Employer branding — hunting for quality employees

Photo: Emica Elvedji/PIXSELL

Changes in the labour market and its impact on business were discussed by top experts in attracting quality employees. Daniel Ackermann, CEO of Degordian; Martina Roša, executive director of human resources at Fortenova Group; and Sven Marušić, managing partner at Five; were featured on the panel “Talent show — how to attract quality employees”. Moderator Ana Šimunović, leadership and communication consultant, educator, and director of Ais-Mark, asked them about significant changes in HR, employer branding strategies, and the work-life balance.

“We are no longer talking about just the labor market in the region, but rather the whole EU. Using the example of Jamnica, we really faced many HR challenges; not for all positions equally, but for some it remains a real struggle to attract people. In 2019, we had major employment problems. We were not prepared for the challenges and we could not find employees—then came the pandemic. What people want today are opportunities for learning and development. Everyone wants to improve their knowledge and feel that they are investing in themselves; and we want to provide our employees with such opportunities. We have really interesting projects and we communicate that with our job candidates,” said Martina Roša, commenting on the changes in the labour market.

Sven Marušić talked about the similar changes that took place within the IT industry: “Speaking from the perspective of someone who runs an IT company, I can say that our business jumped during the coronavirus pandemic due to digitalization. But because of the remote nature of the business, people slowly started working for other companies. Therefore, we had to make ourselves more attractive in order to entice people to come work for us.”

Company culture is an important multi-year process that can be affected by sudden changes in the market as well as changes in employees, management, and suppliers. The importance of retaining employees was underlined by Martina Roša: “Creating employee experience is a whole package. The goal is to create an environment at work which is similar to the one at home. It is important to make sure that the worker has all the necessary tools, as well as a place to rest and to eat. The main way to keep employees is to optimize how they feel in the workplace environment.”

The panelists concluded that quality employees are not only found on the basis of financial compensation but rather on relationships based on emotions and connections. It is necessary to clearly define the company’s vision and mission, develop a culture, give employees the opportunity to develop, provide positive experiences, make work more interesting, and the like. All this will make the employee a proud ambassador of the company.