Can you briefly introduce yourself and your business?
My name is Gabriella Ruff. I have been in the recruitment business for more than 20
years.
It was an interesting journey how I became a head-hunter and ended up being the
Managing Partner of Karrier Hungaria.
After I have graduated as an Economist, I left with my husband to The Netherlands as he
was offered a job there. It was a very nice time there and we have planned to stay for a
couple of years, but by mistake the advisor company who has arranged our permits had
made a mistake and had registered us as EU citizens in 1996 which has resulted to the
fact that we were literally dismissed from the country by the police.
We have moved then to the Czech Republic, and I have started to look around what jobs
I could apply for with my diploma and 2 recruitment agencies have offered me a position
as Recruitment Consultant – one of them was the Irish company Grafton.
I was selected for the role by surprise as I spoke Italian and German better than English
and I was hired by an Irish company. The company told me that some basic Czech is
necessary for the work and while walking home from the interview I have applied for a
Czech course. I felt that I need to improve my English as well, therefore every day after
work I was studying English or Czech.
Honestly, when I have started working I had not had too much knowledge about the
profession of a head-hunter, but when I have started I have suddenly felt that this is my
dream job. It was a very tough first year as I did not know the labor market, it was a
foreign country, an unknown language, I had to learn a lot, but I have enjoyed every
minute of it.
I have managed to overcome relatively quickly all these challenges and worked very hard
and the results were coming which has motivated me very much. Indeed, within a year I
became the most successful consultant within the office.
Just one year later the company has offered me the opportunity to lead the business in
Hungary https://www.grafton.hu/en. I was a bit scared as I had only one year of
experience in the sector, I felt that this is a huge challenge, but I have accepted it.
I took over the management of Grafton from an Irish lady who has had to leave just one
day after my arrival, therefore I had to manage a very rapid takeover.
I had to re-establish the company and had been facing many challenges, hence with
my freshly recruited super motivated team, we have managed to reach market leader
position within 2 years. The success of the office was so much recognized that my team
and I won several international awards. In 1999 I became Employee of the Year and won
a trip to Chile. The year after my team has won the award for Branch of the year and my
entire team has spent a long weekend in Vienna.
Ten years later I decided to establish my own agency with my business partner Beáta
Fürjész. Our aim was to create a recruitment agency with a special focus on customers and
offering a service which represents high quality and care.
Our partnership with Beáta is very special, we are complementary and work excellently
together since 1998. She is my business coach, and I am hers. Twenty-three years in full
agreement, I think this is very extraordinary and unique. I am very grateful that we have
established the company together as we are great in a team, we trust each other fully and
rely on each other’s professionalism.
At the time we have established our agency, we have planned to create a “small boutique
agency”. As it seems we are better in recruitment than in planning as by 2020 we have
reached 40 people in the office. Based on our annual turnover we are the most prominent
Hungarian-owned recruitment firm offering permanent recruitment services.
We have managed to keep the market leader position also during the pandemic when the
general recruitment market has declined significantly.
During the pandemic, the high-quality service was a true differentiator: within the period when all
companies have decided to reduce costs and not to hire new staff, those companies who had
any recruitment need have selected those agencies where a high quality of service was
guaranteed. This way our executive search division has rapidly grown and by now it
represents a very significant part of our business.
What are your values and your company values?
I truly share the same values in my private life and in business life at Karrier
Hungária.
We believe it is essential to respect each other (colleagues, business partners,
candidates, suppliers) and to be devoted to each customer. Our advantage as a
Hungarian-owned recruitment agency is that we do not have the pressure to gain every
week new clients; we rather believe in the long-term partnership, we try to create a good
relationship with them and have trust-based daily cooperation. We are very proud that
many of our customers are working with us for over 10 years and they appreciate very
much the high-level quality and the continuous commitment to fill their vacancies.
WE CARE ABOUT OUR EMPLOYEES. Long-term serving employees can add real value
to every business sector. This is especially true in a business which is so many people
related like recruitment. We have lots of programs aiming at employees’ long-term career
journey (for 5 to 10 years or over). This requires a lot of leadership focus: how to motivate
them, offer them career opportunities, do take care of their feelings, offer them
professional support in their daily work and help them to create their work-life balance.
