Outsourcing&More #56 January-February 2021

Created by Pro Progressio

www.outsourcingandmore.eu

No. 1 (56) | January–February 2021 ISSN 2083-8867 PRICE EUR 6 (INCL. 8% VAT)

LODZ. A GREAT CHALLENGE AND GREAT POTENTIAL An interview with Adam Pustelnik, First Vice-Mayor of the City of Lodz | page 46 BUSINESS:

INVESTMENTS:

CAREER & DEVELOPMENT:

Kharkiv IT Cluster, Kharkiv based NGO |page 40

Business Intelligence.

Big business for BSS? |page 62

Employee Mood Barometer: Tips for employers |page 90

INTRODUCTION

Created by Pro Progressio

Editor-in-chief Dymitr Doktór dymitr.doktor@proprogressio.pl Managing editor Katarzyna Czylok-Dąbrowska katarzyna.czylok@proprogressio.pl DTP Iwona Nowakowska

Advertising reklama@proprogressio.pl Published by Pro Progressio spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością spółka komandytowa ul. Dziekońskiego 1 00-728 Warszawa www.proprogressio.pl Editorial office address ul. Dziekońskiego 1 00-728 Warszawa www.proprogressio.pl Selected photos come from stock.adobe.com.

Print Drukarnia Jantar Legal support Chudzik i Wspólnicy An electronic version of the Magazine see the website www.outsourcingandmore.eu Circulation 3,000 copies Place and date of issue Warsaw, 12.01.2021 All rights reserved.

No copying, reproduction or photocopying allowed without written consent of the publisher.

The views expressed in this publication as well as the content of the adverts are not necessarily those of the editor.

Ladies and gentlemen, 2020 has been an exceptional year for business all over the world. Many industries faced completely new and different challenges than we have witnessed in the last few decades.

The business services sector was one of the few that quickly adapted to the limitations and challenges imposed on enterprises by governments around the world. Remote work, the transfer of almost 100% of business activity to the Internet has shown the great impact of technology, communication and remote management on the business community.

Will 2021 be similar to 2020? We are not able to predict this, but many tools, procedures and management methods will stay with us for a long time.

Here, we give you the first release of Outsourcing&More Magazine in the year of 2021. On our pages you will find a large scope of publications related to business, investments and also HR. This time, the main interview is a talk to Adam Pustelnik – First Vice President of the City of Lodz. In SSC Section we have for you interview with Marcin Janiszewski – Head of Elekta GBS in Poland. From international field – Elias van Herwaarden comes with a great story about Business Intelligence – is it a big business for BSS? Enjoy reading!

Dymitr Doktór, Editor in Chief

Authors: Mateusz Chudzik • Anna Godlewska • Paweł Feręszkiewicz • Magdalena Chochowska • Karolina Goździkiewicz • Simona Whyte • Tomasz Bereźnicki • Aleksandra Krawsz-Kubica • Marcin Janiszewski • Kajetan Malinowski • Olga Shapoval • Ludwika Umiastowska • Adam Pustelnik • Katarzyna Zawodna­Bijoch • Arkadiusz Rudzki • Milda Miliune • Elias van Herwaarden • Mariia Poliova • Anna Tymoshenko • Patrycja Kalinowska • Joanna Wanatowicz

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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INDEX

6 8 10 14 18 22 24 28 30 36 40 42 4

BUSINESS NEWS

The BSS Tour Bydgoszcz – GBS Talks 4.0 GBS Talks 4.0 has joined a group of entities that prepare online conferences very well.

Who will pay the entrepreneurs for the pandemic?

The constraints have affected many entrepreneurs in various industries: catering, hotels and fitness.

Migration of processes A tour organised by travel agency or a journey into the unknown?

New obligations resulting from the conclusion of contracts for specific work On January 1, 2021, an amendment to the Social Insurance System Act came into force.

5 reasons to choose boiling-water and chilled-water taps for your workplace Refreshment stations are a significant part of the workplace environment.

Company transformation like a mission to Mars Managers have to prove their engineering skills, where – instead of space shuttles and missions – they are concerned with organizations and process management.

“Working from Home 2020” report is available now!

A report on a collective survey on home office conditions and chellenges.

SSC

A new decade and new challenges in the evolution of GBS and SSC centers in Poland Interview with Marcin Janiszewski (Elekta Business Services).

Future of the Outsourcing Business in the AI World The Fourth Industrial Revolution is already here, and its steam engine is AI.

Kharkiv IT Cluster, Kharkiv based NGO Kharkiv is a Silicon Valley of Ukraine and the City of opportunities.

Power of accessories at your office An office very often becomes our second home, we spend around eight hours in offices every day, so we should feel well and comfortably inside.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

46 54 56 60 62 66 70 74 78 82 84 86 90 Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

MAIN INTERVIEW Lodz. A great challenge and great potential An interview with Adam Pustelnik, First Vice-Mayor of the City of Lodz.

INVESTMENTS NEWS Why we still need offices Katarzyna Zawodna-Bijoch and Arkadiusz Rudzki from Skanska describe the changing role of the office and talk about what awaits us in the future.

CSR in Lithuania: a study in getting it right The benefits of CSR go far beyond what the famous economist Milton Friedman once referred to as mere “window-dressing”.

Business Intelligence.

Big business for BSS?

Ukraine on the path to becoming the European go-to tech destination.

The tech job market trends in Ukraine and Lviv

What’s up in Poznań? Business Summary 2020 2020 moved us all to the digital world.

Friendly and flexible Bydgoszcz open to investments in “new reality”.

Residents feel good in a city that is developing In November 2020, Częstochowa got the title: Symbol of Polish Self-Government 2020.

HR NEWS

Fixing recruitment with the Human Cloud Recruiting as we know it today is unnecessarily painful for everyone.

The report: “The IT industry facing new normal. Who is to gain and who is to lose?”

The IT industry has not remained indifferent to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Employee Mood Barometer: Tips for Employers There has been a revolutionary change in the manner of performing work: first a shift to home office (whenever possible), followed by a timid return to the offices.

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BUSINESS NEWS THE FIRST SOFTPOS ON THE MARKET FROM WORLDLINE NOW ENABLES YOU TO MAKE PAYMENTS IN SHOPS AND TAXIS OR TO COURIERS; PIN CAPABILITY WILL BE ADDED SOON! SIX Payment Services – a company belonging to Worldline, the leader on the electronic payments market in Europe – has been successfully implementing its latest SoftPos payment terminal since early July of last year. This is the first solution of this type in Poland and the most versatile solution of its kind on the market. The Worldline terminal, prepared in cooperation with Polish fintech SoftPos, can be installed in the form of an application on any mobile device with an Android 8.0 or later operating system. The terminal makes it possible to accept contactless payments by card, watch or smartphone. Transactions with PIN code confirmation are currently in testing and scheduled to be implemented as early as the first quarter of 2021.

