Company growth as a challenge

It is very important to maintain a positive attitude in the face of any change.

Today we interview Yolanda Fernández, our Human Resources and Finance Director. Her career at dealerBest began in September 1999. At that time, dealerBest had no more than ten employees and was dedicated to what, for many years, was its traditional management business in the automotive sector.

Recently, and especially in the last three years, we have carried out a change in our business model and have incorporated new services that, among other things, have helped us grow as a company. We are now more than thirty people. Yolanda, who holds a degree in Business Administration and Management and is an Executive Coach, is leading this growth from the human resources side. From the communications department, we have set out to understand this great progress and share the keys to facing the development and growth of any company.

As head of HR, what does it mean to go from barely 15 people in 2015 to more than 30 today?

For us, this moment of growth is very challenging and very rewarding. This part of the growth of the company's staff, which accompanies the growth of services, materializes in the creation of new departments that initially do not exist, staffing them with the people the organization needs. In those departments, new positions, functions, profiles, and competencies are created, which it is important to plan strategically. It is about moving forward in that growth by planning and implementing, at each moment, the necessary actions so that growth is directed toward the strategy we want, without losing focus on the proposed objectives.

And how do you tackle the challenge of organizing twice as many people in such a short time?

At dealerBest, as in all organizations, there are several aspects to take into account. One part has to do with people, and another with making sure everything works. That is precisely what our HR Department is for: to have tools that – in a more professional way – allow our organization to align itself with a larger organization. From HR, we have several lines of action in the strategy: one part has to do with the creation and development of departments and coordinators, another with the training of people, and another with supporting all that growth and all that need with the resources required. Everything has to be aligned. Not all departments are the same.

In what sense?

Each department has its own specific needs and objectives. Each one has a specific operation and each one requires people with different profiles and competencies. Likewise, they do not require the same training or the same resources. The challenge is to reach each one in the way it needs, aligned with the organization's objectives.

To face this, tools would be necessary. What would you recommend?

Almost all of them are from the HR side, and there is also a more technical part that necessarily has to do with successfully supporting all that growth.

In times of growth, it is necessary to continuously adapt and improve processes within the organization. For that, it is very good that we are able to identify the different processes in each department, creating the appropriate flow at each moment. The next challenge is to communicate the changes that we want to implement for that improvement and to be able to implement the changes successfully. You can define processes and apply all the engineering you want to do so, but without a successful communication strategy, the success of those changes can be very difficult. From minute zero, it is essential to clearly communicate why we want to make changes, get everyone involved, make them feel engaged, and give them the necessary responsibility so that they feel very important in these improvements that the organization wants to implement and that will need them to achieve the best results. We encourage contribution and value the contribution of each person who works at dealerBest. These would be the basic tools so that everyone is aligned with the objectives of the department and the organization. And finally, it is very important to maintain a positive attitude in the face of any change. We must be able to face the growth of a company and changes in the environment in our favor, experiencing changes as a challenge and not as a problem. We must permanently bet on new and better options. Wanting to be better every day by doing different actions.

The arrival of new employees at the company – and, with them, new ideas – is almost our daily bread. What keys exist to achieve the success of a new hire?

First, involve all the people in the company in its philosophy, its values, its objectives, and its strategy. Everyone should be involved and think they have something to contribute. Above all, they should be informed and know where they are in the organization and from where they will be able to develop professionally. The tool we currently use is the onboarding plan. With it, we manage to help workers understand where they start working, how it relates to the rest, and what we expect from them. Workers greatly appreciate this tool because it helps them understand many things from their first day of work. Of course, we also work on that day on the Fresh People competency model, which affects all the people who are part of dealerBest.