News from NOBO in May and June 2026

So much has happened at NOBO over the last two months that it was high time to write the next instalment of our story for the LinkedIn blog.

The first major topic is our colleagues from Philippines.

Here are the first Filipinos. The first group of fifteen arrived first, followed about two weeks later by a second group of another 25 colleagues.

Before they start work, there are a great many things that need to be sorted out with them. Most of them are leaving the Philippines for the first time and are arriving in a completely new environment here in the Czech Republic.

We’ve drawn up an action plan for this in HR, and we handle the post-arrival aftercare ourselves, without the agency’s help.

We are currently discussing around 30 points that need to be sorted out for each group. These range from filling in personal questionnaires, to being met at the airport, accommodation, sorting out the initial paperwork, the first shopping trip, the first journey on public transport, a medical examination, arranging clothes dryers for the accommodation, right through to a visit to the OAMP.

We travel all the way to Jindřichův Hradec to visit the OAMP, as they have greater capacity there than the local office in České Budějovice.

Put simply, it’s a thankless job, and my colleagues and I agreed that the only thing we can be sure of is that we’re not able to predict everything.

However, the initial feedback from the production department has been very positive, and we are all delighted to have them on board. With these new recruits, our workforce has now reached 250. Over 120 more are set to join us by the end of the year.

Just to remind you – exactly two years ago, there were eight of us working at NOBO.

For me, the last few weeks have also been about attending events outside the NOBO race.

I had the honour of sitting on the examination board as a practitioner during the final state examinations at the Faculty of Economics, University of South Bohemia. At the same time, I began working with VŠTE in České Budějovice, where I gave my first lecture to students on the ‘Human Resources Management’ course about what it actually means to work in HR.

I always try to show my students that HR isn’t just about making coffee and preparing employment-related documentation. In practice, it is often a very broad discipline that encompasses recruitment, communication, onboarding, working with managers, crisis management and the day-to-day running of the company. These activities do not yield immediate results, but in the long term they bring students and graduates into the company.

Outside of university, I was invited by Grafton to their HR clubs in Hluboká nad Vltavou for South Bohemia and in Jihlava for the Vysočina region.

At both events, I spoke about how the first two years at NOBO had gone – from the company’s founding right up to the present day, with a final focus on recruiting foreign nationals into our permanent workforce. Judging by the feedback from the audience, the talks were well received, and I really enjoy these kinds of situations.

The CEO also visited us at the plant, and together we organised town hall meeting for staff.

We thanked them for their hard work, gave them some delicious cupcakes from Upečeno HT in Nové Hodějovice, and made the most of the opportunity for the CEO to speak to them in person.

For me, as a budding amateur baker, those cupcakes were absolutely brilliant. One day, I’d like to be able to bake something even remotely similar.

At NOBO, we’ve also been thinking for some time about how to naturally to bring different cultures together.

We have people here of different ages, genders, nationalities, cultures and customs. There aren’t that many things we all have in common. One idea, therefore, was to offer to pay part of the entry fee for the České Budějovice half-marathon for our staff.

In the end, several colleagues from the local team and colleagues from China took part. There were also a number of staff members in the audience who had come to cheer us on.

I personally got in touch with my colleague Igor Igor Limanov, whom I sort of persuaded to come with me and run half a half-marathon.

Neither of us is a natural runner, but in the end, by working together, we completed the half-marathon in 1:51 and finished 29th out of 167 participants in the pairs race.

As you can see from the photos, the euphoria at the end outweighed the tiredness.

At the same time, we are currently going through what is known as PZS test by BMW.

This is an audit in which colleagues from BMW assess, within a limited timeframe, the readiness of our production facilities in the run-up to the start of series production.

We must be able to demonstrate that our technology and staff are ready for mass production.

It’s actually the biggest milestone we’re facing right now.

Today we have completed the audit of the first part of the technology, which we passed successfully. The second part is due to take place in the coming days.

And I have one more personal joy.

I have logged in Daniela Víznerová RACR for the competition Recruiter of the Year at the RA Awards.

An independent panel of judges objectively assesses the contribution recruiters make to companies on the basis of individual interviews. Danča came second in this year’s competition, and I’m absolutely delighted about that.

They deserve it.

Recruitment at Greenfield isn’t just about posting a job advert and waiting for CVs to come in. It involves day-to-day work with candidates, managers, agencies, deadlines, changes and the pressure to act quickly. Daniela does a tremendous job in this regard, and I’m delighted that her efforts have been recognised outside our company as well.

And alongside these major issues, there are, of course, plenty of smaller matters that are just as important to the day-to-day running of the company.

We’re sorting out ice lollies for the canteen for the summer, holding a vote on the menu, gathering feedback from staff, and gradually fine-tuning things that might not be obvious from the outside, but which people notice every day at work.

That’s more or less what setting up a new business from scratch looks like these days.

David Havelec

HR Manager in Nobo Automotive Czech Republic

4 June 2025