Meet Marino Miloš – Anglo-Adria Trainer

1. How long have you been in the field of human resource management?

Formally, it will soon be 20 years of work experience, but my first contact with the HR function dates back to the mid-90s, when I worked in Pliva’s human resources as a student, first on revising tests and then on entering data into the employee base. It was a great experience! After graduating in 1997, I went to the Croatian Army, where I completed my training as an infantry officer (lieutenant) at the HVU (Croatian Military Academy) in Črnomerec. Although the army was my first choice at the time, in the end, I got my first real job at the end of 1998 at the Croatian Employment Service in Sisak working on professional orientation. After a year of working for CES, I was looking for a job for a few months, until I got a job in kindergarten, where I then spent two and a half years working as a pre-school psychologist. Finally, at the end of 2002, I started working as a psychologist at Privredna Banka Zagreb (selection of candidates) and that was the ‘formal’ beginning of my HR journey

2. What is different about HR from the time you started working?

When I started working at PBZ, candidate applications arrived exclusively in ‘paper form’, some even on what we then called ‘commercial paper’. One of the first responsibilities that were kindly left to me is to take care of these received requests, review them, select, sort and store them. Very quickly, we agreed with the team from the ICT group to create an e-mail address to which the candidates could send their applications. Today, the channels for obtaining candidates are much more diverse and organizations are forced to be proactive in finding quality people, it is not enough to ‘wait’ for them to apply themselves. Also, the set of competencies of a good HR professional today is much wider and more diverse, there is not enough expertise from a narrower HR area (in my case acquisition and selection, in someone else’s labour law or HR budgeting). Nowadays, companies need people who understand HR in general, but also the business strategy and daily work of their organization – how it generates money, who its customers are, what are the critical positions (these are rarely managerial positions!). Today, an HR professional, in addition to all the above, must be technologically above-average ‘literate’, must know how to use social networks on an expert level and have a good understanding of the postulates of marketing and advertising. Gone are the days when HR could do its job from the ‘ivory tower’ without contact with the outside environment. Nowadays, everything is transparent and visible, so the exposure of HR professionals is much higher, which requires different approaches and competencies.

3. What are the areas of your greatest HR expertise?

As a psychologist myself, the first area is the identification and development of talents in organizations. In this area I have experience in creating a selection system, selecting criteria and implementing comprehensive selection procedures using all available methodology. I have conducted thousands of tests and interviews, hundreds of assessment centres, and participated in numerous projects aimed at recognizing the strengths and accelerating the performance of key employees in the organization. In addition to this segment of expertise, I have many years of experience in major transformation projects (reorganizations), especially those aimed at changing a dysfunctional corporate culture, changing existing patterns of behaviour or optimizing an inefficient organizational structure. As I have worked in large systems, I have a good understanding of all the potential obstacles and challenges in these initiatives. The third area of ​​my expertise and special interest in working with teams in the organization, both those functional (primarily HR teams, but also other functions such as IT or sales) and managerial. Here I apply all my experience and expertise to help such teams build and strengthen mutual trust and a culture of collaboration, because only then can I target the greatest results.

4. What do you consider the biggest challenge of the HR profession in the next 5 years?

We are often complicated. HR today needs to be much simpler, faster and closer to its users. I often use the metaphor of ‘pancakes’ – there is no point in designing and building HR solutions as if they will only be used by HR people because they will not. The key users of all HR tools are line and other managers, so these solutions must be understandable and practically applicable to them. Do not give them complex and incomprehensible tools, patterns and methodologies that, in the end, are often not understood by HR members themselves and are often unable to replicate them in multiple iterations. Teach them to make ‘pancakes’ – eggs, milk, flour, a little salt and sugar, if desired and cinnamon, stir and pour into the pan. Done! In this way, users of HR tools will use these tools. If you ‘give’ them a recipe for ‘croquembouche’ they won’t use it and will still look at you grimly. The second challenge is to focus on the essential. For HR to be (or become) more ‘strategic’ and less ‘transactional’, it is necessary to deliver value in a format understandable to key business stakeholders. It does not matter at all how many HR activities it undertakes and performs – the only thing that matters is the concrete, visible and measurable contribution of the HR function to the results of the organization. ‘Delivery’ is important and that is why HR must focus its activities on those initiatives that will increase the quality and efficiency of human capital that the organization has at its disposal.

5. Do you have any advice for younger HR colleagues and professionals?

To paraphrase a famous saying: “The next two weeks of your career are crucial”. Because in those two weeks you can apply a new tool or methodology at work, read a relevant article or talk to someone who will give you a new insight into the familiar. Each of us is in control of our career, we make decisions and choose a direction, every day. Well, although long-term planning is necessary and useful – as one of my older colleagues from the bank would say: ‘Life happens!’. Today and in the next two weeks. Carpe diem.