Rolf

This month’s profile was chosen in October the HR Manager of the Year in competition with other HR managers from such companies as Ericsson, IKEA, TeliaSonera, Volvo, Nordea, SEB, SAS, Banverket, Billerud, Sveriges Television and Manpower.

Name: Rolf Norin.
Age: 53.
Job: HR Manager at Sapa Profiler since 2003.
My strong points: I am positive and involved and I believe that I can get people follow me.
My weaker points: I have an obvious body language which tells others what I think. After all, it can be sometimes better not to show your thoughts so clearly…
Leisure activities: I exercise and cheat in orienteering. I enjoy playing golf, but without any bigger ambitions, handicap 35. I am also the grandfather of Augusta, aged two and a half years.
Favourite team: Football: IFK Norrköping. The team is now back where they belong. Ice hockey: LHC from Linköping.
Trip of my dreams: Australia, the atmosphere there is nice and beautiful. Everything is great – the country, the people, the food helpings and the hospitality.

160-170 HR managers from Sweden chose the HR Manager of the Year in a vote and this is a quotation from their justification: “By thinking about the entirety and using long-term concepts, the whole company has grown to become a strong player in its line of business. By combining LEAN production, keep-fit measures and personal development, the work on the HR processes has been secured. The employees have a better access to keep-fit measures and competence development activities, and the work on continuous improvement is done all the time.”

“Of course, I am proud of this distinction. We got a confirmation that our efforts go in the right direction”, says Rolf and he continues: “In former times it was called the personnel department and it was a pay office. Now, we are talking about HR, Human Resources. It is all about taking care of and developing the human capital of the company.”

How do you perceive the tasks of the HR department?
“I can see four clear roles: 1. Administration (pay, employment contracts, etc.). 2. The role of a controller, in which we follow up whether we really work with the processes and systems that we have decided upon. 3. The role of a consultant, where we support the individual managers. It can include both individual discussions and competence development. 4. Leader and strategist. What kind of competence and development efforts are needed so that we are able to meet the future requirements.

A great part of our work is about standardising the processes. Here we are supported by Genesis, our business system based on the Toyota Production System. It affects both the production and the administration.

Everything we do can be calculated and expressed in terms of pounds and pennies and human profits. Our work with keep-fit measures is a good example. The individuals get a richer life and the company can reduce the costs of absence due to illness, among other things.

If we can contribute to employing people with the right competence and the right attitude, who can join in and drive the development of Sapa, then our efforts pay back many times over.

If we can participate in and initiate competence development, identify and develop talented people, then we contribute to a continued success. To name just a few examples of the importance of HR.”

The nicest memory from Sapa?
It was nice to be able to meet Nils Bouveng and Lars Bergenhem and listen to their story about Sapa. The company has made a fantastic journey. From the start in 1963 the profile business has grown to have over 12,000 employees and production in 18 countries.