Pensáis Que La Unión Entre La Estrategia De La Empresa Y El Reclutamiento Es Importante

Interview by telephone with Iraitz Oiartzabal, the responsible of Human Resources at Mondragon Corporation.
* Do you think that the union between the strategy of the company and the recruitment is important?
I would say it is more than important. Eventually, these new employees are the ones that will have to achieve the goals of the company and follow the strategy together with the oldemployees. Therefore, it is very important to make effective recruitments and find the right person for each job, a worker that have a good performance and integrate himself / herself in the culture of the company.

* Could you introduce us your company? What is your field?
MONDRAGON est le fruit du mouvement coopératif amorcé en 1956, année de création de la première coopérative industrielledans la ville de Mondragon (province du Gipuzkoa). Sa philosophie d'entreprise se reflète dans ses Valeurs Corporatives :
* La Coopération.
* La Participation.
* La Responsabilité Sociale.
* L’Innovation.
La Mission de MONDRAGON combine les objectifs fondamentaux d'une organisation industrielle en concurrence sur les marchés internationaux avec l'utilisation de méthodesdémocratiques dans son organisation, la création d'emplois, le développement humain et professionnel de ses employés et l'engagement envers la communauté.
Sur le plan organisationnel, MONDRAGON compte quatre Divisions : Finances, Industrie, Distribution et Connaissance. MONDRAGON est aujourd'hui le premier groupe industriel basque et le dixième d’Espagne.
Here, at the Mondragon Corporation headquarters wefocus on the coordination and reltionships of the different cooperatives that form the Corporation.

* What difficulties do you face when recruiting new employees?
Like in any other company, we always face the possibility of not choosing the right person for the job. If you focus too much in technical skills you can forget the interpersonal skills and the same the other way round. This iswhy we always try to make a balance between the technical knowledge of the potential employee and its personality to fit the job. In the end, the new employee will have to interact with other people and it is important to take that dimension into account and avoid possible problems.
* What are your exigencies?
Apart from the technical skills that each job may ask for, we recruit people withgood interpersonal skills. We especially seek for people with empathy, that’s it, people that can imagine them in the other’s place. Moreover, we look for good communicators since our job is usually to explain and transmit the general strategy of the Corporation to the different cooperatives and deal with differences. And the third main characteristic we look for is the ability to face pressure. Atthe very first moment of recruiting somebody is difficult to see if somebody has this quality but we make them tests where they have to take decisions very fast to see how they behave in this context.
* Could you explain us what process you follow for the integration of new employees?
It very much depends on the task that the employee will have to perform. But, for the average worker in ouroffice, we usually calculate that the first week the employee will have to adapt to the new workplace, to its task and other workers. From the second week on we usually begin to assign more tasks but we keep the control and assistance for at least, one month.
* Is there any link between the culture of the company and your integration process?
I would say yes. This is, as I have already said, acooperative and we are proud to say that we prefer the human aspect of the work than only the figures. Consequently, in our integration process the new employee is always supported by co-workers and has always somebody to go ask things to. 
* What kind of contract do you use most?
The first contract we offer is always a temporary contract, usually of 6 months. This can be due to both the...