Personnel consultant with gut feeling
Anyone looking for a new job in the communications industry is very likely to come across the recruitment agency Werbekraft at some point. If you let Sonia Soutter help you with your job search, a successful placement depends above all on whether there’s a personal connection. However, she believes that many of these job changes aren’t actually necessary.
First impressions count. As a seasoned HR consultant who faces strangers almost every day, Sonia Soutter knows this: "It's often clear to me when a candidate enters the room whether he or she will fit into the environment I'm looking for." Sensing people, she says, is a gift you have - or lack. "You can't learn it," Soutter says emphatically. She has made this gift her business model.
The Werbekraft owner enters her meeting room energetically and a little excited before our first face-to-face conversation. As "head of the week," she is not the one asking the questions for once. An unfamiliar situation for the HR specialist? Not necessarily. She also conducts her numerous job interviews without a familiar pattern. She doesn't operate with standard questions or approaches, Soutter emphasizes. "I don't want to know what the person has done, but who they are. That requires me to be very natural in the conversation myself." Her goal is to recognize the other person, by whatever means. "In that way, every conversation is unique - that's why I never get bored," Soutter adds with a laugh.
Outside position with inside view
Gut decisions can only be made seriously if sufficient information and impressions have been gathered beforehand: That's Soutter's approach. It is important to her that she knows the client, has seen the potential team and the supervisor before she meets her candidates for an interview. With long-term clients, she says she knows which profile fits anyway. "There are clients with whom I already have long-standing relationships and have thus brought together a large part of the team," Soutter says.
As a personnel consultant, she can use her neutral external position: "Most of the time, the client has a clear idea of the desired profile. I then suggest a candidate who fulfills the ideas, but also two others with a completely different personality. That usually triggers something."
Sonia Soutter already knew after her commercial apprenticeship that she wanted to work with people. Project work, on the other hand, was less to her liking. Shortly after completing her apprenticeship, she started working in human resources at a small company. At the age of 33, she saw the time had come for her second professional dream: her own company. Together with a friend from the advertising industry, she founded a pool of qualified freelancers in 2000. Over time, Werbekraft placed
increasingly also permanent positions, which is now the core business of the personnel agency. "In doing so, we cover the entire industry, from polygraphs to marketing managers." Meanwhile, the two company founders are legally separated for organizational reasons. They now operate under the names "Werbekraft Nordost" and "Werbekraft Nordwest."
Coaching: Advice without advice
Something was always missing from Soutter's recruiting, however. "I had dealt with countless teams and came to the conclusion the longer the more that many changes weren't even necessary." In addition to the lack of development opportunities, he said, the supervisor's management style was the most common reason for a change. Team cohesion is also often not strengthened enough. It is rarely the case that the constellation of the team is fundamentally not right, says Soutter.
Five years ago, the HR specialist therefore completed the training to become an SCA coach and since this year has been offering various training courses for managers and teams as well as individual coaching for candidates with external coaches. "Leading is not easy - I have also run into the knife," she says with a smile. "It takes confidence, know-how and steadfastness." In the past, she says, she often gave tips. "But the counterpart has to come up with a constructive solution himself. Only then is it effective. Coaching is advice without advice: that's what I was looking for."
In team coaching sessions, she lets the team work out the solutions accordingly. "That's how you can prevent them from being understood as a reproach or an obligation. Because then a wall immediately goes up. It's amazing what becomes possible in coaching." Soutter would like to support her clients more with this in the future - and perhaps make a few job changes unnecessary. Her own heart already beats for coaching. "Psychology accompanies you not only through your professional life, but through all life situations."
Finally, Soutter expertly inquires about the USP - but not mine, hers. She is satisfied with the answer and sends me off into the afternoon with a hearty laugh.
Simone Isliker