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– The first six months after the implementation have shown us that there is substantial demand on the market for fast, efficient handling of payments without the need to incur additional costs for the purchase of a device. Our SoftPos terminal meets Among those who use the solution is these needs perfectly – comments Warsaw coffee shop “W liściach”. – As Artur Żymańczyk, Country Manager at a micro-business, we use a single payment Worldline. terminal. It enables us to carry out deliveries during the shop’s working hours; flexibility To start using the SoftPos terminal, all of operation is absolutely vital at this time. you have to do is sign an agreement SoftPos is therefore the ideal solution for us. with Worldline/SIX Payment Services.

We can fulfil an order even on the same day The installation itself is carried out – says the owner. remotely and simply involves registration and downloading of the appliPositive feedback from other satisfied tra- cation onto a smartphone or tablet ders is on the increase and news of the ap­­­­ – an extremely convenient solution in plication is spreading by word-of-mouth. the context of the current pandemic.

Agreements on the implementation of the new SoftPos have been signed, among others, with companies from Warsaw, Wrocław and Łódź, and the num­ber of users and transactions is steadily growing.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

"BECOME A SANTA CLAUS!" The end of the year is a special time in many ways. Surrounded by the omnipresent Christmas atmosphere, we sum up the one that is almost over and make plans for the next one. We are involved in various events, such as charity runs or fundraisers, to help those who need it most. But is it possible to go one step further? After all, Christmas is the most important event not only for children, but for all of us. It is a time of joy, sharing and gathering at the family table.

office at the end of November. We carefully read every wish, making sure we do not lose a word!

That question gave a start to the "Become a Santa Claus!" campaign in Mellon, which later turned out to be permanent cooperation with the Special Educational Center "Dom przy Rynku" in Warsaw.

Finally, we pack presents, add special wishes to each gift and then place them underneath the Christmas tree, just before the Christmas Eve.

Of course, the whole undertaking has its own action plan, deadlines and budget, but we want children under care of the Center not to lose their magic.

Therefore, all kids, regardless of age, write their letters to Santa Claus. Hand-made, beautiful are usually delivered to our

Some are a real challenge! Buying dozens of gifts during this hot period can make you dizzy, and there are gifts that require extensive research. However, nothing will be as rewarding as getting a specialist battle figurine, searched in every shop all over Poland to finally be eventually found in the last one.

And so, after the Christmas dinner is eaten at the Christmas Eve table and the greetings are exchanged, each of the pupils receives their own gift.

It differed from the previous ones, but This passing year has presented us with even this time we managed to make new challenges. It forced a change some dreams come true. After all, there is of perspective and the way we work. nothing as joyful as a happy child's smile.

ASK ME ANYTHING INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION RELATED – FREE ONLINE SESSIONS and foundations will have the opportunity to ask Kinga and her team the most pressing automation related questions!

How to join: 1. Send an e-mail to kc@digitalworkforce. com and michal.zurawski@digitalworkforce.com, with the title DWF AMA 2. Generally describe the scope of conversations or send through a list of questions 3. Wait for an invitation from TEAMS 4. Sessions take place on Wednesdays at 10 am (CEST) Digital Workforce in Łódź, Poland invites all interested parties to ask their questions and discuss RPA & IA related topics with our top experts. Free ‘Ask Me Anything’ online sessions take place every Wednesday at 10 am CEST.

Account Manager will share with you their knowledge and experience gained during the implementation of many RPA projects and in cooperation with the largest technology suppliers, such as Blue Prism, UiPath or Automation Anywhere.

For more information please refer to: (in Polish):

Kinga Chelińska-Barańska, Country During these free sessions representatives Manager and Michał Żurawski, Key of companies, organizations, institutions

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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BUSINESS

THE BSS TOUR BYDGOSZCZ – GBS TALKS 4.0 Online events have now become our reality for good. However, unlike in the first half of the year, the number of such events has significantly decreased and, at the same time, the quality of virtual business events has improved. GBS Talks 4.0 has joined a group of entities that prepare online conferences very well.

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

In November 2020, in contrast to the pre­­­ vious editions of the BSS Tour conference series, the event held by Pro Progressio took place online. The event, whose strategic partner was the City of Bydgoszcz and the Bydgoszcz Regional Development Agency, gathered over 200 partici­ pants from Poland and other countries.

risks for cities offered by the new trend in the labour market (i.e. job virtuali­ sation). This topic was discussed from the perspective of the local government and business – but also the employees.

The discussion was attended by Edyta Wiwatowska (BARR), Adam Wąsik (Pra­­­ cownia EB), Marta Lyczmańska (Ciklum) and Waldemar Jasiński (Livingstone).

The main goal of GBS Talks 4.0 was to­­­­ The meeting was moderated by Wiktor discuss several key areas of the out­­ Doktór – CEO of Pro Progressio. sourcing industry and shared services centres that dominated the market in All panel discussions that took place 2020. The topics discussed included: during the BSS Tour Bydgoszcz – GBS Talks 4.0 were scheduled for 45 minutes and • work virtualisation each of them included an in-depth ana­­ • the location for operations centres • the growing interest in placing ICT lysis of the topics discussed. The presence centres from Belarus in Poland of speakers from Poland, Belarus, Belgium • technology to support recruitment and Germany guaranteed the highest processes level of substantive discussions.

• working in an office environment, including coworking A speech by Peter Ivanov, an international coach who specialises in virtual team • virtual teams management. management, was the icing on the cake.

The conference started with an in-depth During his 45-minute lecture, the author discussion on the opportunities and of the bestselling books Virtual Power

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

Teams and Power Teams Beyond Borders revealed the principles of cooperation and management of both virtual and dispersed teams.

After the event ended, the conference’s participants were provided with all the recordings from GBS Talks 4.0, which they can return to at any time. A detailed agenda of the November conference, together with a full list of speakers, is available on the following website: bsstour.com/edycja/2020-bydgoszcz/en.

Pro Progressio has planned four confe­ rences for the BSS Tour cycle in 2021.

If logistical restrictions are still imposed on business events, the BSS Tour will take place virtually. Once the restrictions have been lifted, Pro Progressio will hold the conferences in a traditional manner.

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BUSINESS

WHO WILL PAY THE ENTREPRENEURS FOR THE PANDEMIC?

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the government has introduced numerous restrictions to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The constraints have affected many entrepreneurs in various industries: catering, hotels and fitness.

FULL VERSION OF THE O&M IS AVAILABLE ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS AND PRO PROGRESSIO CLUB MEMBERS.

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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BUSINESS

FULL VERSION OF THE O&M IS AVAILABLE ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS AND PRO PROGRESSIO CLUB MEMBERS.

Authors:

Mateusz Chudzik, Partner in the Law Firm “Chudzik i Wspólnicy Radcowie Prawni” sp.p. www.chudzik.pl

Anna Godlewska, trainee attorney-at-law in the Law Firm “Chudzik i Wspólnicy Radcowie Prawni” sp.p. www.chudzik.pl

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

Pro Progressio WE RESPOND TO YOUR NEEDS reports individual real estate Focus On universities

events

cooperation

The BSS Forum The BSS Tour Outsourcing Stars business breakfasts

business NGO public institutions industry associations

consulting

projects

recommendations localizations industry reports

BSS Index Event Tiger

media Outsourcing&More Outsourcing Portal Poland Today Outsourcing Journal Link2Poland Emerging Europe

www.proprogressio.pl Do you have any questions? info@proprogressio.pl

BUSINESS CASE STUDY

MIGRATION OF PROCESSES

– A TOUR ORGANISED BY TRAVEL AGENCY OR A JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN? In uncertain times of pandemic, when companies think more intensively about the optimisation than ever before, the concept of transferring a part or a complete process from business to the Shared Services Centre is only a matter of time.

