NETWORG is a Prague-based company specialized in providing digital solutions connecting technology, users, professionals, and partners. They are mostly focused on Microsoft products that help companies and third-party users digitalize, eliminate routine activities, use time efficiently and centralize employee’s efforts in things that matter. NETWORG team is built around experts that handle technical escalations for Microsoft 365 Admin Center, and development of business applications built on top of Microsoft Power Platform.

Partnering up with Storsen

At the end of 2019, NETWORG partnered up with Storsen to set up a multilingual team of Microsoft Office 365 Specialists. The end goal was to build a satellite office in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina for Microsoft Office365 support teams, one with German language and the other one with Dutch language proficiency. Each candidate needed to have a basic technical support skillset as well as an advanced understanding of the Office 365 business apps such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Exchange both from the system administration side, and the end-user point of view.

Over the course of 3 months, Storsen’s dedicated executives Tarik Altumbabić and Benjamin Kadić helped align all business operations with the Client and map out necessary recruitment process. The team of dedicated recruiters carried out 3 essential activities; Andrea Todić guided candidates through the entire selection process and coordinated training/onboarding activities, Nedim Čengić was actively involved in sourcing and engaging candidates, while Farah Zeba coordinated all recruitment marketing initiatives.

The Recruitment Process

Every Storsen project relies on exhaustive research. The first step was assessing the market and candidate availability. Accordingly, Storsen recruiters investigated the market thoroughly, and lined up the channels that can be used for reaching out to candidates. The end result provided fascinating insights about Bosnia’s workforce potential since there is a vast pool of candidates with diverse skill-set and German and Dutch language fluency.

Candidate Prescreening and Interviewing

Interested candidates were prescreened by the recruiters to check for their understanding of the position, experience, and skills along with German or Dutch language fluency. Then the shortlisted candidates were presented to NETWORG for further selection for the final interview with Microsoft.

Training and Onboarding

To ensure that all hired candidates perform well from the very start, Storsen planned for the intensive Microsoft Office365 training with one of the recognized training providers and Microsoft partners in the region. The training lasted 5 days and included 40 hours’ worth of content. Upon its completion, all the candidates were certified.

Forming the satellite office remotely

As all the recruitment activities were slowly being brought to a close, the situation with the COVID19 was worsening. Storsen team shifted to remote work and the clients canceled their visit to Sarajevo.

Therefore, the recruitment team was left to come up with ways to successfully deliver all the planned activities in the first quarter. After several brainstorming sessions and candidates’ cooperation, everybody agreed upon organizing all the training and onboarding activities online. Furthermore, all candidates’ documentation and workstations needed to be delivered to their home addresses along with a blueprint of suggestions for working from home. Even though mentioned changes exerted more effort than initially planned, the most challenging and rewarding part by far was making new colleagues feel welcomed and initiating bonding within the team. This was overcome by; asking for feedback after each training session and adjusting the learning pace accordingly, organizing meetings with the team from the Czech Republic. As time passed, the need for daily feedback lessened as the team members got involved by proactively asking questions and making new suggestions.

The client is tremendously satisfied with the team’s work, and they are looking forward to meeting the entire team in person.