We were proud to welcome Christian Wurzinger, the Group CFO at Klosterfrau Group in Switzerland, to the EMEA Recruitment podcast.

“In order to be successful, you must realise that the human is at the centre of everything.”

Christian spoke to Paul Toms, our Founder, about the positives he’s taken from the past year-and-a-half during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of his key learnings is how effective remote working can be within large organisations. He’s also found it an important time to focus on the value of relationships. Christian feels that if companies can take those two positives out of the crisis, the experience will have lasting effects.

Working in Finance, Christian came from the “hard” side of the business, focussed on numbers and fact-driven approaches, whereas those in Human Resources, for example, always start with the people. As he’s matured, Christian has found that injecting a human touch and recognising the importance of people is essential in driving results.

After working at Procter & Gamble for over 20 years and now leading the Finance function of a Swiss multi-national, you would assume that Christian feels he’s made it in his career. However, he explains that his key motivation is to keep learning and improving. Further into his career, he’s started to see longer-term trends and is proud to work for a company that’s building lasting value.

For those looking to improve their productivity, Christian has a top tip – if you’re a fan of the to-do list, avoid his answer!

With such a fierce job market in Switzerland at the moment, Paul and Christian explore the true cost of a wrong hire on a company, as well as the ways that candidates can stand out in the interview process. Although he’s not keen on the video approach, Christian does feel that the digitised recruitment process should be married with a human touch.

Finally, we discuss the impact of Business Intelligence (BI) and Data on the Finance function. Although Christian believes that technology can dramatically improve productivity in certain areas, such as Accounting, focussing on organising your people in highly effective teams is a bigger focus for companies.

The full episode is available below: 

Alternatively, you can follow this link or find us on your preferred podcatcher: https://emearecruitment.libsyn.com/emea-recruitment-podcast-101-recognising-the-importance-of-people-christian-wurzinger

If there’s a specific part of the episode you’re looking for, please use the timestamps below:

01:16: The 2 positives Christian has taken from COVID-19
05:35: “Take care of the people”
10:06: Why Christian hasn’t made it in his career… yet
16:24: How to manage your attention & energy
21:39: The true cost of a wrong hire
23:27: How to stand out in a job interview
27:17: The ideal recruiter
31:16: How productivity will be affected by BI & Data
37:07: Why business is a team sport
40:17: How to reach out to Christian

If you’d like to message Christian on LinkedIn, please find his profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wurzinger/

EMEA Recruitment is proud to support Operation Smile through the podcast. Operation Smile is an international medical charity that provides life-changing surgery to children born with cleft lip and palate. To help us reach our goal of creating 100 new smiles, please donate here: https://www.emearecruitment.com/pages/operation-smile

This episode was hosted by Paul Toms, our Founder, and Rose Jinks, our Senior Marketing Executive.

Our full range of recruitment services can be found on our website: https://www.emearecruitment.com/

We also regularly share updates and insights through our LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/emea-recruitment-limited/

If you’d like to connect with Paul on LinkedIn, please click here.

He is also active on Twitter: https://twitter.com/paul_toms

If you’d like to share any topics for us to include in future episodes of the EMEA Recruitment podcast, please contact Rose on: [email protected]