Women of Swarovski - Christina Hofer

Christina Hofer, Head of HR in Wattens, Austria is our guest today and ready to share her story with us.

Christina has joined Swarovski in 2009 and has since navigated her career to successfully reach the Head of HR position, leading over 6 different departments – all whilst being a true advocate to Women Empowerment and bringing her knowledge and experiences through various exchanges and initiatives.

Your career, in a few lines.

I started at Swarovski in July 2009 in Corporate HR, based in Wattens training & engaging the global HR community. I then moved to Talent Development, as I wanted to get closer to employees and managers and their day-to-day challenges and later took on the team lead role. I then acted as Global HR Business Partner for the B2B team. Since March 2018, I am leading the HR team our HQ in Wattens, Austria. (including the following teams: Payroll, HR Management, Rewards & Programs, Learning & Organizational Development, Labour Law, Child Creche)

One challenge you had to overcome.

Accepting that there are biases and that I cannot force to change one other’s thinking.

I can role model, speak up and express my thoughts to others. Doing this, I learned how important it is to make ourselves vulnerable to a certain point and accept that society is complex, and you can only thrive through meaningful discussions around biases. Hence, this is an ongoing learning and reflection process for me, and the learning will continue.

One quote, or advice you would like to share with us.?

We need to gain knowledge and involve ourselves with research & networks about the topic of equality first. Knowledge informs our actions. It helps to create a balanced perspective on things.

Example: How the term feminism is often understood and that there tends to be a misconception based on single and polarizing examples, thinking that a feminist is against men. This should not be the case; it should nurture equality for all and therefore is relevant for everyone. It is more the thought concepts and biases that make it an unpopular term.

In addition: Stay authentic while keep on gathering feedback and reflecting on yourself. However, don’t try to become someone else just because others are telling you, this is the way how people in management roles have to be.