Jakob, HR

In this installment of Meet the Team, we sit down with Jakob, an HR specialist born and raised in Berlin.

Describe what you do at SumUp.

“You could describe it in one sentence: everything related to the people working here. So, it goes from HR administration, which includes payroll—making sure everybody gets paid on time and the right amount—to more strategic things like personal planning, and a bit of recruitment, and policies.”

What makes an ideal SumUp candidate?

“You have to be open to new things, because even though we're not an early stage startup anymore, we’re still growing and evolving. So if you have one specific skill set, it can be useful, but it can also be very useful to be able to branch out into other areas… At the moment, you can change and improve processes. Know that you can talk to everybody in the company: make a suggestion, and you will be heard.”

Give us one fun fact about yourself.

“I like to wear colourful sneakers!”

What character traits are important in a business owner?

“The ability to look at things from the point of view of your employees, so you can see what challenges they face—and what I find the most important is that you’re able to understand what everybody in your company does. You don’t really have to be able to do every job, but you have to understand the challenges otherwise you can’t motivate your people accordingly.”