www.business-review.eu Business Review | December May 2016 2021
COVER MAIN STORY 21 14
Flexibility helps companies attract and retain talent On a labour market that is dominated by fierce competition between companies trying to attract and keep talent, employee retention is a serious challenge for HR departments. Regardless of their size or industry, organisations are making significant efforts to identify the elements that make or break an employee’s decision to stay in a company. By Anda Sebesi & Aurel Constantin our existing culture and the ways in which we work and interact with our employees,” Neamtu adds. Since it’s becoming abundantly clear that the future belongs to hybrid work, Luminita Florea, people & culture director at Philip Morris Romania, thinks that the common struggle for both employers and employees is the fact that we still don’t have all the answers about this new way of working. “Some companies conduct tests among their employees to see how they handle the mix between working from home and working from the office. But I think that the best approach is accepting the uncertainty and the fact that we are moving into a certain direction, testing things out, adjusting, and keeping the things that work,” Florea argues. With that in mind, she says that customising working schedules based on the needs of employees could be a valid solution. “We’ve conducted several surveys among our employees and found out that about 10 percent of them would prefer to go to the office on a permanent basis because they feel more productive there.” Florea adds that while the work from home option was rarely used by its employ-
“
If companies force the return to the old way of working from the office, they might not be able to attract new talent
ees before the pandemic, the outbreak of covid-19 made it crucial for the company to develop managerial skills that were adapted
In our view, retention starts with
says Gabriela Neamtu, head of corporate
to remote work. “We run a management
the ability to articulate what type of
centre & HR at Mol Romania.
development programme for managers of
organisational culture we have and
The Group has a programme called Calcio
remote teams as well as a series of trainings
with the beliefs and behaviours that make up
2030, which is intended to align the compa-
for these teams to help them understand why
this culture. If we hire people who resonate
ny’s organisational culture to the strategy it
the paradigm has changed. As a result, online
with these elements, then both retention and
has announced for 2030. “In order to support
collaboration is currently integrated at all
satisfaction among employees will increase,”
all the changes, we first need to understand
levels.”