Since the work mode has changed into remote and our office “has moved” to our employees' homes, we have conducted two completely distant migrations. These included the processes that our Center has been operating since its beginning – specifically Account Payables (AP) and Intercompany (IC). Two major companies in the entire consortium from the United States were the area of our interest which is why our task was ambitious and required extensive planning.

connected with understanding the core of the business activity. But this time was different. It can be compared to a visit in famous museum and studying its wellknown paintings via Internet. It seems the same, but we still miss the crackling floor and the specific smell of the canvas.

Without leaving for a week or two and a calendar with blocked appointments from early mornings to late evenings.

approved. It was our chance to board the vessel and migrate.

BUSINESS CLASS IN INDUSTRY, ECONOMIC CLASS IN FINANCE We adopted the model of parallel acquisition of both AP and IC processes, which appeared to be quite a challenge. So far our business partners have dealt with both AP and IC processing. Therefore proper communication and use of specia­ lised terminology proved to be crucial.

It may sound like a little thing now, but after the first telephone conference we had the impression that our terminology does not fully correspond to the terms used by our partners.

In fact, the initial planning was no different from our previous migrations, Welcome to Trumpf's world tour. At but we felt that we were dealing with the end of this article you will find out something new. As if we perfectly knew whether it was an organised tour on an the ship we were sailing on, but each time exclusive cruise ship or a journey into we were travelling in a different cabin. the unknown on a life raft.

We started our preparations by collecting data and establishing the entire migration Having data on the number of invoices in PREPARATION OF EQUIPMENT plan, including the dates of the final take- our possession and comparing them to AND CREW FOR THE TRIP over and Go-Live. other companies we are simultaneously We had to find ourselves in new reality, conducting, something was off. Our overbecause until now the migrations we have We have scheduled two – or three-hour seas partners, similarly with German locabeen operating were stationary. We had meetings per week, so despite the remote tions, used electronic document workthe opportunity to visit the company and nature of migration, the training and flow with an invoice scanning applicameet its employees live from whom we business consultations would not be too tion and an ERP system overlay. At least acquired numerous processes and tasks. extended. Our Head of Shared Services we thought so. However, after analysing It gave us a chance to see the produc- Centre contacted the American partners the data, we observed differences in tion hall, because the migration was also and presented the plan, which has been the proportions of manual documents

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

The company within which the so-called Smart Factory operates and is recognised as one of the most modern factories not only within the firm but also in the world, did not focus on innovations in the financial world. Its task is to maximise and develop solutions concerning the core of the business.

Smart Factory – production hall and Skywalk.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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BUSINESS CASE STUDY

Considering the experience from our previous projects, our expanded knowledge and a highly qualified team, it was only a matter of time.

We only used the tools and functionalities that needed to be either activated or adequately calibrated for the processes of the acquired company.

Peaceful drifting has turned into an exciting journey.

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and invoices from Workflow. The data was: "It’s impossible. We tried that many showed that Workflow is used only occa- times but this Workflow doesn’t work". sionally. It was way beyond our understanding. One of the largest production SAILING OUT INTO THE OCEAN companies in the group but most docu- OF INFINITY ments are still being accounted manually? Yet, each following teleconference involved us in discovering hidden decks Our earlier assumptions were confirmed and experiencing many attractions during the next meeting. It turned out the cruise ship had in its offer. We tried that a few years ago, soon after the ERP to adjust processes while the transit was system had been introduced, the whole in progress. We constantly asked quesidea was left behind. Objective causes and tions, searched the new ideas and were so-called force majeure such as technical never satisfied with typical answers. problems made it impossible to use Work- By introducing primary, detailed modiflow. A company investing in industry 4.0 fications we proved that we can reduce and operating one of the largest factories the number of manual documents in less in the United States simply did not have than a month. Considering the experience time and energy to invest in modern busi- from our previous projects, our expanded ness solutions. And the first reaction of our knowledge and a highly qualified team, it US colleagues to the announcement that was only a matter of time. We only used SSC will process invoices using Workflow the tools and functionalities that needed

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

to be either activated or adequately calibrated for the processes of the acquired company. Peaceful drifting has turned into an exciting journey. Receiving the necessary access to the systems and a clear division of responsibilities between the business and the SSC resulted in creating new standards.

The benefits of this change were outstanding. Document circulation with Workflow helps to automatise the process.

Creating layouts in an OCR overlay accele-­ rates invoice accounting. Polish SSC assembled a new business and received a significant experience while our business partners gained great benefits from this exchange. It’s a win-win situation. We arrived at one of the ports on our cruise.

As a result, we were able to catch the wind in our sails and continue our journey.

Our skills and new perspectives led us to the desired goal, called automation. Even before the transition was completed, we heard: "It is a great loss that we didn’t start using your services many years ago."

only within the firm but also in the world, did not focus on innovations in the financial world. Its task is to maximise and develop solutions concerning the core of the business. Transfer of two major financial processes to Warsaw brought us to the whole new level. It helped us focusing on other essential, strategic tasks.

We arrived safely at our port of destination. As it turned out, it was not a journey into the unknown as the appropriate ana­­ lysis helped us to recognise the current situation of the company. The term organised tour is definitely more applicable here. After all, although the new areas were unexplored, the implemented methodology, the commitment and well At the same time we are successfully deve­ – structured action plan led us to our loping the AP and IC department based long-awaited, desired goal of achieving on the SSC structure. But the journey the standardisation of processes and is not over yet. We are planning further the next takeover of a new company. acquisitions in the area of data manage- And finally, the following statement from ment (Master Data), data standardisation, the US was made: "We see accountants in automation and other joint projects in Poland as an extension of our American the future. team, not as a separate team”.

Apart from collecting useful skills and The best thing you could possibly hear high standards that we have been recog- from business after migration. nised for over the years, our success was determined by our accuracy and professionalism in every detail. The transit was supervised by our coordinators, who Author: kept their Team Leaders informed about the work progress. Those mentioned above together with the Polish and Ame­SHIP’S LOGBOOK AND DISCIPLINE rican management, submitted a report Paweł AS ON A REAL SHIP on the project implementation every Feręszkiewicz, The company within which the so-called week. They shared their successes, but Team Leader Smart Factory operates and is recognised also highlighted important issues and Intercompany, TRUMPF as one of the most modern factories not areas that required further observation.

Smart Factory – Control Room.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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BUSINESS

NEW OBLIGATIONS RESULTING FROM THE CONCLUSION OF CONTRACTS FOR SPECIFIC WORK On January 1, 2021, an amendment to the Social Insurance System Act (hereinafter: the SIS Act) came into force, which introduced an obligation for the payers of contributions or natural persons to report to the Social Insurance Institution (hereinafter: ZUS) contracts for specific work concluded with contractors who are not their employees at the same time.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

According to official announcements, this information is to be collected primarily for statistical purposes. However, taking into account that it is the Central Statistical Office, and not ZUS, that collects statistical data, it seems that this change is mainly aimed at enabling ZUS to exercise greater control over the conclusion of contracts for specific work operating in business.

