A resident of Technopark “Idea” – company SmartHead has begun to practice one-on-one meetings this year. Development Director of SmartHead Maxim Busarev told about how to work with the staff and how well just doing the work to get to the top of the best companies in its segment.
— Maxim, you very often talk about working with the staff in the social networks. What innovations have appeared recently?
— One of the innovations is one-on-one meeting. It is a tool that allows each team member to convey to each other the exciting information using a convenient and familiar format. Essentially, it is a confidential conversation of an employee with his immediate supervisor, to discuss current issues of concern to both the leader and the employee.
— What issues are raised during such meetings?
— At the meeting we discuss not only (and rather than) the progress or problems in the current work, but also things of a higher level: new ideas, career and professional goals, sometimes some personal problems. An important part of the meeting is to obtain feedback.
— What is the ultimate goal of such meetings?
— For new employees the goal is to adapt in the team, they have to motivate “oldies”, to give food for inspiration. The employee has the option of tracking his own progress; to learn manager expectations, to discuss problems, to clarify goals, ways of achieving it and the necessary resources for implementation. The head also receives a tool to convey to the employee his expectations, the goals of the company, the placement of correct accents etc. Still this format helps to capture the most valuable ideas from employees, and there are a lot of them.
— In addition to one-on-one meetings, what else is organized in SmartHead? Who does it?
— We have got own HR Manager, Maria Kiverina. She organizes all the work with the team. However, for example, developers have great initiatives. This year we have held for the first time our Hackathon. Preparation for the event began a month before the scheduled date. Any employee of the company can to offer his idea, recruit a team and try to implement it in one day. The event was held for 12 hours. By results of work the participants presented prototypes of solutions with working functionality. Projects, implemented by the teams, can be found on our website www.smarthead.ru.
— What other innovations are planned?
— In the near future we want to try such a thing as “the work out of office”, when employees go together in recreation, providing electricity, Internet, barbecue and work in the fresh air. And our Albina – specialist in designing banner campaigns, student of the Higher School of Information Technology and Information Systems of the Kazan Federal (Volga region) University (ITIS KFU) defended a diploma perfectly well. The work’s head was our project manager – Andrey Barsky. It is a real research with the introduction. We are proud of this fact. You’ll see, we will start to defend a thesis soon. We are planning a lot of interesting, because next year we will celebrate 10 years!
— Then we’ll talk about the ratings: each year SmartHead is in the main ratings of the country and thus in a good position. Often, SmartHead is the only company from Tatarstan. What is the secret?
— Recently we were on the 27th place in the Unified ranking of Russia’s web studios. Besides, in 2015, we took the first place in the ranking of outsourcing production of Russia 2015 for the version of the Tagline. As it turns out, to be honest, we do not know. We do not ask anyone to vote for us or to promote. Perhaps we are just doing our job well, and customers express it is that note us.
— Thank you, Maxim, for the interview. Good luck in all your endeavors!
