Career in Human Resources
Sabine Esters has been employed at apt Extrusions GmbH & Co. KG in Monheim (D) since October 2017. As HR specialist, she mainly looks after recruitment, employee development and administration topics. After her Abitur and a completed vocational apprenticeship in banking, she studied business psychology in Cologne with a focus on personnel psychology. In a part-time Master’s course alongside work, she successfully completed a degree in Human Resources Management in February 2019.
What is your area of tasks like at apt?
“My area of tasks is very diverse and stretches from A to Z via employment contracts, i.e. administrative tasks, and planning for the future. It therefore also covers conceptual and strategic projects.
Recruiting: As part of succession planning as well as natural fluctuation, there are vacancies which must be filled without a hitch. As soon as a free job is foreseeable, I design the text for our job advertisements, select the right images, publish the advertisement and remain responsible for the whole application process right up to appointing a successfully recruited applicant. In this area, I also take care of personnel marketing activities which we carry out to increase our name recognition (measuring etc.) and our attractiveness as an employer.
In personnel development, for example, I identify suitable providers for subject-specific and general training courses, monitor and organise compliance with the legally prescribed training courses and instructions. In addition, I am the project pilot for our internal, three-year further training project “far more!” and support our commercial apprentices (industry salesperson m/f/d). My area of tasks is gradually expanding. In this way, for example, I take on additional tasks as part of our operational integration management system. As well as the tasks mentioned above, I also complete numerous administrative tasks, including writing employer references. In short: As a HR employee at apt, I accompany the employees along their life cycle in the company. First and foremost, I carry out my tasks with passion and my enthusiasm for people. I have also undergone further training accordingly and am learning more and more different “to-do’s” each day on top of this.”
What makes your tasks particularly exciting?
“In many respects, I find it just great working for a medium-sized industry company. In HR, we work very closely together with the employees in all departments, i.e. production and administration departments, and look after the most varied of tasks. I am absolutely convinced that medium-sized companies are just right for me, because here, I can gain insight into the most varied of HR topics. There isn’t a specialist for each task, instead, we are real all-rounders with specialisms and correspondingly diverse. The contact to almost all employees makes the job so varied. My job in recruiting gives me the opportunity to represent apt to the outside world. When I walk around the production site, I have always found it absolutely fascinating how structured and also automated everything is. I can’t imagine any nicer and equally more exciting department than HR!”
What challenges do you encounter and what knowledge do you require?
“Thanks to the wealth of variety in the tasks, new issues come up all the time which I have never encountered before. Then, I like to read the corresponding part of the rate structure or the legislation in order to familiarise myself with new topics. We work closely together and benefit a great deal from our respective specialist knowledge within the team.”
Which departments do you work with?
„As mentioned, we work closely together with all departments and we maintain a lively exchange; there are hardly any employees that I don’t know – some better, others less well.
What makes apt different, in your opinion?
“Firstly, I find the core business very interesting and I am proud to work for a successful market leader in the aluminium sector in western Europe. Otherwise, apt stands out from the rest thanks to its diversity, flat hierarchies, short decision-making paths, the variety of tasks, the employee community, the family-like atmosphere and a culture of management which offers real freedom and the opportunity to take on responsibility. apt is small enough for everyone to know each other and it is very personal, but large enough for you to build a career here.”
