Aura Stučkienė: HR is a combination of both soft and hard skills

• Title Manager of Workforce and Compensation unit and Remuneration Partner for SEB in the Baltics
• Education Master’s degree in Economics, Vilnius University
• Personal interests Travelling with her family and art history

Aura is certain that HR is one of the areas, where data analysis will bring a lot of added value, so she and her team are changing the perception about HR as an area where ‘soft skills’ such as communication and teamwork are the most important qualities. “In data-driven HR hard skills like mathematics and statistics have the potential to create a lot of value,” says Aura.

• Title Manager of Workforce and Compensation unit and Remuneration Partner for SEB in the Baltics
• Education Master’s degree in Economics, Vilnius University
• Personal interests Travelling with her family and art history

Aura is certain that HR is one of the areas, where data analysis will bring a lot of added value, so she and her team are changing the perception about HR as an area where ‘soft skills’ such as communication and teamwork are the most important qualities. “In data-driven HR hard skills like mathematics and statistics have the potential to create a lot of value,” says Aura.

How did you join SEB?

I used to work in sales, and it involved a lot of numbers and analytics. After a while I realized that I want to work more with people. So, I decided that I want to join a large international company in an HR role, where I can also use my analytical skills. Incidentally I noticed a job ad by SEB. At that time, SEB Global Services was starting to build a new department for HR functions, and I joined as an administrator, which is an entry-level role. For a few years, I worked with educational programmes that we offer to our employees to help them develop their skills and competences, but then I started to get the feeling that I am missing the analytical part. Then I had an opportunity to join the Compensation and Benefits team as their manager. For me, that was the beginning of the most interesting part in my career. When I joined the team, we had eight team members, and now our department has 42 people in Vilnius and six – in Riga, divided in five units. In 2020, I took an additional responsibility and became a Remuneration Partner for all SEB organizations in the Baltics.

Tell us about your responsibilities

As Remuneration Partner my task is to be the consultant to management boards of all three SEB banks in the Baltic countries and the management team of SEB Global Services in all remuneration-related issues.

When it comes to responsibilities of the Workforce and Compensation unit, we are working with SEB organizations in Scandinavia, Baltics and elsewhere in the world. My teams are responsible for the whole employee lifecycle from signing the contract to the end of employment. My main priority now is to develop the data analytics competence in my team and digitize our processes. I want my team to do less administrative work and spend more time on analytical work. In the Baltics, HR is often seen as a soft function. In our team, we also require hard skills, such as statistics, mathematics and data analysis.

How does your typical workday look like?

Each day is different. I am often invited to participate in management board meetings if there are topics related to remuneration. Usually, I have to present some data so they can make better decisions. Then we have weekly management team meetings in my unit. Right now we are focussed on improving data quality within our area. We are always discussing what we can do differently and how we can improve. Our main mission is making SEB the most attractive employer and be competitive in the market.

What are the things that motivate you in your work?

One of the things that energise me is the opportunity to build something new. For instance, my ambition is to build a flexible remuneration package for our employees so that they can pick and choose their benefits and have a choice in terms of the work environment – work from the office, home or both. Another thing, which is very important for me, is fairness. It has to do with equal treatment of employees regardless of their gender, making sure that people in the same position are compensated equally across the organisation, and we have a transparent and fair remuneration system. It has also a lot to do with data. But on a daily basis the best motivation for me is my team. I love to see my colleagues growing as professionals and support them. And together we can make an impact to the entire SEB!

What are the things you like to do after work?

My family is the most important thing for me. I have two little boys and they take up all my free time. We like to travel. London and Paris are my favourite cities. Art history is my hobby, and there are many excellent museums in both cities. We like to go on road trips and explore without planning, so that every day is a surprise. I have to do a lot of planning in my work life, so I prefer to avoid it when I am relaxing.