On a windy spring day we open the gates to Novare Potential. Here, in the middle of Blasieholmen in Stockholm, is where we find the office of the recruitment company working for increased diversity and inclusion in the labour market. A beautiful spiral staircase leads up to the second floor where we meet alumnus Farzad Golchin, the company’s CEO and founder.
A few years after getting his degree in business administration at Linköping University, Farzad Golchin became Marketing Manager at Comviq. There he saw how diversity can seriously increase company efficiency and profit. The mobile operator was geared towards people who wanted to call abroad, but it had lost significant market shares. His task was to win back the customers. As Farzad had a background as a marketing analyst from previous jobs, he started looking at who these customer groups were and how they could be reached. To help with this task, he had employees with a foreign background.
“With their help, we started reaching out to different multicultural groups, such as Arabic-speaking and Polish customers, by posting customised messages on the social media platforms and other channels where they were active.”
For example, the team included a woman from Poland who came up with the idea that the company should start sponsoring speedway; a sport that many Poles follow. She also suggested they highlight name days, something that is bigger than birthdays in Poland.
This turned out to be a success. The company quickly won new customers.
“In one year, we gained a seven per cent market share in a seven hundred million market. So that was a real boost.”
Farzad Golchin was invited to a panel discussion during Politicians’ Week in Almedalen, Visby, to talk about his experiences and how diversity had been beneficial to business development. On the same panel was Fredrik Hillelson, Investor's former HR Director and founder of Novare, a company group including several companies within leadership and skills supply. Hillelson wanted to expand the group with a new branch focusing on newly arrived people with sought-after skills in Sweden, and he wanted Farzad Golchin to join him in this.
And that is what happened. Farzad Golchin developed a business plan and only a few months later, the company was in operation. The basic idea is the same now as then.
Wants to increase diversity in the workplace
“There are people in Sweden who have relevant skills, or who want to educate themselves, and a strong drive to establish themselves in the labour market, but who are still an untapped resource. We want to change this by opening doors that should already be open.”
Companies also need these people to be able to grow and meet their skills needs, according to Farzad Golchin. However, because people who are newer in Sweden have smaller networks, and because there is a major focus on networks and contacts in recruitment contexts, companies have less knowledge of these people. It is also common for companies to discard CVs they are unsure of, for efficiency reasons.
“That’s why they need a partner like us who can highlight the competence of these people. Whose heart is with the candidates but can look out for the customers.”
Business value is an important argument for increasing diversity in a workplace.
“Research shows that companies with greater diversity perform better. Therefore, it is important to spread knowledge about what diversity means and how it can help companies develop. I believe that if this penny drops, a lot can happen by itself,” says Farzad Golchin.
Social benefit is another aspect. He himself has seen up close how much a job and a sense of belonging in society mean to a family.
“My parents came to Sweden from Iran when I was a child. They were both engineers but retrained. My mum got a job as an interpreter and my dad as a maths and physics teacher. Their jobs created ripple effects and made us feel at home.”
But he has also seen the downside and what it is like to be outside the labour market. How some friends of the family applied for a lot of jobs but still never got to an interview.
“These were educated people who had worked in their home country and then came here and suddenly that meant nothing. That’s so unfair.”
Helping people grow
Over the years, the company has helped people to find jobs in a wide range of industries such as IT, energy, healthcare and truck technology. In addition to recruitment, they have also invested in training courses and, together with KTH and Sophiahemmet, they have provided rapid training for both IT developers and doctors.
The business model is that the candidate is employed by Novare Potential and initially works for one year as a consultant with the customer. During this time, they also have access to a mentor.
“We call it a cultural sounding board. This is an external person that both the candidate and the customer can turn to for questions and who is there to support the recruitment process.”
Removing as many barriers as possible for the employer is something Farzad Golchin is passionate about, as is business development.
“I like making things better and finding solutions to things that others find difficult.”
In a typical week he meets many customers, works with sales, has conversations with employees and tries to keep track of where the company is going.
His studies at Linköping University gave him a scientific approach that often makes him seek out new knowledge and look at things from a new perspective.
“A cornerstone of my leadership is that I always feel the need to understand the whole picture. I find it hard to just keep doing what I’ve always done. I want to understand where I’m going and what the playing field looks like. That’s really important to me.”
But he is also humble.
“When I meet our candidates, I often feel that it’s partly due to luck and circumstances that I’m the CEO and doing the hiring and the candidate that’s applying for the job, and that it could just as well have been the other way around. In general, what happens in life to a great deal depends on luck and circumstances. The older you get, the more you understand this.”