BENEFITS OF CONCLUDING A CONTRACT FOR SPECIFIC WORK

The main advantage of a contract for specific work as compared to a contract of mandate or a contract for the provision of ser vices is the absence of the obligation to pay social security contributions. It means that the person ordering the renovation of the bathroom or painting the portrait is not obliged to pay social SUBJECT-MATTER OF A CONTRACT security contributions on the agreed FOR SPECIFIC WORK remuneration paid to the recipient In contrast to a contract of mandate or of the order. This is an unquestionable a contract for the provision of services, benefit for both parties to the contract which are so-called contracts for acting for specific work. with diligence, a contract for specific work is a contract of result. It means that, as For this reason, this type of contract has a result of the performance of a contract been very widely used for many years in for specific work, the ordering party various industries and for various activishould obtain from the recipient ties. However, it has been abused many of the order a specific, individually times, either because of unconscious marked and certain result of its work. misclassification of the subject-matter of the contract or in order to deliberately For example, the subject-matter circumvent the law. of a contract for specific work can include painting a portrait or renovating a bath- RIGHTS OF ZUS room. However, according to the law, So far, ZUS has not had effective legal a contract for specific work cannot consist tools that would allow it to comprehenonly in performing a specific activity sively monitor the extent of application without a guarantee of the result that of contracts defined by the parties as this activity will bring. contracts for specific work as well as their correct legal classification and the issue Appropriate qualification of the subject- of contribution. As a rule, until the end matter of the contract may cause diffi- of 2020, ZUS was able to identify possible culties for the parties. For example, irregularities largely by accident, as if in conducting a training should be quali- the course of other inspection proceedfied as the subject-matter of a contract ings carried out at businesses. of mandate, while preparation of a script for a specific training for a specific entity However, ZUS often challenges the sub­­­­ may be the subject-matter of a contract ject­­­-matter of the contract for specific for specific work. In practice, an incorrect work in unclear cases, referring e.g. to legal classification may have far-reaching the lack of creative nature of the work consequences for the ordering party. or to individual contractual provisions which could point to a contract of the nature of acting with diligence (e.g. exercising due diligence in performance of work).

A natural person ordering a portrait or a bathroom renovation is also obliged to report the conclusion of a contract for specific work with a painter or a plumber, as the case may be, to ZUS.

This approach is not always correct and justified. As ZUS has much broader inspection powers than, for instance, the National Labor Inspectorate, in case it detects any irregularities, ZUS may on its own issue a decision to change the type of contract for specific work into an appropriate type of a contract for acting with diligence. In such

In contrast to a contract of mandate or a contract for the provision of services, which are so-called contracts for acting with diligence, a contract for specific work is a contract of result.

a situation the ordering party is obliged to pay outstanding social security contributions on the remuneration paid, together with default interest.

NEW OBLIGATION TO REPORT TO ZUS However, since January 1, 2021, the legal status has changed. On the occasion of the adoption of legal regulations related to counteracting the coronavirus pandemic (the so-called Anti-Crisis Shield) an amendment to the SIS Act was adopted. As indicated in the explanatory memorandum to the bill, the purpose of that amendment to the system act was to enable ZUS to verify the existence of the social security obligation of persons performing contracts called contracts for specific work.

Currently, the payer of contributions or a natural person ordering a specific work is obliged to notify the Social Insu­ rance Institution (ZUS) of the conclusion of each contract for specific work within 7 days from the date of conclusion of that contract.

Please note that two categories of ordering parties are exempt from the obligation in question: (i) ordering parties that are at the same time parties to the employment relationship with the recipient of the order, and (ii) ordering parties that have concluded a contract for specific work with a person who actually performs work for the employer with whom he or she has an employment relationship.

Interestingly, the requirement to report covers not only the payers of contributions (e.g. employers), but also natural persons ordering a specific work. This means that a natural person ordering a portrait or a bathroom renovation is also obliged to report the conclusion of a contract for specific work with a painter or a plumber, as the case may be, to ZUS.

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BUSINESS

work concluded by payers with their employees. The exemption from the obligation to register such contracts will result in the schemes, usually occurring in groups of companies, consisting in artificial division of contracts in order to take advantage of the privileges that the SIS Secondly, although under the amend- Act provides in the situation of overlapment the new obligation has also been ping of certain titles to insurance not imposed also on individuals who are not being detected or controlled. payers of contributions, the provisions on sanctions for the non-compliance CONSEQUENCES with the obligation to report a conclu- OF THE AMENDMENT sion of contract for specific work continue What is important is that the obligation to apply only to payers of contributions. to report concluded contracts for specific Therefore, in accordance with the literal work does not automatically mean that wording of the provisions, it should it is necessary to pay contributions be stated that there is no legal basis on the contracts included in the ZUS for the enforcement of the failure to records. The new approach is intended fulfill the obligation by natural persons to facilitate the estimation of the number who are not payers of contributions and of contracts for specific work opera­ who order the specific work (e.g. bath- t­ing in business and selection of entiroom renovation). ties where it will be necessary to carry out an inspection in order to examine Thirdly, it remains unclear whether the correctness of legal classification the reporting obligation is to apply only to of concluded contracts. contracts for specific work concluded after 1 January 2021 or whether the ordering It is possible that the reporting obligation parties should report contracts for specific will affect the number of contracts that work concluded before the date of entry will be reclassified by ZUS to contracts into force of the amendment. The amend- of mandate, contract for the provision ment does not contain any transitional of services or employment contracts. At provisions that would regulate this this point, however, it is difficult to predict issue. According to the logical interpre- whether this will translate into an increase tation of the provision, the first position or decrease in the number of such cases. should be followed. This is supported However, it is certain that the number by the fact that the ordering parties of inspections conducted by ZUS in this are obliged to register the contracts respect will increase. they concluded within 7 days from its conclusion. In the case of contracts that Authors: already operate in business, fulfilling this obligation would be, with a few exceptions concerning contracts concluded in the last week of December 2020, in fact impossible. What is more, if the second of the proposed positions were accepted Magdalena Chochowska, as the right one, the reporting obligation Senior Associate, would apply to all contracts for specific Baker McKenzie work concluded in the past, without any time limit, which seems to be even more impossible to fulfill, and, due to the statute of limitations applicable to claims, pointless. be considered to be insured in every case.

For example, the term "insured" within the meaning of the SIS Act does not even include farmers or EU officials, who are subject to social insurance based on separate regulations.

It remains unclear whether the reporting obligation is to apply only to contracts for specific work concluded after 1 January 2021 or whether the ordering parties should report contracts for specific work concluded before the date of entry into force of the amendment.

The notification is made using a special RUD form available on the Social Insurance Institution's website. The document contains information about the ordering party, the contractor of the specific work, as well as information about the concluded contracts for specific work, including the dates of conclusion and performance of the specific work, the subject-matter of the contract and the number of concluded contracts for specific work.

