This mandate was for a maximum of one year as Interim HR Director (member of the management board) for the leading ice cream company in Scandinavia. Unfortunately, the predecessor had been dismissed shortly before. Now a major restructuring was imminent, both at the head office in Stockholm and in the only factory in Sweden - and of course also in the country sales organizations.
The particular challenge here was to manage a project of substantial importance for the company in a foreign, very consensus-oriented management culture in a foreign industrial relations environment without any knowledge of local labor and collective bargaining law and without any preparation time.
The negotiations with the Swedish trade unions were not easy at first, but once trust had been built up on a personal level, the relevant regulations were agreed after a reasonable amount of time.
The HR interim manager also communicated professionally with the workforce, suppliers and political representatives, who played a particularly important role at the plant location (in the countryside), with a high level of transparency and honesty.
All in all, the project was completed ahead of schedule after approx. 9 months without any particular upheaval - also thanks to the excellent support from the management team and the operational staff in HR management.
All headcount and savings targets were achieved and there was no negative impact on other key performance indicators such as sickness rates, production efficiency or quality.