We have various programs to achieve these goals and indeed last year and the year
before Karrier Hungária has won the FAMILY FRIENDLY state certification.
HONESTY. I am an honest and direct person and I think my colleagues and clients
appreciate this honesty. Combined with the right sensitivity it yields an efficient and
authentic atmosphere and relationships.
TRUST. Trust is very important in personal and business life. My life is based on
trust. In my personal life, I trust my loved ones, my husband, my kids (I have 3 kids), my
relatives.
In business, you need to trust your business partners, your employees, your clients. I
experience that many entrepreneurs are still afraid of introducing home office working as
they do not trust their staff. We have created this trust-based environment and we used to
have a home office even before the pandemic. It was a great market advantage last March
that we have placed the entire office on home office base within 1 day. We were prepared
completely for this move not just in our IT system but also mentally: all our employees
were able to work independently with minimal direct supervision.
FUN. I love my job and I try to pass this passion and devotion to all my colleagues. I firmly
believe that recruitment is one of the greatest professions: it is interesting, never boring,
you can use your empathy as well as your business skills.
QUALITY. We differentiate ourselves by the quality of our service. We try to keep a high
standard quality; therefore we do not aim to gain too many customers and we concentrate
on long-term partnerships with our clients. Our consultants and researchers are highly
trained, we spend a lot of time and energy on the best possible training to keep this
level.
Why do you think you won this award?
At the award ceremony, Alessandro was very nice as he told me: “Gabriella you won by
the number and quality of the answers.
The nominations for you were coming with very long explanations of why the person was
nominating you. It was heart-warming to read them.”
They were long, different, touchy, personal kinds of recommendations.
To win the statue of the Atlas Award means a lot for me and I am very proud to win it,
however, the journey which has led me to get the award is at least as precious for my
heart: the positive opinion of my customers.
I believe that this award is very important as it is hard to measure yourself
from an emotional point of view. Typically, entrepreneurs can compare their activities to
others based on numbers: turnover, profit, number of employees. This award can
reassure you that beyond the numbers there are always human beings appreciating the
efforts you made and reassuring you that you are on the right path.
Recently I read on LinkedIn this question: “Why do recruiters want to become
recruiters?” Many people answered because it is a well-paid job. I believe that people
who are considering this profession should not select recruitment because they want to
have a position where they can earn over average. They should only select this job if they
feel the real passion for it. If they feel the passion, they should join a company where
colleagues are working with a similar mindset, where they can get continuous training and
support – and then I am sure they will reach their goals also financially.
Alessandro: I agree with you, Gabriella. As a matter of fact, I always say that: “money is
just the consequence of a really well-done job.”
Do you think that bringing together like-minded people
can make more impact?
I think that like-minded people can make more impact if they believe in the same core
values. When we select people, we can teach them how to become the best recruiters on
the market. Indeed we are proud when we see that our colleagues who have learned
recruitment from us are working now in regional Recruitment roles.
To be like-minded is important when you consider core values. Besides this diversity helps
all business organizations to achieve a better quality of teamwork, to create a company
culture which is supportive and based on trust.
My business partner Beáta and I share fundamental values, such as strong customer
focus, the high expectation of quality, passion for our work, although we are not similar
characters. We balance each other; she is more structured than I am, she is our internal
coach and HR Manager who always take care of everybody. I enjoy much better business
meetings and negotiations. I look at the bigger picture and she takes care of
structuring the details. She is a registered coach, excellent at dealing with people and
mentoring while I am more impatient wit details and my strength is negotiations with
procurement, launching big projects, designing RPO (recruitment process outsource)
plans, networking.
I also would like to highlight the great achievement of our strong management team: all of
them have started their recruitment career in Karrier Hungária and they have reached
managerial roles within few years. They are not just great recruiters but excellent people
managers who always have an ear and eyes for their teams.
Under which kind of spotlight do you “keep” the award?
It’s on the house’s first floor, in the living room in a nice-looking spot, far from my kids’
reach.
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