From Maintal to the other end of the world

On April 1, 2017, I had my first working day as HR Business Partner at NORMA Group in Maintal. I would never have thought at that time that I would be working abroad for NORMA Group two and a half years later. My name is Stephanie Stemmer and I was offered the opportunity to work as HR Manager for NORMA Group in Melbourne, Australia, for three years. Besides supporting the employees at NORMA Group's headquarters in Maintal, I was also involved in designing and implementing HR processes as HR Business Partner. HR processes are instrumental in achieving the company's goals and it is even more important that they are introduced and implemented successfully at all of NORMA Group's sites. It is important for the success of such processes to look at them from different perspectives. Besides pursuing the company's goals, it is also important that the processes can be applied globally. But what does this have to do with my assignment? Quite simply, the annual Performance Management Process is what brought me to our site in Melbourne, Australia. The annual Performance Management Process at NORMA Group focuses on the personal goals for the year that are agreed between the manager and the employee. The process not only sets the objectives but also considers the employee's individual development. My supervisor and I jointly came to the conclusion that it was important for my professional and personal development to gain international experience in order to broaden my perspective. I was then assigned to a task force in the APAC region for four weeks. My job was to assist the local HR department with introducing and implementing HR projects. Among other things, I also spent a week working in the HR department in Australia at NORMA Pacific. The position of HR Manager was vacant at that time and the opportunity arose for me to take over the position as part of a three-year assignment. G'day from Australia! Directly after Christmas 2019, I packed all my things in Germany and set off on my great journey to the other end of the world. The first two weeks I was busy organizing bas