Tomáš Jiroušek

Why are you interested in HR tech?

Everything begins and ends with HR. This technology has been gaining traction in recent years. It’s the next stage in the evolution of HR: a company’s interests and people’s needs can be coordinated using the most modern digital environment. The end result is, ideally, new opportunities for growth both for the company and for its people.

What are the challenges that technology faces in HR?

• It tends to be perceived as a tool that money is spent on rather than one that generates it. Its impact on business, and thus ROI, is not clearly measurable. That is why it is not in the sights as much as technology for sales, marketing or finance is.
• It runs into resistance in relations between suppliers of traditional services and companies with inadequate change & innovation management.
• If it is communicated poorly or used improperly, HR technology contends with mistrust and rejection lower down because it can even reveal the incompetency of lower management. It is experiencing what machinery was from the Luddites at the start of the Industrial Revolution :)

What projects do you find most interesting? Who can come to you?

Projects that are innovative in how they search, attract, keep and develop talent in the most effective way. Also projects that focus on new forms of “employment” and, thereby, what the future of labour will look like generally. I like to talk to anyone who is dealing with any of these topics.

How would you describe your style of work?

• It’s important for me to keep abreast of trends, so that we can help companies react to them in time, take proper advantage of them or prepare for them.
• When working with “my” companies, I always try to communicate as openly as possible, build as much mutual trust as possible, or even friendships.
• I don’t feel a need to be on hand for founders when they are making strategic decisions, configuring operations and financial models, or moving office.

What do you often recommend to founders?

Be fair to your team and clients. Don’t settle for the standard. Don’t stop innovating. And before making any important decisions, remember the reasons why you’re doing what you’re doing, what your vision is, and consider whether this decision will be one that will move you forward.

Where do you spend most of your time when working?

I split my time equally between Miton’s offices in Karlín and at our HR tech hub at Anděl. Home office has proven not to be my thing.

What’s the best about being an investment manager?

Working with extremely interesting and inspiring people. The possibility of building super things with them and helping them, myself and everyone who works with us to grow. At the same time, I enjoy an environment where extreme adaptability is necessary.

What then is the hardest?

To be able to fulfill the role of a trustworthy partner, it is necessary, among other things, to have a good understanding of how founders think and of their approach and vision. It is not always easy for me to cultivate psychological skills and a high level empathy :)

What technology generally has fascinated you most recently?

Currently, generative AI has been fascinating me the most. Not only does it bring with it a new way direction in image, video and text generation, but, in combination with no-code tools, it will also totally change the way we create entire apps and various functionalities. It will accelerate the pace of innovation extremely and bring automation and personification to a level we can barely imagine today.

What book do you most often give as a gift?

Principles by Ray Dalio.

What podcast do you spend most of your time with?

That varies, but I’ve been listening to Surf Splendor and a16z podcast for quite some time.