Interviewer: Mariham Magdy
“Everything is about people and getting results through people. It is not only about numbers and results, even if all the businesses in the world are meant for profit. At the end of the day if you invest in your people, they will bring results, as happy, motivated and engaged employees deliver and overachieve.”
Corina Neagu
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE
Corina Neagu holds a Master’s Degree in International Practice in HR granted by CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development), in addition to being certified as a Career Advisor and in using the Human Synergistics assessment tools (Life Style Inventory, Group Style Inventory).
Corina has over 15 years in Human Resources, over 20 years in middle and large corporations (FMCG, Advertising, Production, Consulting, Private Security, IT) covering all fields of HR, in addition to recruiting more than 3000 people for companies that she used to work with or through private recruitment projects.
She has more than 1000 days of HR, Management & Leadership training delivered in Romania, Asia & the Gulf (Singapore, Dubai, Doha, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila), in addition to coaching hundreds of people for career changes or for finding their professional target.
Corina is passionate about writing, working with people, always willing to learn, she is gifted in finding and developing people’s huge potential.
As a passionate educator, Corina teaches HR and Management at the Business Academy, where she is also involved in several projects related to career guidance in schools and universities, and she is loved by the students. She summarizes her passion as follows, “I think that my mission is to be good and do good to the others through all ways possible, including education.”
Besides Corina’s marvelous achievements to organizations and society, she defines the essence of achievement, “One of my greatest achievements in life is represented by my two wonderful daughters, Carla (9 years old) and Rebecca (13 years old), the love of my life.”
THE INTERVIEW
1- HR Revolution Middle East: “If you look for ordinary, it’s not me” such an exciting teaser at the intro of your Bio Corina; thus I would love that you would share with us how were you able to pursue an “unordinary” career path?
Corina Neagu: I have always been very independent and I have always been a fighter. With a father in the army, most of the time away from home, and a mother who was an engineer and raising two daughters on her own most of the time, with demanding grandparents and friends all over the country, I have had a very challenging but happy childhood.
When I was a child, I wanted to become a “boss”. I used to read crimes books (I am a fan of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle) and my father was desperate, as I needed to read my school books, too. The Romanian Revolution caught me when I was 14 and it had a big impact on me as a teenager, as I have seen people dying, the Romanian president and his wife killed and I thought this was the end of something and the beginning of the unknown, the beginning of freedom.
I studied English and French in high school and by the time I finished it I have read hundreds of books and become passionate about psychology, philosophy and literature in which I got an A at my final high school exams. I became a volunteer in Romanian Association against AIDS at 16, when I also got my first job as a Project Manager for the same Association. I remember that I bought a pair of sandals for my mother and lots of books from my first salary.
After high school I have been immediately hired as an Assistant to the Legal Department in PriceWaterhouseCoopers and I got the opportunity to work with lawyers and consultants and to learn a lot from them. They convinced me to go to the University of Law which I graduated in 2001. I have always believed in justice and comparing to my childhood dream I started to think about becoming a prosecutor.
Instead I have been given the chance to work in an HR Department, first as an Assistant, then as a recruiter, trainer and after a few years as a Project Manager and Head of Human Resources. After all these years in HR I have discovered my true vocation and I am thankful to that CEO who one day told me I would be great in HR and gave a chance in hiring me in the HR Department.
I am still passionate about criminalistics, I still believe in justice and I think one of the most importance competences for an HR person is integrity. And now I am my own CEO since 2014, so my childhood dream actually came true, and I have my own company – Dare (inspired by the verb “to dare” and called Development Advice & Resources) which is focused on HR services and consulting covering all areas in HR, development programs and career orientation and guidance.
As a conclusion I really think that until now everything about me is “unordinary” and I enjoy this state of mind every day. ?
2- HR Revolution Middle East: Corina, in today’s VUCA world, one of the most crucial skills we need is to deal with challenges. One of your passions, you speak about, is that you help people to challenge and take their lives to another level. What are the pillars of your methodology in this?
Corina Neagu: I love swimming, I have practiced basketball and football when I was a child, my mother was an athlete, my husband was an athlete and now he competes in triathlons, my 13-year old daughter is a triathlete and a national champion, my 9-year old daughter is an artist, so my entire life I have been surrounded by competitive people who inspired me and showed me that everything is possible.
I see and know people challenging their limits all the time, going beyond their roles in the companies they work for, trying to change their lives, things and people around them, laws, mindsets, even governments and politics. I have seen people taking radical decisions in order to make their life better and/or to make an impact into other people’s lives.
I do not believe in a certain methodology, as people are so different, and as one rule does not apply to all, but I do believe in human beings and in their potential and their self-belief, as once people are willing to do something and concentrate their efforts to that specific direction, they can move mountains and life has revealed this to me with many occasions. I do believe in being authentic and honest.
People come to me to find answers; instead I help them to find the answers and the solutions in themselves. I am not a wizard, even if some of them call me that, what I do is listen to them, pay attention to what they say and what they do not say, restore their self-belief through my never-ending enthusiasm and optimism and work together with them to find the best solutions.
Sometimes the best solutions are not the easiest ones and most of them need to put some efforts into changing the current status, but once they realize everything is meant for their future and for improving their life, they become flexible and the results even exceed their expectations. And this is completely rewarding for both them and myself. It is a common effort and a partnership, I could not succeed by myself.