In case of a breach of the new obligation to report the concluded contract for specific work to ZUS, the payer will be subject to a fine of up to 5 thousand zloty.

DOUBTS AS TO INTERPRETATION Both the provisions of the amendment and its statutory justification are quite brief and leave much room for interpretation. Four fundamental issues give rise to doubts as to interpretation.

First of all, according to the amendment, the information concerning the concluded contracts for specific work will be recorded on the account of the payer of contributions maintained

by ZUS. There are no regulations which would answer the question as to where the information from natural persons reporting the conclusion of a contract for specific work will be recorded. In accordance with the SIS Act, accounts are maintained by ZUS for the payers of contributions and for the insured.

Natural persons, as such, do not have Fourthly, one cannot omit practical consetheir own separate accounts with ZUS. quences of the exemption from the obliThis is because a natural person cannot gation to report contracts for specific

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Karolina Goździkiewicz, Lawyer, Baker McKenzie

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

BUSINESS

5 REASONS TO CHOOSE BOILING-WATER AND CHILLED-WATER TAPS FOR YOUR WORKPLACE Refreshment stations are a significant part of the workplace environment.

The social and psychological aspects of hot drinks play an important part in visitor hospitality and the emotional welfare of staff. Regular hydration, of course, is essential for physical and mental health.

The provision of refreshments will have, to some degree, an impact on the environment. Packaging, energy consumption, and transportation all contribute to a firm’s overall carbon footprint.

appearance of one, two, or three sleek taps, in colours to complement your décor or your brand’s identity, will reflect your firm’s sense of style, attitude towards employees, and philosophy of long-term investment.

In this article, we’re going to look at the fol­­ lowing 5 reasons to choose a boilingand chilled-water dispenser unit for your workplace: 1) aesthetics; 2) environment; 3) health; 4) economy; 5) inclusion.

Your refreshments station doesn’t have to be a mere add-on – an element of domesticity that’s out of kilter with the work environment. A hot- and coldwater dispenser unit can be an integral part of the office environment. Because really, it’s too good-looking to hide away.

1. AESTHETICS OF A WATER DISPENSER UNIT Purchase the most stylish kettle on the market, and it still looks like a kettle.

There’s no getting away from it: a kettle is a kettle. It’s just so domestic.

Drinks-making facilities are often dis­­creet­ ­­ly tucked away in a corner – an acknow­­­­ledgment that this part of office life is an anomaly; that it doesn’t really belong.

But there must be a better way. Is increa­­ ­sed discretion the answer? A closed-off kitchenette maybe...

Here’s another idea: waive discretion and go for boldness. Install an undercounter water dispenser unit and make a feature of it. A continuous, regulated supply of boiling, chilled, or sparkling water means fewer spills, less mess, and hardly any steam. The clean, minimalist

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If an average of 50 cups of chilled water was consumed every hour of the working week, that would be a total of 2000 cups – or 400 litres. If the water was packaged in 1-litre plastic bottles, 14.8 kilograms of plastic, per week, would be collected for recycling by a vehicle that uses a gallon of diesel fuel every three to four miles.

Energy consumption The innovative TaoLink is the most eco­ nomical and adaptable water dispenser unit available.

2. ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY SOLUTION

This unique system is built around a single master unit (situated in an out-of-the-way Many businesses have a policy of pro­ location within the building), which feeds tecting the natural environment. Through chilled, and sparkling water to multiple strategic use of energy and reduction outlets. Because the TaoLink master unit in waste output, these businesses are powers the whole system, total energy committed to minimising the environ- consumption is much lower than that mental impact of trade. needed to run an equivalent number of discrete units in different locations within the building. With the installation Plastic Waste A single tap – for example, the Illimani Tap of additional dispenser taps dispensing – can dispense more than 600 cups boiling, chilled and spark­ling water, of chilled water in one hour. That’s appro­ this modular system can accommodate xi­mately 140 litres. Packaged in 1-litre the increasing demands of a growing firm. plastic bottles, 140 litres of water could lead to the disposal of more than 5 kilo- 3. WATER IS VITAL FOR GOOD HEALTH grams of plastic.

Access to drinking water is cited as ...And this bottled water would have been a hu­­­man right in Article 11 of the Interna­ transported, possibly over many miles, tional Covenant on Economic, Social, and from wherever it was packaged.

Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

Waive discretion and go for boldness. Install an under-counter water dispenser unit and make a feature of it. A continuous, regulated supply of boiling, chilled, or sparkling water means fewer spills, less mess, and hardly any steam.

Every function of the human body relies on adequate hydration. Water is essential for lubrication of joints, excretion of waste, digestion and absorption, regulation of body temperature, blood circulation, and cognition. Providing your staff with pure water promotes general well-being within your team.

temperature, ready for quick re-heating appliances. This is where the Touchless when required.

Dispense comes in.

The Touchless Dispense works by gesture control. For someone with a movement disorder (cerebral palsy, for example), the fine motor skills needed for the turning of a tap or the selection of a button might be unavailable. The 3-second interval Pure water is drinking water that has between signal and effect gives a user been separated from all contaminants. Servicing and maintenance plans ensure time to prepare.

In pure water, there’s no trace of any other that your unit continues to function substance; it doesn’t conduct electricity; smoothly and safely. With an optional The Touchless Dispense is also ideal for and it tastes delicious. Pure water is H2O call-out service included in your plan, this post-lockdown period. The touchand nothing else. you have peace of mind that in the event free nature of the unit helps to prevent of a problem, a fully qualified techni- the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. 4. A FINANCIALLY ECONOMICAL cian will be on site very soon to carry OPTION out remedial work and get your unit up Author: Adjustable temperature controls, regu- and running. lated flow, and effective insulation all contribute to keeping costs low. 5. INCLUSION IN THE WORKPLACE Compared to the repeated boiling of The policy of inclusion in the workplace is kettles, a sustained supply of hot water sometimes logistically difficult to put into is an economical solution when demand practice. Team members who use a wheelSimona Whyte, is high. During periods of inactivity, chair or who have limited upper-body Head of Marketing, the unit goes into stand-by mode, main- mobility or an amputated limb may have The Boiling Tap taining the water at a steady, but lower, difficulties when it comes to operating Company

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

Besides the environmental benefits of not using bottled water, there’s also a financial benefit. The combined cost of bottled water and associated refuse collection is significantly higher than that of a sustained supply of chilled water.

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BUSINESS

COMPANY TRANSFORMATION LIKE A MISSION TO MARS Modern engineering allows us to construct a space shuttle capable of reaching Mars in six months. The premise is simple – the ship must reach the right speed and safely get the crew to their destination.

But managers, quite similarly, also have to prove their engineering skills, where – instead of space shuttles and missions – they are concerned with organizations and process management.

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

The title of this text refers to a mission to Mars, a task seemingly unmanageable, yet from the point of view of our civilizational achievements – very much possible. All this thanks to our extraordinary progress, involving the constant improvement of technological skills and the pursuit of people's goals. Similarly, a more ground-level challenge can be approached, though one which poses many problems in practice. I am referring to the management and development of an organization, so as to achieve their goals in an increasingly better style – both effectively and efficiently.

Can managers, just like space engineers, face up to challenges similar to those of a mission to Mars?

