Welcome Gijs, Simacan's new HR Manager
Hi Gijs, welcome to Simacan! What are your responsibilities going to be at Simacan and what are you looking forward to?
Thank you! I will be joining Simacan as an HR manager. In this role, I will try to facilitate and structure the growth that Simacan is currently going through. On the one hand by working with the HR team and with input from many of my new colleagues on practical matters, such as the HR manual and onboarding. On the other hand, by thinking along about the structure of our growing organization and by occupying myself with finding the right candidates for this. However, the most important goal that I have been given is maintaining and further strengthening the Simacan culture and that is also what I am looking forward to the most. The company culture was the most important reason for me to want to work at Simacan.
Where did worklife start for you?
I studied Management & Organisation Sciences in Amsterdam and during my studies I had a part-time job as an order picker at an e-commerce company for two days a week. From that job, I progressed to the role of logistics manager and after finishing my studies, I got the opportunity to become general manager. Although I thought it was a great responsibility and experience, I soon realized that in practice I was doing more what I liked best: making sure my colleagues could do their jobs as well as possible and with pleasure. And because the company was growing, I thankfully got the opportunity to really focus on HR tasks and to specialize in it further.
You started with us at a crazy time, but nevertheless, I hope you had a good start? What was your first impression of Simacan?
I picked up my stuff at the office and really enjoyed being in an office and meeting a couple of people in real life. And the icing on the cake for me was the guided tour by Simke. Furthermore what I really liked, was the fact that in my first few days a number of colleagues addressed me personally on Slack to welcome me and ask me exactly this question. That really makes me happy!
Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?
When I'm not working, I love to be outside and do lots of sports. I've played soccer my whole life and I also like to bike and boulder. I'm lucky to have a wife who cycles even more than I do, so we cycle together regularly. We now have a bicycle trailer, so our young daughter can come along too. And I really like board games, the more strategic, the better.