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Carolin Leidel, who started as a Senior Associate at torq.partners two years ago and has since been promoted to the role of Consultant, gives us exciting insights into her work in consulting in this interview. She also talks about how torq.partners has supported her in her development and how she is actively involved in raising awareness of various social issues within the company.
I work at torq.people, where we take care of the entire People & Culture consulting field. We support companies with our expertise - for example, if they have not yet set up their own people department - and also act as interim managers if required.
I started out as a Senior Associate. As part of this, I supported many start-ups and some scale-ups as People Manager. I was responsible for employee issues in the companies, took on tasks such as onboarding and offboarding and designed processes such as payroll accounting. I was the central point of contact for managers and the management in the area of People & Culture. Another of my main areas of responsibility was project-based work. This means that you are only responsible for implementing a specific task within the company, completing it and then handing it over again. One example of this is the design of a company integration management system.
I've been a consultant for a few months now, which has also changed my field of activity. I manage projects and act as a central point of contact for our customers for all questions relating to capacity, technical issues at a high-level, invoicing and other matters. At the same time, I continue to take on an operational role, where I go into the companies as Head of People and work even more closely with the managing directors than before.
It depends on the project. As I am based in Berlin and many of our clients are also there, I was often on site two to three times a week during my time as a Senior Associate. On the other days, I either worked in the torq.partners office or from home.
In my current role, the number of on-site activities has decreased. As a result, I now work from home more often, but I also enjoy going to our office to see my colleagues regularly. Over the next few months, I plan to make more use of our workation policy and work from different locations in Europe.
I found my way to torq.partners through a former boss of mine. We both worked in a venture builder. After completing my Master's degree, I took over the People Manager activities in one of the ventures and over the following two years I helped to build up many processes in the People department.
My former boss then joined torq.people as my second employee and told me about the company's vision. The idea of switching to consulting immediately appealed to me. I was excited about the opportunity to carry out a wide range of projects and contribute my knowledge, but also to learn a lot of new things at the same time. I found the prospect of being able to work with a wide range of professionals from the same specialist area as me particularly interesting.
After getting to know the torq.partners team and gaining a very positive impression during the interviews, I decided to apply for the position.
I was impressed right from the start by how well torq.partners is set up. There were immediately clear structures and helpful guidelines. Over time, our way of working has become more and more professional, to which the back office has made a significant contribution.
torq.partners has always focused on the needs of its employees. In the last year in particular, a strong priority was placed on ensuring that everyone in the team is heard and can contribute a variety of perspectives. The social contribution that we make as a company and want to make in the future has also become even clearer in recent months. torq.partners is a company that stands for and promotes democratic values.
Since I joined the company, feedback meetings have been held twice a year for everyone. You not only receive feedback from your direct manager, but also peer feedback, i.e. assessments from colleagues with whom you have worked on projects. These assessments have always given me a good idea of myself and my performance.
I was also given a lot of freedom by the project managers to develop my consulting role so that I could take on various activities. I also had the opportunity to discuss my professional goals in regular meetings with my manager - in other words, where I wanted to develop, what support I needed to do so and also what skills my manager considered necessary for this role. All of this helped me a lot to grow into my new position.
Yes, definitely. I think one thing that unites us all at torq.partners is our thirst for knowledge.
In the future, too, I want to fulfill my current position as well as possible. For me, this means becoming more and more aware of my role: As a project lead, how do I want to lead my teams, how do I want to communicate? At the same time, I also want to learn new administrative skills. Another of my goals is to open up new fields of consulting at torq.people and to actively help shape them, particularly in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion.
I think one thing that unites us all at torq.partners is our thirst for knowledge.
I would love to get a taste of the event or marketing sector. Especially with tasks that revolve around what you can organize or design for employees. That used to be part of my job and still makes my creative heart beat faster. I would also be interested in taking part in the Managing Partner meetings to learn more about all strategic topics.
For me, the offsites are the best because they give me the opportunity to see all my colleagues. You often meet completely new faces, as you usually work in sub-teams in your day-to-day work and don't always get to know all the new employees from the other departments. When everyone comes together at the offsite, it's always impressive to see the expertise in the team and how friendly everyone is.
I've taken part in two offsites so far and the sticker album that we received last time was particularly memorable. We had the opportunity to collect stickers from all employees so that we could fill an album with the whole team at the end. Between the program points, we sat together on the grass to swap pictures of the employees back and forth. It was really nice to playfully visualize who all is part of torq.partners.
Yes, I am involved in an initiative that aims to raise awareness of various social issues. I lead one of the working groups whose content provides all employees with a toolbox that makes it easier for them to deal with diversity in the right way. In addition to my conviction for this topic, I also bring specialist knowledge to the table, as I have already worked in a Diversity and Inclusion Office alongside the traditional People & Culture area.
For me, the greatest added value is the humanity at torq.partners, which can be felt in all situations. I also appreciate the courage that is practiced here. We are encouraged to tackle new things, think outside the box, address unpleasant topics and always express our opinions openly. Our workplace is a safe space where we treat each other with respect, where everyone is heard and where fun is never neglected.