PROVEN MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT Albert Einstein famously said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So how many madmen are there in business today? The right management path in company development is the ability to continuously improve both the processes in the organization and the people who participate in them.

I am referring to a management model that ensures the development and building of competitive advantage, which is based on the ability to • identify the main problems, • and deal with them.

Such an approach is called PDCA, based on a continuous experimentation involving employees on various levels of management – according to their roles assigned to the processes.

Deming familiarized himself with however, lies in the fact that practically while working in Japan in the 1950s. any company can be up for the task. Not 20th century). only those in the field of production, but also services. Not only ones with BUT HOW DO WE ACHIEVE IT? a long-standing legacy, but quite young Not everything can be obtained easily ones as well. Not only large organizaand quickly. Today's manned flight to tions with a multi-market strategy, but Mars represent more than half a century much smaller, too. Virtually any organiof humanity's struggle with the forces zation can undergo the transformation of nature and our weaknesses. Step process. For many reasons, however, by step, we're still learning and fine- it is best to do so under the supervituning our skills – almost 60 years ago sion of experienced practitioners from we sent the first man into orbit around DPC Polska.

Transformation can only be considered successful if it proceeds step by step – none of which can be overlooked – and if it culminates in the development and implementation of a Management Standard. the Earth. A little over half a century ago we landed on the moon. Four decades ago it turned out that we can repeatedly send the same shuttle into space, and a little later – that a man can spend a year or more in a station around the Earth. We did made mistakes along the way, some of them cruel and tragic, but each time, we drew conclusions for the future. To sum up, the path from dreams of conquesting space to the actual plans for a mission to Mars was winding, dangerous and took a lot of patience. It can even be said that the path still goes on, far beyond the horizon. And we, as humans, cannot even think of abandoning it – we want to keep on developing and creating. We aim to be better than previous generations.

Also known as the Deming cycle, the abbreviation stands for: • Plan Of course, anyone would like to lead • Do an organisation equipped with a mecha­ • Check nism for continuous improvement. But • and Act. how do we achieve such a model, whose If we put these four steps in a circle, aim is process (and business) excellence? they present a continuous process Well, there’s good news and bad news. of improvement (also related to The bad news is that the path leading the concept of Kaizen popularized in to the Deming cycle is a tedious and Toyota factories, which Dr. W. Edwards demanding one. The good news,

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

Such a transformation can only be considered successful if it proceeds step by step – none of which can be overlooked – and if it culminates in the development and implementation of a Management Standard. But first things first.

THE SEVERAL STEPS OF TRANSFORMATION These are the steps to be taken for a state of continuous improvement of the organization. Let's take a closer look at them, with the proviso that each of them would undoubtedly deserve a more thorough analysis on their own: 1. Strategy. This is the first extremely important task. It is incumbent on the management board, which should develop and write down a plan of action (corresponding to what and when we want to achieve as an organisation and how). The best objectives seem to be these measurable indicators which over time can be used to verify the actual achievements. The strategy should also include information on how the organi­ zation will compete and how it aims to become the market leader.

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BUSINESS

By knowing what we are dealing with, we can, on the basis of the conclusions drawn from the assessment of potential – determine the directions of development. Those are paths which, strategically speaking, are crucial for the organization to grow in accordance with their aims.

Additonally, it ought to comprise of milestones, important stages in its development embedded strictly on a timeline.

4. Changes. Knowing what we want to achieve, what we have to face and where we want to go – we can make a difference. Such changes include processes (whose problems have been observed in the previous assessment), but those are not just about tools and schemes of operation, they’re, above all, about people. Therefore, the changes will primarily concern those who are part of the processes, with a particular focus on managers who are required to present the right attitudes (by focusing on supporting subordinate employees and dialogue-based relationships). We should never underestimate how much depends on people's commitment and motivation. Team management should also set good standards that apply to everyone.

2. Assessment of potential. Once the board has developed and written down the strategy, it communicates its objectives (and how to achieve them!) down to the lower levels of the organi­ zation. The next step is necessary – to examine the facts, that is, what makes up the company today and how it functions. Thanks to this, we know how much work there is ahead and how big the gap is between our reality and expectations. The aim of this action is primarily to obtain management information and to involve employees from lower levels of the organization in the implementation of the compaThe result of the above business model ny's strategy. is the Management System. By going 3. Directions of development. through the four steps above, the organi­By knowing what we are dealing with zation moves towards developing (the condition of the organization in a model of improvement. This is the kind terms of the quality of processes), of model by which the company will we can, on the basis of the conclu- operate, at all levels and areas, and it sions drawn from the assessment should be based on three foundations: of potential – determine the direc- • setting goals, picking directions, prio­ tions of development. Those are ritizing (because an orderly organi­paths which, strategically speaking, zation requires a hierarchy of tasks), are crucial for the organization to • employee involvement, e.g. through regular operational meetings, grow in accordance with their aims.

This is referred to as an “operationali­ improvement workshops, suggestion zation” of the company’s strategies. systems etc.

It is impossible for the organization • employee development, e.g. the creation of Individual Development Plans; to move forward without a sense of direction. where HR should play a key role in

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the creation of competency matrices; the responsibility for filling out employee matrices (i.e. improving their skills) lies with leaders, as does their regular updating. *** As you can see, the transformation begins at the highest level of management – from the development of a strategy – and in a sense ends there, too, through the implementation of the Management Standard. But all these steps are taken with the participation, to varying degrees, of other employees. In order to reach a further stage, other tools and solutions are needed – such as efficient communication within the company, based on dialogue. Similarly, continuous improvement requires the involvement of all motivated people, without exception, in accordance with the roles provided in the strategic assumptions and assigned in the organization-wide Management Standard.

So what do you say – are you up for the mission? A space venture? All I’m saying is – for humanity, anything is possible.  Author:

Tomasz Bereźnicki, Managing Partner, CEO, DPC Polska

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

The companies realize their strategic goals as efficiently as effective their processes are

Development programs Analysis & diagnoses Lean Strategy

DPC Polska Witosa Point Idzikowskiego 16 Street 00-710 Warsaw

biuro@dpcpolska.pl www.dpcpolska.pl

Performance management system Improvement workshops Robotic Process Automation

A COMPREHENSIVE MANAGMENT COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME WWW.SKUTECZNYMENEDZER.COM

BUSINESS

"WORKING FROM HOME 2020" REPORT IS AVAILABLE NOW! Kinnarps in collaboration with Kozminski University, Polski Instytut Środowiska Pracy (Eng. Polish Institute of Working Environment) and Pro Progressio published a report on a collective survey on home office conditions and challenges while practising social distancing during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, from March to June 2020.

The survey “Working From Home 2020”, conducted from March to June 2020,

by Kozminski University, Kinnarps Polska, Polski Instytut Środowiska Pracy and Pro Progressio, aimed at exami­ ning the scale and variety of the challenges which employers and employees had to face during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The institutions applied a mixed methods research approach. An Internet survey of 360 people was a source of noteworthy quantitative data. However, it was the answers of respondents, collected by the Kozminski University’s Department of Management’s researchers through direct interviews, that were shown to be the report’s greatest value. On their basis, the researchers identified three types of working from home experience and styles.

