Johanna Ek is 27 years old but has already managed a lot professionally. She is currently a Talent Acquisition Specialist at Softhouse, which means she is part of our People & Culture team recruiting new talent to our Softhouse offices.

Johanna works with talent sourcing via various tools and channels to attract more Softhousers, with employer branding and to support recruiting managers in recruitment issues and the overall recruitment process. Another part of her work is improving our work methods and processes linked to recruitment. She emphasizes that it is extremely rewarding to have the opportunity to follow up on how we can best work to achieve good results and create good experiences for both candidates and current colleagues. Before she finally landed at Softhouse, she managed to do a lot despite her young age.

Before studying human resources, I worked for several years as a flight attendant, which was a lot of fun. I was lucky enough to see many places; it was a perfect school for learning how to deal with different kind of people! Then I started studying and wanted more practical experience connected to my studies, so my first HR-related job was at a game studio in Malmö, which opened my eyes to recruitment.

During the last three semesters at the university, she worked extra as an HR assistant at another IT consulting company in Stockholm, focusing on IT recruitment and search. Just in time for graduation, she came across an ad from Softhouse, and in the interview with Vernisa, who is now her closest manager, it felt both exciting and challenging to become a Softhouser, so shortly afterwards she moved home to Skåne, which we at Softhouse are very happy about.

The right person in the right position

Working in recruitment in a company is an important task on many levels. It is Johanna and her team who manage to find our new Softhousers. However, many challenges have to be tackled along the way, especially since there is a need for more skills in several professional groups in the market.

The biggest challenge is probably to succeed in “standing out” and attracting suitable candidates to Softhouse. The skills shortage in the tech industry has probably not escaped anyone, and all companies are competing for the same candidates. For quite some time now, we have all heard how it is the “candidates’ market,” so it is essential to be creative and try to “stand out” in the dialogue with candidates, explains Johanna.

But it is also the challenge that she turns into motivation.

When you work in recruitment, it is always motivating to succeed in finding the right person for the right position, and that feeling is further strengthened when you work with talent sourcing. It’s incredibly delightful when you find a candidate, manage to capture interest, follow the process, which hopefully results in employment, and then, one day, bump into that person at the office.

I’m passionate about good candidate experience; I always want to feel like we’ve done our best to give the candidate a good understanding of Softhouse and what we stand for.

Johanna continues:

Right now, we have several recruitment processes underway, many roles, such as e.g. experienced developers, we are looking for in several of our offices, so that means sourcing to reach out to candidates. In addition, we are working on some internal projects and just facilitated a workshop for colleagues involved in the recruitment process, says Johanna.

It’s on the walls

Johanna appreciates the opportunity to work with exciting and wonderful colleagues in the office in Malmö, where she is based, and from Softhouse’s other offices.

I like the feeling that it is One Softhouse! I appreciate that there is an open and inviting community and that people are encouraged to come up with their own suggestions and initiatives. It feels good to have an employer with such confidence in its employees. The culture is inclusive, and we share with each other in an unpretentious way. Unpretentious can easily become a buzzword, but at Softhouse, it’s an inherent part of our behavior, she says.

Johanna also feels a little extra for Softhouse’s value, Courage, as she tries to carry it with her in most she does, both at work and privately. Dare to be brave, be challenged, or try something outside your comfort zone to develop.

I watch many movies and tv-shows in my spare time, but my goal for 2023 is to read more books. And, when talking about going outside one’s comfort zone and trying new things – maybe some basic coding would be my next step, to develop further within tech recruiting? says Johanna and laughs.

How many books she will have read by the end of 2023 is unclear – even so, her coding skills, but we’re really looking forward to following her journey with us at Softhouse.

 

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