In our April Spotlight edition we are meeting our amazing L&D Manager Carlos. Having many years of experience as an onsite recruiter himself, there could be no better Trainer for enPower than him. With lots of knowledge and humor, he trains new joiners in a tailor-made induction as well as provides follow-up training for our employees. Read his fascinating story here:
"I was born in the Philippines and grew up in Australia from when I was 6 years old. Came to Japan more than 16 years ago, and in recruitment for 12 of those. 4 years ago, I started my RPO journey where going into internal Talent Acquisition just blew my socks off and was an incredibly humbling experience, after an agency upbringing, so to speak. Hard charging through that experience put me in good stead to tackle the business side of RPO. My role as our L&D spearhead is to simply “grow our people”, with the initial part of the journey heavily focused on building materials and training programs from the ground up. Our induction program, for instance, plays a big role in driving home our unique culture and principles.
What attracted you to enPower?
Sam (Nishizawa), our head, was an acquaintance of mine soon after I embarked on my RPO voyage, so there was a relationship there already. He wanted to bring me over to where he was at the time, but in the end, the stars never aligned, but he understood where I wanted to take my career. Conversely, I also knew to some extent what he was thinking to do in the future within the RPO sector. Over time we became mates, stayed in touch, talked about life, and shared ideas from time to time.
Secondly, as we both came from large and well-known global staffing and HR consulting firms, we had faced many challenges and teething problems being in a global environment while supporting a small entity in the most unique market in recruitment – Japan. Knowing that enPowers (initial) focus was to customize RPO solutions specific to Japan and the compliance and laws that come with it, that certainly resonated with me. To have an opportunity to build and deliver a Japan-tailored solution without having to align with any global parameters felt like a no brainer for me.
Lastly, while it’s cliché, it deserves mention. After having met some core members in the interview process (plus a dinner outing), the people I met played an enormous part in my decision and more importantly, that comfortability entering a bare-bones setup.
What are some experiences that you didn’t expect to gain?
One thing that comes to mind is working with our other business lines at enworld. In my previous companies, there were proverbial walls between our RPO division and other BUs like the haken and agency teams. Felt like we were completely different companies with different cultures. So, to have the communication and interdepartmental collaboration here was a nice surprise.
Another is being at the forefront of events planning, execution, and delivery. That has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience helping enPower build and develop our footprint in the market, and in particular, partnering with our internal TA team with their branding strategies and goals.
Why would you encourage others to join enPower?
People, culture and communication! This extends also to the wider enworld family. Also, our company events and gatherings - they’re second to none."