Karolina Dudek, PhD, President of Polski Instytut Środowiska Pracy says: When we read statistics, it is difficult to understand the experiences of particular people, and hence, in order to better present the variety of experiences and activities during lockdown, we created three models of participants formed on the basis of the interviews carried out in the qualitative part of the research.

They represent three groups of our respon­ dents: the neutrals, the opposers and

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the approvers. Interestingly enough, all of the groups are almost the same size – ca. 30% of the total each. On that account, when planning the returns to the office and arranging a further working environment strategy, it is important to remember that not all employees will be happy with one solution.

obstacles, from equipping their home workstations to organizing their time, which employees have to overcome in their own apartments – observes Karina Kreja, International Concept Manager & Workplace Expert, Kinnarps.

– For us, experts, who create various kinds of social space on a daily basis, the most interesting are the consequences of the present change, especially the ones regarding new offices’ interiors. I believe we won’t be able to understand those adjustments without examining the current situation first. What must be done to transform remote working from being only an occasional solution to a new norm? There is also a separate category of issues concerning

As for ergonomics and home office conditions, 69% of respondents did not have an ergonomic chair and 25% of them did not own a table or a desk. Many interviewees realised that they missed their comfortable and ergonomic office environment.

At the beginning of working from home, when requested to evaluate their producConclusions drawn from the early stage tivity, the respondents gave various of social distancing are very diverse. answers. Exactly one-third of them said The report presents a full spectrum they were more effective at home than of experiences and conditions. Know­ at work, one-third said the exact opposite ledge workers not only had to face and one-third did not see any difference the usual complexity of tasks, but their in their productivity levels. work was also influenced by the family and housing situation and other condi- Technology proved to be really helpful tions, including stress resistance and in working from home, even though the lack of social interactions. In other its rapid rise in popularity came under words, the shift of work style meant unusual circumstances. Only 2.5% a substantial and wide-ranging change of respondents admitted to having diffiof their lifestyle. culties related to technology.

– When we speak of popularizing remote working, we fail to reflect on other aspects of our lives, including our living conditions. The first phase of transferring work

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

from office to home may be considered a success, but mostly in regard to technology. As our surveys showed, company laptops were often placed on top of kitchen counters or ironing boards. For this reason, I do not share an excessive optimism or all-for opinion on the effectiveness of home office being a permanent solution and a target. Many people worked in less than comfortable conditions, because they did not have a choice, thinking it was only temporary. Now, the time has come to examine the realistic conditions people can work in for a longer period of time – mentions Karina Kreja.

– an increase in working hours, blurring boundaries between work and home, and For a substantial group of interviewees, an inability to be present in other areas personal circumstances, including of life. the need to combine work and childcare, were a great difficulty. Lockdown tested – Working in a virtual environment requires the ability to study and work from home systematising organisational processes at the same time. More than half of our and establishing new rules of communirespondents reported that their working cation. At the beginning, many compahours increased – a result of a disrupted nies assumed that emails, mobile phones and communicators would be enough. work and childcare balance.

Further experience proved them wrong.

25% of the respondents found it chal- A company must quickly determine what lenging to adapt their workplace culture particular communication tools are good to the new situation. They especially for, how quickly the employees have to admitted to difficulties with managing respond to various information, and how and working in a dispersed team, stating to store knowledge. Otherwise, chaos and that remote communicating proved to be conflicts emerge, because co-workers may very demanding because of the differ- have different expectations with regard to ences in the time and place of work. the urgency of particular tasks – claims Kaja Prystupa-Rządca, PhD, an expert Remote business communicating was on virtual environment management, found to be fairly easy. Various solu- Kozminski University. tions were commonly accepted in view of the pandemic and because every- The issues of the first weeks of home one’s situation was quite similar. Some office presented in the report “Working respondents mentioned difficulties with From Home 2020” display a full specmaintaining privacy, and reported that trum of problems: technical, personal, they had to put more effort into looking housing, management and organisation professional in an at-home environment. difficulties. Due to a deeper perspective That wasn’t their concern at the office. on challenges related to remote working, the report may be considered a valuable One-third of our respondents admitted voice in the current discussion on registo a disruption in their work-life balance. tering this type of work in the Labour They pointed out three arguments Code. It may also help institutions adjust

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

You can download the report here:

to the changing reality. The Researchers plan to carry out a second phase of the research, aiming at examining experiences of the employees with regard to the impact of the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

– Due to COVID-19, we are observing changes in the working environment, and it doesn’t only concern disinfectants, social distancing and limiting the number of workers in an office. The real change is happening on a much deeper level. In this report, we managed to depict its beginning; the first home office experiences in all their complexity and dimensions. We need to understand the change related to working from home, its challenges, costs and limitations. Only then, the working environment may be further mindfully transformed – declares Karolina Dudek, PhD, President of Polski Instytut Środowiska Pracy.

We wish you pleasant reading!

Author:

Aleksandra Krawsz-Kubica, Marketing & PR Director, Kinnarps

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SSC

A NEW DECADE AND NEW CHALLENGES IN THE EVOLUTION OF GBS AND SSC CENTERS IN POLAND

Word of admission: SSC Lions is a new project run

by Pro Progressio and focused on the communication support provided to Shared Service Centres.

On O ­ utsourcing&More Magazines’ pages we will present business cases and interviews with leaders of Shared Services Centres, industry experts and consultants.

Our interlocutors will provide the answers to the questions related to best business practises, project manage­ ment and employer branding.

In the tenth edition of SSC Lions we are presenting you the interview interview with Marcin Janiszewski (Elekta Business Services).

SSC LIONS

FULL VERSION OF THE O&M IS AVAILABLE ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS AND PRO PROGRESSIO CLUB MEMBERS.

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

OUR ACTIVITIES ARE NOT LIMITED TO PROCESSES WE DELIVER FROM OUR CENTER, AS WE STRIVE TO APPLY THE SO-CALLED “END-2-END” APPROACH TO EVERYTHING WE DO.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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SSC LIONS

FULL VERSION OF THE O&M IS AVAILABLE ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS AND PRO PROGRESSIO CLUB MEMBERS.

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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BUSINESS

FUTURE OF THE OUTSOURCING BUSINESS IN THE AI WORLD The Fourth Industrial Revolution is already here, and its steam engine is AI.

William Gibson once observed: “The fu­­­­ture is already here – just not evenly distributed.” There is no better way to describe the state of Artificial intelligence (AI) and how it is going to transform our future. For those observing technological progress, it’s no surprise that the pace of development of AI is drastically increasing. It is theorized that this acceleration is exponential and will eventually lead to a technological singularity – a state marked by disruptive and unstoppable progress.

To put things into perspective, humanity started writing around 6,000 B.C. and invented paper in 25 A.D. The twentieth century has brought far more dramatic and disruptive change than what was accomplished during the thousands of years preceding this timeframe. Think of the birth of the commercial Internet in the early 1990s and the first smartphones in the early 2000s – the first iPhone was introduced only in 2007. These two technologies alone have had a massive impact on how we communicate. There have been so many more advancements in the last century as well.

These developments have created many opportunities but also many risks.

