Mihaela Canja
Sr. HR Business Partner || CIPD Assoc.
- Bucharest, Romania
Critical thinker.
Insatiably curious.
Results driven.
Senior Human Resources professional with expertise in HR Management/ Business Partnering focused on Organisational Effectiveness and Talent Acquisition. Experience gained with both local entrepreneurial companies and international matrix-structured corporations.
Resourceful and imaginative in achieving results. Competency strengths also include business acumen and interpersonal savvy, thriving in competitive, fast paced and highly dynamic environments.
As a member of HR Leadership Team, I was responsible for:
Responsible for the development and delivery of the People Plan for Customer Operations (more than 1500 employees) in order to drive the improvement of organisation effectiveness and ensure we are managing changes in a professional way, improve the talent pipeline, succession planning and employee engagement. Interface with personnel leasing agencies. Part of an EMT member direct reports team. Working directly with two board members of Vodafone Romania.
Key projects/ focus areas:
July 2013 - September 2014 - HR Manager for MediaPro Studios (part of CME), a heterogeneous company in terms of business units and departments comprised: Stages & Workshops Rental, Costumes Manufacturing, Set Constructions, Equipment Rental, Transportation, Catering, Production Management, Security, Firefighting, etc. It covers a large variety of functions (136 job roles) and totals a number of more than 350 FTE plus freelancers contracted by project. Reporting to the company CEO and CME HR Director at country level.
July 2012 - July 2013 - HR Manager - MediaPro Entertainment Romania - Reporting to CEO and global Head of HR, I was in charge of the HR department (7 FTE) of MediaPro Entertainment Content Production Romania, division of CME consisting of five legal entities: MediaPro Studios, MediaPro Pictures, Media Vision, Domino Production, MediaPro Magic Factory- totaling a number of 470 FTE.
Key projects:
·Organization design & restructuring: part of the CME’s transition process from the divisional to country model. Elaborate business cases and scenarios regarding the changes in operational model and consequent organization design proposals. Elaborate scenario comparative analysis with impact short – medium term in close collaboration with the CEO and Business Analysis Manager. (Involving: business process analysis, mapping functions and capabilities required, identifying opportunities for outsourcing, forecasting the costs and timeline of the change process)
·Employee relations: leading the restructuring & layoffs process (planning the process; identifying and analysing the restructured jobs; ensuring the right criteria was considered when deciding on the persons to be terminated; ensuring risk mitigation and compliance with labor law); supervising personnel administration, disciplinary procedures, health and safety, compensation & benefits.
·Budgeting and forecasting: elaborating the yearly HR budget (salary costs, training, recruitment, health and safety), presenting alternatives based on different scenarios and consequent variances; monthly adjusting the forecasted HR costs for the current year (and explain variances), in order to provide accurate data for business analysis; finding solutions for HR cost optimization in order to support attaining of company financial objectives and operational capabilities needed.
·Training & development: elaborating and monitoring execution of the annual training plan and budget (due to severe cost reduction it included only mandatory health & safety and essential technical training)
·Ensuring compliance of HR processes - meeting the periodically SOX, due diligence and audit requirements
·Recruitment – supervising the internal and external recruitment projects; assessing candidates for key positions and consulting line managers
GMP is an independent group covering all fields of communication industry: advertising, digital, public relations; totaling about 100 employees. Reporting to each company General Director, I was in charge with the HR department of the group (2 direct reports).
Roles held:
January 2011 - July 2012 - Group HRLead
September 2008 - January 2011 - HR Responsible Webstyler
Reporting to the General Director (in both roles), I was responsible for conducting/coordinating all HR activities.
Key responsibilities in GMP Group:
· Organizational development: safeguarding and strengthening each company’s organizational culture and talent by: coaching line managers and aligning HR processes accordingly (e.g.: performance management); identifying opportunities, develop and implement internal projects to support company values; spotting top talent and best cultural fit in the market order to reinforce and promote company values.
· Talent acquisition: constantly developing the recruitment pipeline, determine staffing requirements, running full cycle recruitment projects and make recommendations throughout the induction process; creating and maintaining an open relationship with talents in the industry, promoting the employer brand;
· Performance Management: Reviewing and updating the performance management policy, defining key competencies and behaviors that support company culture and values; coaching managers in assessing competencies and performance, provide feedback and plan future development of their team.
· Training & Development - Provide cost effective solutions for professional and personal development
· yearly HR planning; identifying designing and implementing strategic HR projects, as and when required.
Being the sole employee of Training & Development Office, for a company of 1000 FTEs and reporting to HR Manager, my responsibilities included:
·Training related activities: centralizing annual training requests and consolidating the annual training plan; training acquisition (provider research; contract terms negotiation; enlisting participants); keeping training related records and providing requested reports
·Procedures: redefining training requisition workflow and internal training procedure (proposal sent for approval)
·Other HR activities: collaborating with line managers in defining the job descriptions; performing the induction for new employees; updating the exit interview forms; consolidating data and prepare HR related presentations.
Reporting to the business owner and managing a team of two consultants, I was responsible for:
·Conducting and/or coordinating national and international executive search projects and recruiting mainly for management positions.
·Client acquisition & retention, acting as single point of contact