What happens when your HR team is spread around the world and a geopolitical crisis hits? For Victoria Sapova, HR Director at the global enterprise, it meant adapting quickly and thinking strategically.
Victoria guided her almost 300-person, fully remote team through tough times. In this interview, she shares how to build a strong remote culture, how HR has changed, and why she believes AI is the future of talent management.
1. First off, can you take us through your HR journey? How did you end up in the HRD role?
I've been in the profession for about three and a half years, and my path was anything but traditional. I entered HR by chance, having transitioned from a role that was unrelated to the field, but heavily focused on working with people from diverse countries and cultures. The founders saw that potential and recruited me as an HR Manager in May of 2022.
I didn't get promoted to HR Director through a typical career path. It happened during a crisis. The events of late 2022 presented a significant challenge due to the large-scale emigration of specialists. We were in full crisis-management mode. The team needed someone who could handle the pressure and lead, so I took up the challenge.
That's how it works in startups. Career growth depends more on your potential and performance than on formal steps. Sometimes, you get a title before you fully grow into the role. Now that things are more stable, I'm working on a formal qualification to strengthen my knowledge, because being a leader requires a solid foundation.
2. What does your area of responsibility in your company include?
My role covers the full employee lifecycle. I handle all the main HR processes, including recruitment, though I don't source candidates myself. A lot of my job is working with documents, which can be complicated because our team works in many different countries and currencies.
My department and I also shape company culture, create competency maps, support internal communications, and solve issues between departments. We lead projects to prevent burnout, boost motivation, and integrate new employees. We are constantly improving our processes, from designing checklists to keeping our corporate portal and events up to date.
3. What is the size of your company and the HR department you manage?
Our company has up to 300 people. My direct HR team is small and agile, with fewer than 10 people.
4. You mentioned that crisis management was a high priority in 2022. How has the HR function changed since then?
It has transformed completely. In 2022 and 2023, the HR team essentially served as a psychological support service. The uncertainty and stress level were off the chart for everybody. We helped people cope with anxiety, supported them as they emigrated to other countries, and gave a semblance of stability to those who remained. Our function was purely one of practical and emotional support.
Now, in late 2024 and into 2025, our role has evolved. As life has stabilized, a different challenge has emerged. Where we once calmed people down, we now sometimes have to gently remind them of the global reality. We need everyone on the same page so they can understand why the company needs to adapt, whether it's because of new sanctions or global market fluctuations. It's about ensuring that there's a shared understanding across a distributed team. Getting people ready for the future (a future where change and new technologies are the way you survive) is what we do now.
"In 2022, HR was a psychological support service. Now, we sometimes have to remind people of the global reality."
5. With a globally distributed team, how do you create and maintain a cohesive company culture?
That's the million-dollar question, and I don't think anyone has the perfect answer. The most important principle for us is balance. On the one hand, you need initiatives to connect people. On the other hand, you have to be careful not to interfere with their lives. Remote team members already spend so much time online, you cannot overload them.
We focus on productivity and results, not on monitoring hours. The 9-to-5 day is irrelevant when you have teams of people in different time zones. So we trust our people to complete the work.
To build connections, we organize offline events in decent employee-dense cities. Online, we have special chats and channels for informal communication and do regular cross-team calls to keep everyone aligned. But honestly, the secret is to not over-engineer it. You have to leave people alone to work and live.
"Remote team members already spend so much time online, you cannot overload them."
6. What HR metrics do you use to measure the success of your people strategy?
We like to keep things simple and back to basics. As an HR function, to see how we are performing, our main metric is the Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS). We have regular surveys to track satisfaction and engagement. More importantly, we deep-dive into qualitative feedback. We track the concerns that people highlight and measure them from survey to survey. When a concern drops off, we know that our efforts are paying off. When it doesn't, we have a sense of where we need to focus our efforts.
Of course, we do monitor standard operational metrics like employee turnover and time-to-hire, as these are important indicators of organizational health and recruiting success.
7. How closely does the HR department work with other parts of the business, like finance or marketing?
We work very closely with all departments. Our tightest collaboration is with the finance department, as we're constantly dealing with budgeting, compensation, and cost optimization.
A big part of our role is acting as a central hub for communication. In a remote setting, people don't always know who to turn to. We connect employees, whether it's finding the right lawyer in the legal department for a specific contract or directing a question to the right person in finance. We are the glue that helps hold our cross-functional communication together.
8. What do you see as the biggest HR trend for 2025—one that is both a challenge and an opportunity?
Without a doubt, it's AI and the automation of everything. The challenge is human. People naturally resist change, and there's a real fear that robots will take their jobs, especially with the current instability in the labor market.
But I see it as a massive opportunity. I don't believe AI will replace everyone. It will, however, replace people who refuse to learn how to work with it. We've seen this before with the industrial revolution and the rise of the internet. Some jobs become obsolete, but new ones are created.
The challenge for HR is twofold: first, we must lead the charge in implementing these technologies within our own department and across the company. Second, we have to guide our people through this transition, helping them understand that these tools are here to augment their skills, not replace them.
"AI won't replace you. A person using AI will."
9. What AI or automation tools are you already using to solve HR challenges?
Right now, we're focused on practical applications that deliver immediate value. AI is most useful for us in recruitment, where it helps automate communication, screen candidates, and conduct market research to shape our job descriptions and compensation strategies.
However, we're very conscious of its limitations. AI is a powerful assistant, but it's no substitute for human judgment, especially in core personnel matters. There's a risk of over-reliance. An AI can't truly gauge cultural fit or understand the nuances of human interaction. The core of HR—working with people, managing conflict, and building relationships—remains a deeply human endeavor.
"The core of HR—working with people, managing conflict, and building relationships—remains a deeply human endeavor."
10. Looking at your own career, what are the key competencies someone needs to develop to go from an HR Manager to an HR Director?
The most important thing is to never lose focus on the people. Beyond that, I'd highlight four key areas:
- Strategic business acumen. You have to move beyond HR functions and deeply understand how your people strategy drives business outcomes.
- Change management. In tech, change is the only constant. You must be able to guide the organization through transformation with empathy, clarity, and resilience. Leading through a crisis teaches you this very quickly.
- Data fluency. It's about interpreting the data to understand the human stories behind it—what drives engagement, motivation, and performance.
- Authentic leadership. Your goal is to inspire trust, not just manage processes. That means listening, communicating transparently, and building a culture where people feel safe and valued.
11. What do you think is currently missing from the HR tech market?
What's missing are tools that are truly designed for the complexities of a modern, globally distributed workforce. We need less complexity and more integration. I would love a single, unified system that seamlessly handles both HR operations and recruitment for a global team.
So much of our work involves navigating different labor laws, currencies, and documentation requirements. A platform that could simplify and automate that, with a clean, user-friendly interface, would be a game-changer. We need technology that solves real-world administrative headaches, not just another platform with a narrow focus.
12. Finally, please complete this sentence: "In 2026, the HR teams that thrive will be..."
...the ones who are masters of adaptation. They will be the teams that embrace technology to drive efficiency but never lose the human touch. They will build resilient, trust-based cultures and will be able to lead their organizations confidently through any uncertainty the world throws at them.
"In 2026, the HR teams that thrive will be the ones who are masters of adaptation."