Interview with Magdalena Dwornikova, HRBP Operations EMEA and PayU Poland.
You have been associated with PayU for 8 years and you currently act as HR business partner, how has PayU developed from your point of view during this time?
A lot has happened since I joined PayU in 2014. This company never stops, it’s constantly evolving and that’s very motivating. PayU is regularly expanding its offering, entering other markets, expanding its teams, while still focusing on the needs of its customers. Technologically, we are also committed to improving the quality of our services. I and the entire team are constantly gaining new experience, learning to better respond to our customers’ needs and, as a result, offering merchants effective solutions for their needs. Throughout this process, one thing remains the same for me – the huge commitment of the people behind PayU’s success. There are still people working here who remember our entry into the market. We are proud to have colleagues with such long experience and such unique knowledge among our staff. During this time, PayU has gained the trust of more than 26 million online consumers using our services in Poland alone, where we are headquartered. Worldwide, it is many times more. We have become a recognizable and trusted brand for business and for ordinary Internet users. With this also comes greater employee awareness of the brand and its identity – our team is proud to co-create the best service in the online payments market.
What are the PayU values? What do they mean to you?
PayU is guided in its dealings by five core values: openness, integrity, collaboration, courage and ownership. Each of them means something different, but they all have a common purpose, namely to engage in what we do, and that is why these values are linked.
In the industry in which we operate, we must be open to changes in the marketplace, which are driven by the business, economic and geopolitical environment, to the needs of our customers, and to what is happening with our competitors. This also involves courage. Without courageous decision-making, there would be no success in business. That courage lies in making thoughtful decisions and maintaining the highest standards of security, authenticity and transparency. In a similar way, the value of integrity can be understood – it is transparency in what we do and the assurance that our services are of the highest quality. Every PayU employee is accountable for the projects they lead, for their ideas, successes and failures. Almost every task requires an implementation process, the work of several people, meetings, negotiations – collaboration to deliver a specific service to our customers. In my opinion, this value is the most important because we are a team and people are behind PayU’s success. This has also been demonstrated during the pandemic, during which we proved that we can act with maximum efficiency despite working remotely. I think this is the result of collaboration based on the relationships we have built and the respect we have for each other.
In addition to the five core values, we also promote PayU Behaviours among our employees in all the countries where we operate. These are as follows:
It is a series of described behaviors that are guides in the day-to-day dealings for all PayUneers. In my opinion, PayU Put PayUneers at the Center is a paramount value. We face daily business challenges and thus strive to create a space in which everyone, regardless of their beliefs, finds their place, in which the needs of employees are paramount, and above all, in which mutual respect is a priority.
How is PayU guided by these values on a daily basis?
I think all of us are guided by PayU’s values in our daily work, during the implementation of local and international projects. New employees at PayU quickly notice that our values are not just colourful slogan cups or emblems on the walls. Our company really works like that. When working with values, the most important thing in business is that they are true and related to the company. The art is not to come up with nice slogans that no one understands. The naming of values was the result of observing our actions and work.
You’re in the recruiting business, what are today’s candidates like? Do you see them willing to work at PayU because of these values? Are they important to them?
Today’s candidates are definitely different from those who came to us three years ago – the reason for this is economic conditions (today we have an employment market), but there are also other changes taking place in our society: the question of loyalty to the company and long-term employment among young people is now a rarity. Young people are focused on their needs: they are looking for challenges, dynamic working environments, global projects, but also work-life balance.
During interviews with candidates, the need to work in a place where it is possible to feel comfortable, to be oneself, comes up. Linked to this comfort is the atmosphere in the team, i.e. the element of cooperation. Young people want to be involved in new projects, they express their willingness to work in a global environment, so they show courage. They also want to face new challenges and have a space for which they are fully responsible. The youngest generation of employees has a need for transparency in relationships and communication, freedom of self-expression, and also to talk openly about what they feel or think – and this is linked to integrity. In expressing their needs, each of our candidates indirectly speaks about what is important to PayU. People who come to us with certain expectations can count on us, as an organization, being able to respond to and meet those expectations. As a result, we are successfully expanding our team on a regular basis.
What do you value most in PayU?
Definitely the people are the driving force and the biggest strength of PayU and without a doubt, I value our team the most at PayU. I have the advantage of managing an area that is tasked with supporting employees, but I also have a huge sense of responsibility and I am aware that as an organization we need to be mindful of our people’s needs and challenges, both business and personal, every day. It is also our job to create a working environment where everyone feels comfortable, because then we will certainly be celebrating PayU’s achievements in another 20 years.