38:49 - Internal Communications in organizations 43:20 - Strategic people function 49:54 - Romys next steps 51:53 - Special guest bobby Links Linkedin Romy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romyvonroeder Linkedin Thomas Kohler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/ Website, pplwise: https://pplwise.com/ Website, Podcast: https://pplwise.com/podcast/

About the guest Thomas started his HR career in recruiting at a Viennese B2B fintech and subsequently led talent acquisition departments at two Unicorns. Within the last six years, he scaled organizations from 50 to over 3,000 employees across Europe. He then co-founded pplwise with Mina Golesorkhi to help companies achieve their growth goals. pplwise specializes in recruiting & consulting in HR. Show Summary The People Factor Podcast, hosted by Thomas Kohler, co-founder of pplwise, explores the impact of talent, HR function, executives, leaders, and managers on business performance in various stages of an organization's lifecycle. In the podcast, Thomas interviews leaders from startups, scale-ups, and corporates to gain insights into the importance of the people factor in driving business success. The podcast provides a platform for leaders to share their opinions, principles, and best practices and discuss current news. It also offers future leaders from different organizational stages a place to listen and get inspired, shaping their ideas for success.