Over 4 years working as an HRD in the gambling and betting industry, I have moved away from many approaches I was once taught in HR theory.
Not because they were “wrong,” and not because HR training doesn’t work. But because real business very quickly reveals the gap between what sounds good in theory and what actually drives results.
This is especially true in the iGaming industry, where the speed of change, the cost of mistakes, and the impact of every individual are significantly higher than in many other sectors.
Over time, I stopped looking at HR as a function that exists “for people for the sake of people.” Because in reality, mature HR is about business, efficiency, and systems. And sometimes about very uncomfortable decisions.
I stopped making HR convenient for everyone
There was a time when I believed a good HR professional is someone who smooths things over, finds compromises, and balances everyone’s interests.
Today I understand: HR is not meant to make everyone comfortable. HR is meant to be honest and effective. Yes, sometimes that means supporting employees. But sometimes it means saying things people do not want to hear. Sometimes it means not opening space for endless discussions. Sometimes it means giving direct, unsoftened feedback.
Trying to please everyone almost always leads to a loss of control over processes — especially in fast-growing teams.
I stopped closing hires at any cost
Speed of hiring used to feel like one of the key HR metrics. Close a vacancy quickly — good job. Take too long — you are doing something wrong.
Now I see it differently: a bad hire almost always costs the business more than an unfilled position.
A wrong employee is not just a “bad fit.” It means:
- lost months
- broken processes
- a burned-out team
- onboarding costs
- repeated hiring cycles
- loss of trust in HR
That is why I am much more comfortable with longer hiring processes today. It is better to keep a role open for 3–4 months than to restart hiring after a failed offer within a quarter.
I stopped treating CVs as the main filter
There is a common HR belief: “No strong CV = weak candidate.” In iGaming, this often does not hold true. Over the years, I have met many strong professionals and top performers who either had no structured CV or very average-looking ones.
Why? Because many people in this industry grow not through traditional career paths, but through reputation, results, and professional communities.
They are recommended. They are known. They are hired through referrals and industry reputation. They receive offers not because of how their experience is formatted, but because of what they have actually achieved.
This does not mean a strong CV is unimportant. It is. But I no longer treat the absence of one as a reason to reject a candidate without a conversation. Sometimes, 30 minutes of discussion reveal more than several pages of a resume.
I stopped believing interview answers without verification
A strong interview does not automatically mean a strong employee. People know how to present themselves — especially experienced professionals. That is why we significantly strengthened our candidate evaluation process at Alfaleads Group.
Today, an interview is only one part of the assessment. We also look at:
- case studies
- real performance results
- references
- test assignments
- independent feedback through professional networks and public sources
The last point is often the most valuable. When you have a strong industry network, you can get real feedback from people who actually worked with the candidate, not only those they provided themselves.
For roles with financial responsibility, we also use polygraph testing due to the high cost of mistakes in these positions.
I stopped assuming a strong specialist automatically becomes a strong employee
This is one of the most expensive business illusions. In practice, expertise alone guarantees nothing. You can hire a very strong professional and still get weak results for the company.
The reason is simple: business depends not only on skills, but also on how a person operates within a system.
If an employee:
- breaks communication
- creates conflict within the team
- ignores processes
- negatively affects the environment
Then their expertise starts working against the business.
This is especially visible in fast-growing companies, where a single toxic “strong player” can demotivate an entire team.
I stopped treating corporate culture as something “soft.”
For a long time, corporate culture was described through atmosphere, values, and nice words on welcome slides. But in reality, culture is always about boundaries — what is acceptable and what is not.
Culture is not defined in presentations. It is defined in management decisions: who you keep, who you let go, what you ignore, what you reward, and which behaviors become the norm.
This is how employees actually perceive culture — not through slogans.
And most importantly, I stopped seeing HR as a support function
Probably the biggest mindset shift over the past years. In a strong company, HR is not a support function. HR influences business structure, speed of change, quality of management decisions, key hiring, and team stability.
In many companies, HR becomes a driver of business transformation. Because at a certain point, business growth is no longer only about product or marketing. It becomes about people, systems, and the quality of decisions inside the organization.
And this is exactly where mature HR starts directly impacting results.
