“If you are full of enthusiasm, committed, open to cooperation and enterprising, then Kramp is the right place for you”
“When I joined Kramp in 2016, I already had over 20 years of professional experience, both as an HR manager and as a search/strategy consultant. When I heard about the role at Kramp, it was in the midst of the merger with Grene, which was a well-known agricultural wholesale business. My lack of familiarity with the agricultural sector wasn’t an issue, because from an HR perspective the size and complexity of the organisation – and the commitment to professionalising the approach – matters less than the specific industry, in my opinion.
Kramp needed someone to build the HR department from scratch in the Nordic markets (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland), and I saw it as an exciting opportunity to lay down strong HR foundations for the future. Besides setting up the department, I also had to align it with the increased focus on improving HR from a group perspective within a rapidly growing international company, which made the task even more interesting.
It took around three to four years to establish all the necessary processes and systems. Nowadays, I’m part of a team of four who support the needs of approximately 400 employees in the Nordic region. As one of the two HR business partners, I have regular contact with around 40 local and international departmental managers to advise them across the various areas of HR. As I see it, we’re at the sweet spot between the harder business logic and the softer dynamics of the people perspective.
I really enjoy putting my skills to good use as part of a small operation within a large company, because it means that we see the direct results of our efforts to support success. We’re helping managers face some difficult challenges on a daily basis, and I often use Kramp’s three values – Collaboration, Care and Ownership – as part of my toolkit for doing so. If you allow yourself to be guided by these values, it’s almost impossible to make a ‘wrong’ decision.
Even within the Nordics, there are significant cultural differences between the four markets. This adds an extra dimension to our work and calls for us to be open-minded about whether a different country might require a slightly different management or implementation approach. Meanwhile, at group level, my role involves regular contact with Kramp’s HR colleagues throughout Europe to discuss new strategic concepts and developments. Despite the size of the Kramp organisation, we’re always encouraged to speak up and contribute our opinions. And if you have a new idea or suggestion, you have access to bring it to the table fairly quickly and easily.
We’re currently in the midst of transitioning to a new regional or ‘cluster’ set-up. This will bring us lots of cool HR challenges, especially in terms of team-building, because the new way of working will be more cross-cultural than ever before. Personally, I thrive on the challenge of finding solutions that work for everyone. After all, everything in this world is about compromise, right?
Another transition for Kramp is the digital one. We’re an entrepreneurial, speed-driven and challenge-taking company, and our online platform continues to grow rapidly. This creates lots of opportunities for us as HR specialists to add value for managers by supporting employee recruitment and development so that they and their teams can keep up with the pace of change.
When I arrived at Kramp, I was hoping to have a lot of impact – and I haven’t been disappointed. Together with many great local colleagues and with support from elsewhere within the group, we’ve implemented lots of new and improved ways of working – and we have many more in the pipeline. So to anyone who is considering Kramp as an employer, I would say: ‘If you’re looking for an exciting challenge, join us’!"