3- HR Revolution Middle East: From your expertise; how can the involvement in community activities shape the Leaders personalities & experiences?
Corina Neagu: I have so many examples of people involved in helping others, in volunteering, people willing to share, to give, to put their hearts, minds and money together in order to create something good with others so that I encourage all students and all people I work with to volunteer at least once in their life, as this could be a true changing experience.
Getting to know sick children, talking to their parents, getting to know children who lost their loved ones and trying to comfort them, planting trees, cooking for the ones in need, collecting donations, building houses, donating blood, baby-sitting orphans and other activities like that can only educate you and make you a more human person, a more caring one and this is a good start for becoming a better leader, by giving your own example and by being involved into building a community of respect, trust, teamwork, communication, courage and responsibility towards others. As Mother Theresa used to say “You don’t have to do great things, but do small things with great love”.
4- HR Revolution Middle East: Corina, you wrote just an amazing article about recruitment: “Why you should not be a recruiter”, I really can’t express you how much I liked the article, I see you have included in this article all the skills needed for a person to be a Master Recruiter, and manage successfully such profession. From your point of view; how will the HR Technology change the recruitment profession and what future skills needed for recruiters?
Corina Neagu: Thank you very much for your feedback, I really appreciate it.
Obviously, technology will have a huge impact on all business processes including HR. Let’s not forget that recruitment is one of the most important HR processes and we already have artificial intelligence, robots, ATS used in recruitment. I think technology, social media, globalization, best practices are helpful as long as we do not lose the human approach and the human interaction, as according to lots of surveys done at international level lost of people complain about the lack of interaction and fair treatment during the recruitment process and they consider robots are “cool”, but not capable of evaluating correctly the “soft skills” of human beings.
We need to become more proactive, creative, innovative, flexible, open-minded as recruiters, and instead of complaining about not finding the right candidates, to get out there, using all channels and tools possible in order to find them. And if we cannot find them, we need to convince our CEOs to invest in educating the future generations which may not be prepared to become our future employees.
According to World Economic Forum “more than 65% of our children prepare for jobs that will no longer exist in 10 years from now”. Therefore we, as recruiters, need to prepare ourselves for the generations to come and continue learning, sharing, experimenting, improving our competencies and skills in order to find the right person for the right role at the right time, a mission impossible sometimes nowadays.
Some of the most important competencies and skills would be adaptability, flexibility, an open mind, foreign languages, business acumen, agility, continuous learning, social media, networking, communication, empathy, patience. As I consider recruitment a profession, I believe you cannot do it without being really passionate about it and about working with people and without considering HR as a partner and as a consultant, as both the employer and your candidates are your partners through the entire recruitment process and even after.
5- HR Revolution Middle East: At what point of professional growth have you decided to found DARE? Can you share with us how do you help organizations realize the potential in their people through DARE?
Corina Neagu: I have decided to go on my own when I considered I was mature enough in order to set up and grow a business and when I was convinced that I could bring more value to more companies instead of only one.
It was not easy, it is still not easy, but my life is much more challenging, stimulating and rewarding comparing to being an employer. I am really happy with everything that I do, my purpose is to make a difference in the HR world and community and not only through my work and through the way I do things. Being passionate about HR and loving people I try to send this message through my programs so that people get “infected” and realize they could do better, they could be better both personally and professionally. And “sometimes I win, sometimes I learn”, depending on everyone’s motivation, perspective, willingness, etc.
This is how I help the organizations, too. I try to identify their issues, I listen to all people involved, I come up with ideas and recommendations and we work together on implementing the action plan. Everything is based on the companies’ wish to change and to evolve, otherwise none of my plans would work. And again I want to emphasize the “partnership” between me, as a consultant, and the companies involved, as I do not impose anything, but we do work together in order to find the right solutions and to take the correct decisions depending on the context.
Everything is about people and getting results through people. It is not only about numbers and results, even if all the businesses in the world are meant for profit. At the end of the day if you invest in your people, they will bring results, as happy, motivated and engaged employees deliver and overachieve. So before we complain about turnover, lack of motivation, lack of results, lack of engagement, not finding the right employees, we need to ask ourselves if we have done everything in order to attract, motivate, retain, develop, respect and reward our current employees.
6- HR Revolution Middle East: Tell us about your participation in HRTAC 19; and what value do professionals really gain when gather in such reputable conventions?
Corina Neagu: For me being invited to this kind of event is a reward itself, as I have the chance and the opportunity to meet leaders in many industries and companies, people with impact and with such a great experience and I have so many things to learn from them. Being invited as a speaker and having such a challenging subject as “Technology in HR and the impact of digitalization” gives me the boost and the confirmation that what I do is appreciated.
I am truly honoured to represent Romania and to participate to HRTAC 2019, I sincerely hope my point of view will be a valuable one, I think this kind of events bring people together to share know how, to learn, to create and grow communities, to network and, why not, become business partners. And I will get as much information as possible so that when I get back to my country to be able to share it with all people interested, included the HR communities. As #shareiscare after all, right?
Thank you so much, Mariham Magdy, for this interview, I am really proud of having this chance and hardly waiting to see you at the event!
THANK YOU
