I am absolutely confident in my team, so I’m calm

Natalia Kupavtseva
Customer Service Manager

Joined the company in 2007

Education:
Smolny Institute of the Russian Academy of Education
Specialization “Economist”

How did you end up in UCMS Group?

I worked as an accountant in St. Petersburg, and we were implementing the Scala program. Scala was being implemented by Igor Golikov. That is, I was from the client’s side. And then I had to look for a job in Moscow, and ra Petrenko really needed people with Scala knowledge (Note: Irina Petrenko was the head of the outsourcing department of payroll and HR administration until 2018). It was almost 20 years ago.

I came to Scala as an ordinary payroll specialist. Then there was a merger with UCMS Group, or rather UCMS bought the Payroll Bureau from Scala in 2007.

Tell us how you became the head of the department.

Oh, I refused for a very long time. Because I felt comfortable with my duties, there were always good references about me, everything was fine, I didn’t want to change anything.

But at one of the New Year’s parties, Andrei Petrovich (Note: Shabanov was the CEO until 2014) offered me to become a manager, and I finally agreed. I worked with Quinyx (Note: formerly UCMS WorkForce – the company’s own software). We were both implementing and testing. One of the first customers was Dell. And Argus Media, our current client, and IMS Health. In general, there were a lot of tears then, because the RnD department pressed on us very much. They were venerable people who did not consider any objections from the payroll and HR department, they considered their product very good. It was hard. And the first who got into the Quinyx coffee grinder, employees like Lilia Fedorova, these people went through fire, water and copper pipes.

Do you have any iconic client?

I started with it and thanks to it I made a lot of friends in Moscow. It remains with us to this day, for so many years.

If you ask me who in the company knows how to establish contacts with clients, I would probably name you first.

As I totall agree with the following statement: 80% of success is a personal attitude, and 20% is quality and terms. Accordingly, if you do everything well, correctly, quickly, but you do not develop a relationship with the client, most likely the success story will not happen.

Quiz

Is there something you don’t like about work?

I do not like it when misunderstandings arise among different departments.

Sometimes problems arise with other departments, but I would really like to live without them. And, of course, some clients do not quite build the right attitude towards us – we owe everything. It is difficult to work with such clients, and most importantly, it is very difficult to teach employees to accept even such clients.

What makes you happy about your work?

Basically, communication with people who work in UCMS Group. Well, it turns out that with some clients too 🙂 Communication.

Well, I also love when everything is quiet, calm, good. This happens sometimes 🙂

Is there something in your work that you feel proud of? Of a project or people?

Well, we have a lot of people and there are good specialists who have grown up here. For example, Ksyusha Antipina, Nastya Medvedeva, in fact, there are many of them. Of course, there is pride in people and, perhaps, it is nice to feel that such a complex thing as system implementations does not scare me and I can successfully pass them. I had a lot of them and now they are happening and I really hope that they will continue.

What do you love the most?

Oddly enough, I really like to eat delicious food. And I also love to travel, it doesn’t matter 100 kilometers from home or 3,000. The most important thing is that my men are there.

You and your family have been to many places. What impressed you the most?

Prague. Asia is good for relaxation. China impressed us with how much it is ahead of us, of course. And by its pollution, by the way, too. But we really liked Prague in terms of accommodation, comfort. Probably, right from the first time we fell in love.

Are there any other travel goals?

Of course, we even have a list, it remains only to decide. I have never been to Georgia. With a Georgian husband 🙂 We will definitely go there. We also want to go to Japan and the Fjords. Also Kamchatka and Baikal, we have a long list.

What is your ideal vacation or weekend?

Weekends are short trips, I guess. What about vacation? We spend seven years in the same place, because we have a dacha by the sea. Several times I managed to get out with my husband together on vacation and it was great!

Tell me what your flaws are. For example, three (or one)?

One of my biggest shortcomings is that I don’t know how to lie, you can see through me right away. Although in life it is sometimes very necessary. I am also not very good at understanding people. I need it in my work, but it doesn’t always work out. And I am lazy.

What are your strengths?

We discussed this when we talked about work – this is building relationships with different people. Maybe it will be immodest, but I consider myself a good mother and wife, and my family totally agrees. Best of all in the world 🙂

Describe us in one word.

I can’t do it in one. The dream team!

What do you wish the team?

I wish us a positive emotions 🙂

A moment of nostalgia

How did you earn your first money and how did you spend it?

I washed floors at my mom’s work. In the summer she gave me a job in her accounting department, I washed the floors. I spent my first salary on unsuccessful hair coloring, I became very red. Red-red. I was very sorry afterwards. I was 16-17 years old. I think that I spent the earnings very stupidly. My mother’s favorite phrase was: If you want, you will earn and buy. But at the age of 20 I starting working and then I was already earning more than my mother and father.

Do you have any vivid impression from your childhood?

Probably, my summer vacation with my grandmother in a village in Belarus on the Dvina River. I have a lot of cousins and sisters – we were all gathered there for the holidays, and we quietly smashed grandmother’s house, garden and everything around together. Then you could go to the river, do anything there – for example, jump from the trees into the river.

Who did you want to be as a child?

Well, of course, I passed the stage “I want to become a teacher”. To correct mistakes with a red pen. Specifically, I had no desire to be someone. No romantic dreams – I didn’t want to be a ballerina or an astronaut. Now I understand, and my coach says that if then there was an athletics school nearby, I could achieve something. But I found out about it only now 🙂

You play sports. Tell me!

I’m running 🙂 It started four years ago. I just realized that I like running. And then, by the way, Seryozha Kessel (Head of the Partner Relations Department) told me that running produces the hormone of happiness, and it becomes a drug. I started running from a kilometer, now it’s not interesting to run less than ten. I run about four times a week. In the evening. I love to run in the stadium, I run around my Timiryazevsky district, it is very green. In any weather – from minus 15 to plus 30. It’s hard, yes. But I laugh that I have no other opportunity to be alone with myself, for an hour and a half of jogging alone, my head and thoughts are very well ventilated. I’ve already run the half marathon, I’m getting ready for the marathon.

Tell me about your boys. You have a boy and …

And a boy 🙂 Sasha is already 14 years old, he entered a serious school and Yandex Lyceum, still has time to train at CSKA, he is also a runner. The youngest went to first grade, while we are mastering the calligraphy, it’s hard.