An interview with Sarah-Emily Oades, Head of Talent
How did you land at AMBOSS?
I come from a medical family, so when I was approached by the in-house Executive Recruiter I jumped at the chance to join — remotely at first, but it hasn’t stopped us achieving major progress in all things talent.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve encountered so far in your role?
AMBOSS is still relatively unknown outside of the medical field, especially when it comes to tech talent or indeed anything non-medical.
The greatest challenge for us is the never-ending hunt for the right talent — we work predominantly within the Berlin market and outside of the medical profession.
To combat this shortage we have to map out the market better, actively search for our talent, work on our employer brand and frankly: get creative!
We also engage with all our existing AMBOSSians to help build knowledge about AMBOSS and network better so that we can spread the word. This is ongoing, but a really exciting challenge to be part of, especially leading team talent!
What’s great about the Talent Acquisition team at AMBOSS?
For me, a diverse environment is very important and I take huge pride in my team. In our case we have a very representative team — each of us with a different nationality, lots of languages and an even split of men and women.
Having this kind of diversity in the team means we gain much more interesting insights, our work together is more fruitful and we achieve a further reach into our international markets.
We also have lots of different points of view which keeps things very interesting!
What has surprised you most in your first 4 months with AMBOSS?
I don’t know if surprise is the right word, but I am impressed with AMBOSS’ response to the pandemic — from the surveys to gauge how people are feeling, to the open discussions on how people are affected by the pandemic, and the flexibility to the support and coaching programs.
Every single initiative is ‘homegrown’ and in direct response to how everyone feels.
In terms of remote onboarding, we have switched all info sessions to be fully flexible and available in-person and remotely, which speaks to how quickly we were able to augment the employee experience in order to accommodate ‘life with COVID’.
It’s ongoing, of course, but the response is continually re-evaluated. It makes people feel valued and secure, and has created intermittent stability during a time that has been incredibly uncertain.
