“I make my own impression”

“We even had to reject some applicants in the early days.” It sounds unbelievable when Heike Stojanek talks about her beginnings in Bauerfeind’s HR Department. It was the year 1998. The film “Titanic” became the most expensive and financially most successful film of all times. In Germany, the Social Democrats and the Green Party won the parliamentary elections. Christian Democrat Helmut Kohl’s era spanning 16 years ended in October of that year. Gerhard Schröder, Social Democrat, became the Federal Chancellor. Bauerfeind continued its substantial expansion, looking for employees, especially in Production. No problem! The location has textile tradition, and with many former GDR businesses failing after the German reunification, many people were looking for new employment. At times, Bauerfeind was practically flooded with applications. There used to be such an overwhelming supply of qualified experts that companies basically had their pick of the crop. But today, the opposite is the case. Work in the HR Department has changed, too.

In 1998, Heike Stojanek initially worked alone. She had to manage incoming applications by herself. Everything used to arrive in the mail. She took care of applicant management. Postal mail was used for everything back in the day. In between, she organized interviews: when Hall 2 was being built, they numbered 25 per week. Heike Stojanek couldn’t afford to lose the overview and managed to keep it – also thanks to a modern spreadsheet program called “Microsoft Excel 98”.

She has a background as a qualified textile and clothing technician specialist, i.e. she is a sewing expert. But she didn’t want to stay in this profession so in 1982, straight after completing her apprenticeship, she started in Materials Management at VEB Strickbandagen Zeulenroda. Alongside, she qualified as an industrial businesswoman. In 1992, she joined Bauerfeind. At that time, there was nobody exclusively in charge of staffing. When Heike Stojanek was asked in 1998 whether she wanted to take on this job, the hands-on woman had the one request that she would want to learn the trade properly. So the practical and theoretical parts ran in parallel. This made Heike Stojanek the first (and for a time the only) Personnel Officer in 1998 in Zeulenroda at Bauerfeind. In 2002, she successfully completed her training to become a professional Human Resources Manager.

Heike Stojanek especially appreciates applicants who are prepared. She goes into the interview without a preconceived opinion. “I can do without the picture in the application. I make my own impression of the person sitting opposite me,” the experienced Personnel Officer explains. And it must be this intense engagement with people that helps her not to forget faces. Heike Stojanek doesn’t even know how many interviews she’s conducted over the years. But there has never been a flood of specialist applicants again like in the beginning.