Department of Finance and HR Interview

We interview Felipe Botias, Head of Solera´s Finance and HR Department, about the day-to-day running of his department:

Who currently works in the department? 

There are currently three of us in the department; myself and two colleagues who carry out different activities.

In mid-November we plan on taking on a fourth person who will be directly responsible for Solera´s Human Resources Department.

We currently perform human resources work, but we want to create a department that is separate from the finance department.

What can you tell us about the people you work with?  

• Isabel Gómez, who has been with us for more than 35 years, is in charge of managing everything Human Resources Department related.
• Victor Botias, joined the company a year and a half ago and deals with administrative and accounting matters.

Both are highly committed to their jobs just like the rest of the company´s departments, when it comes to companionship and teamwork.

 

What would you say is the department´s objective?

In the finance department, our main objective is to provide the resources and money flows that ensure the payment of commitments, the coverage of immediate needs and financing in general.

As for the HR department, we deal with more administrative tasks, such as managing paperwork in the event of illness, accidents…

The person who will join in November (Cristina Peñalver) will act as a link between workers and the company itself.

This role, as such, is currently being carried out by each head of his/her own department.

 

 And what are your functions?

Our daily functions are as follows:

• Coordination with the other departments by drawing up budgets that are as close to reality as possible, and the subsequent monitoring thereof.
• Negotiating with financial institutions.
• Paying creditors.
• Paying debtors.
• Customer risk analysis.
• Administrative management of staff (registrations and deregistration of employees, contracts, pay slips, social security, disciplinary procedures, time and attendance, monitoring sick leave, occupational accidents, etc.)…)

What would you highlight in your day-to-day work at Solera?

Professionalism and teamwork. Always seeking for all actions to be reflected in order for the best decisions to be taken.

 

What recent HR and FINANCE developments would you highlight in the company?

In terms of HR, more than developments, they are projects:

• We are in the process of preparing to implement an equality plan.
• We have also designed an employee portal. It is an intranet where employees have all the information related to their contracts, pay slips, communications at their disposal... A portal where the company will upload all files pertaining to them.

They will receive pay slips, withholding certificates, welcome dossiers and any other documentation.

As for the finance department:

• The implementation of a debt collection system, which we monitor from issuance to collection.
• The digitalisation of the entire purchasing flow.

What have you achieved to date and how does it benefit our customers?

Here we are well-aligned with the company´s mission, which is mainly the satisfaction of our customers.

In our department, we ensure that the other departments, in particular those that are more customer-orientated, such as the sales department, have a better insight in real time.

Internally, we try to ensure that the sales staff have the customer´s information as quickly and reliably as possible, in order to make decisions.

 

Tell us a little about your current projects.

These are general projects, which affect the entire company. Such as, for example:

• The continuous and ongoing improvement of processes in all existing departments.
• Adapting to industry 4.0
• Digitalisation of processes.
• The implementation of Lean Manufacturing, Lean Management and cyber security.

With regard to the financial department, our current and key project is the digitalisation of the entire purchase flow.

 

What do you hope to achieve in the future?

We want to keep growing and continue to have the trust of all our customers.

 

What do you think is the key to your department´s success?

The commitment of everyone in the department, good communication, companionship and alignment with the company´s other departments.

However, if we had to highlight just one thing, the most important thing in our department is the fluid communication with the other departments.

 

Felipe Botias,

Director of finance and HR