October 2024 - the tenth month of NOBO Auto

With the arrival of November, I bring you another installment of my blog, where I walk you through building a new company from day one. Within the company NOBO AUTO, which decided to expand production in České Budějovice this year, I am responsible for leading the HR team and organizing key processes as HR manager of a plant focused on the production of seats for BMW. I started writing this blog as a way to share with you the successes, challenges and experiences of the process of building a new greenfield company. In doing so, I want to not only capture what's going well within the company, but also give a glimpse of how our project is gradually growing from plans on paper into an actual reality.

Off-site workshop

We spent the beginning of October at our first Team Off-site Workshop in Lipno, where we spent three days together full of inspiration, education and teamwork. This event gave us the space not only to meet new colleagues who joined us just before the workshop, but also to define our goals and values. The programme was varied - from culinary challenges, to building a spaghetti bridge, to creating a team identity with our own logo and slogan. In addition to new skills, we took away shared experiences that further strengthened our team spirit and company culture.

For me personally, the most interesting part was the team game with the goal to build a bridge using spaghetti and marshmallows. I had a special role in this part of the workshop, I knew about the game in advance and the organization of the game itself was in my responsibility. The most peculiar thing about the game was that I myself did not know if the assignment was feasible and therefore if it was even possible to build the bridge. Just in case, I had a backup purchase from Unihobby with additional material, which I gradually released into production as part of the change procedures. In a playful way, we were able to show each other what pitfalls would await us at the start of seat production in our plant, and at the same time we were able to get to know each other in a human way and see what our reactions might be in different situations.

In the afternoon program we used the facilities of the Element Hotel and the adjacent restaurant, pastry shop and butcher's shop and tried making meatloaf, sausages, Asian dishes and wreaths.

Cooperation with the University of South Bohemia

In October I was twice at the University of South Bohemia. The first stop was a standard lecture in the Human Resource Management course at the Faculty of Economics. The second was a workshop under the auspices of the JU Career Centre, which was attended by students from various faculties from across the University. Reactions to both lectures were positive, anonymous NPS scores were over 90% for both lectures and we are already in touch with some students about opportunities for collaboration within our company.

Building and current tasks

The construction of the new building is nearing completion, and the first technology is already arriving in the hall. The offices are already carpeted and next week we will be moving the furniture, so everything is going according to plan and we should be moving into "our own" at the end of the year.

OAMP

Along with the technology, the first group of technicians and engineers who will take care of the installation of the production line arrived in Budějovice. Together we went to fulfil the legislative obligations at the Department of Asylum and Migration Policy in Budějovice. This was not the first (or last) group of employees this year and I dare say that we have already got the import of our colleagues from China figured out, the relationships we have built with the authorities have been good and the process itself has gone more smoothly because we already know exactly what documents to have ready and when and where to be.

HR team

My current and former colleagues can attest that I love good food. Already in my previous job I had the habit of transferring this liking to the people around me and it is no different in my current company. Last month, as a thank you to my colleagues in the HR team for managing the deadline and getting the HR system up and running, I prepared a Creme Brulée, which I oflambed in the company kitchen under the expert supervision of the HSE manager.

In November, we will be moving furniture into the new building, preparing for the move itself, production lines are being installed and we in the HR department continue to work on adding to the existing team. We should almost double our current headcount in the next six months. If you'd like to join our build, get in touch here in the messages and we'll discuss the way forward.

David Havelec

HR Manager in Nobo Automotive Czech Republic

7 November 2024