SONATA LAURINAVICIENE, HR MANAGER

I have a passion for helping businesses new to Lithuania... I’ve worked in HR for 13 years now. I find a lot of joy as an HR professional in starting from scratch – preparing policy, recruiting, building a team.

Another reason I was attracted to Petrofac was because it is an international company… I’m looking forward to gaining knowledge of new markets and working with different cultures. The company also has a very different profile to what I’m used to – I haven’t had the chance to work with an engineering and project management company. This will help my personal development too.

A big part of my role is…  ensuring people are comfortable with each other. We have lots of different cultures working together, so it’s important to help people understand our culture and habits, and communicate in the right way. Everyone brings different experiences and expectations; we just need to translate them into a common language. We will also have subcontractors working on the project and it’s important that they feel comfortable and welcome, and that we take care of them in the same way we take care of our employees. It’s very important to me that people feel appreciated. That people are treated with respect. That they are treated fairly. That they are treated equally and have opportunities in the company.  

My main priority on the project is ensuring we are aligned with all statutory and regulatory legislation and that we have the right talent to implement the project from a local perspective… so we have the right policies and documents in place. I’m also helping managers to recruit and onboard the right people – sharing local knowledge on where to recruit and helping Petrofac communicate with the local talent. It’s important to have someone that speaks the same language. I also did my own audit for the branch to make sure all our systems like payroll were in place for when the project starts up and progresses.

Once the project is established, I’ll then be involved in employee evaluations and development...  as performance management is very important. Recruitment and onboarding are also going to remain a priority, and we will be recruiting more and more people in the first quarter of this year. There needs to be timely communication between the team, so we are aware of what people we will need and when. We need to be proactive instead of reactive, as you can’t have a project without the right people.

I love travelling which is why I want to work for international companies… I lived in Canada for ten years and like experiencing different cultures and meeting new people. I went to Sharjah for one week for onboarding, so I’ve met with most of the stakeholders on this project, which was very exciting. I’m also very active and basketball is a very big passion of mine. Basketball has always been part of my life, I love playing it, watching it, and talking about it.

Hear from our other colleagues in Lithuania