The emergence of COVID-19 and the digi­­­­tal transformation of commerce and society have further accelerated the pace of technological change. This raises many pressing questions. Does the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry still have a future? How do you innovate and thrive under such circumstances?

BPO industry will survive and thrive but it will need to be prepared to adapt and embrace fast technolo­gical progress.

Scientists from Oxford and Yale universities argued in a 2018 paper that AI will become better than humans in many common activities by the end of this decade. For instance, they project AI will be more proficient at driving a car than humans by 2027 and better at writing a high school essay than students by 20261. This study sent shock waves across the scientific and business communities. The impacts are immense, the future we have seen in the movies is here. As a result, everyone has started to question existing business paradigms and reevaluate their strategies.

1

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

While AI will automate many tasks, it will take a combination of human input with trained AI algorithms – and its resulting efficiency and quality – to solve the most complex problems facing humanity today.

Superintelligence significantly surpasses the capabilities of human beings and might pose a threat to humanity – just like the HAL 9000 computer from the Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Most scientists agree that even if this is possible, WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE it will take decades more to get there, AND MACHINE LEARNING? though some argue, it might arrive even Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine within years. In recent article in The Indelearning (ML) are ubiquitous terms, but pendent, Elon Musk claimed that Superinwhat do they really mean? telligence might be achievable by 20253.

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) or strong AI is a type of AI that can learn any type of task that humans can learn. It is what we tend to think of as AI – a completely independent and intelligent being.

AI is intelligence demonstrated by machi­n es, unlike the natural intelligence exhibited by humans. It is conditioned by the use of neural networks, which replicate thought processes based on provided data. This is similar to the way the human brain operates. AI differs from natural intelligence in that it does not exhibit consciousness.

As of today, we are still teaching AI to drive cars or translate text, which humans are able to do with ease. Nevertheless, AI technology has already started to change and disrupt many industries. The speed of that change will continue to accele­ rate. Experts continue to debate whether superintelligence will develop consciousness. The ethics of AI is currently a big, multidisciplinary effort spanning across Although research in AI started after areas like philosophy, ethics, computer the Second World War, recent advancements science and law. in computing technology and performance gains have made it practical and affordable. Machine Learning – is the process of In its current stage, AI technologies are still training AI models with small amounts considered to be in their infancy but can of data to speed up the process perform at par or better than humans at of learning. AI requires vast amounts well-defined tasks. This sort of AI is called of structured and annotated data that weak AI. A good example of this is Deep exemplify desired behaviors in order to Blue from IBM, which was the first computer work. Machine learning helps to signifito beat humans in the game of chess in cantly reduce the amount of data that is the late 1990s (Kasparov vs. Deep Blue)2. needed by using algorithms to deduce all As proficient as it was at chess, Deep Blue possible or relevant conclusions. was unable to perform any other task, a hallmark of weak AI. WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON

WAYS TO USE AI IN BUSINESS? Artificial general intelligence (AGI) or strong AI is a type of AI that can learn any type of task that humans can learn. It is what we tend to think of as AI – a completely independent and intelligent being. Many scientists believe that we are still decades away from getting to that level of advancement and some experts believe we will never be able to create that type of intelligence.

AI has the ability to help humans solve many problems. Its most common applications include: • Data tagging (identifying objects on images and audio), • Quality assurance, • Auto summarization, • Machine Translation, • Speech recognition, • Natural Language Generation.

Ray Kurtzweil, lead futurologist at Google, theorizes that AGI may eventually develop into a superintelligence by 2045.

3 https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/05/nyregion/ Elon Musk claims AI will overtake humans ‚in less than five years’ | The Independent | computer-defeats-kasparov-stunning-the-chessThe Independent experts.html

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BUSINESS Machine translation is one of the most common types of AI. It helps companies bridge language barriers and translate content faster and for a fraction of the cost.

Legal companies in the U.S. frequently use Machine Translation to help with multilingual eDiscovery processes. Machine Translation is used to “convert” large amounts of documents into one common language

IBM’s Watson is a great example of this.

Watson is being trained on data from leading U.S. health institutions to automate and increase accuracy of diagnoses.

In addition, Google’s DeepMind team has recently created an AI that helps recognize breast cancer from X-ray images with estimated 99% accuracy. Less false positives, and faster turnaround times gives doctors

Instead, they expect to assign their teams more rewarding tasks. Ultimately, they will be able to unlock unprecedented levels of efficiency. Companies that do not embrace these trends soon will fall behind.

HOW WILL AI IMPACT THE BPO INDUSTRY?

AI will disrupt the BPO industry in many ways by: • helping companies automate simple The emergence of COVID-19 and the digi­­­­tal transformation of commerce and mundane tasks, and society have further accelerated the pace of technological change. This • augmenting human workers and raises many pressing questions. Does the Business Process Outsourcing allowing them to focus on higher (BPO) industry still have a future? value tasks, • providing managers with insights into so the material can be easily analyzed. more time with their patients. Many pharcomplex decision-making processes, The ability to translate these documents maceutical companies are also looking • changing how companies work and effortlessly, at scale, and in a cost-effi- to use AI to speed up testing for active increasing their business velocity, cient manner allows legal professionals compounds that would become the basis • increasing work efficiency and to understand the gist of the content and of future medicines4. reducing costs. make better decisions about their cases.

This is becoming increasingly important WHAT IS ROBOTIC Using AI in your business practices will in times of cross-border ecommerce and PROCESS AUTOMATION? most likely turn out to be transformative. highly intertwined global economy.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is It will help you release the full potential the use of software (ro)bots or AI digital of your workforce, help you shift their Machine Translation also allows translators workers to automate mundane processes. focus to activities that provide more value, and companies to reduce translation costs It can handle tasks like opening email and and allow them to spend more time with while handling more content, serving many attachments, moving files and folders, your customers. The successful deploymore markets, and decreasing the amount copying and pasting text, and filling ment of AI technologies requires a wellof time it takes to bring marketing colla­ out forms. In the past, people primarily thought-out strategy and needs to include teral to market. This is a great illustration used it for well-defined and predict- three important elements: AI technology, of how AI is driving change in multiple able processes. data, and humans. Combining these three elements is essential for success. industries. It is enhancing productivity and its throughput is allowing humans However, recent developments in to focus on more value-added activities. the technology have made it possible to The BPO industry can benefit signifi­ The rise in marketing activities – along with automate more processes. Because of this, cantly from using AI and increasing an increased need for content creation RPA may be regarded as a risk to the BPO value-added activities to their enterand translation – has fueled the growth industry. In Deloitte’s recent “Global RPA prise. It also creates an opportunity to of companies like Lionbridge and the locali­ survey,” the CEOs of surveyed companies transition from low value-added services zation and translation industry as a whole. estimated that about 20% of the work to higher level services that are sought in their enterprises could be automated by the high-tech sector. AI will be beneNatural-language generation (NLG) is by RPA tools and that this development ficial in many ways, but if ignored, it has a technology that helps generate text would more likely hit BPOs5. Interest- the potential of making the company when it is given just a few initial words. ingly, the same study claims that 61% lagging or even obsolete on the marketA great example of this is applying it to of the companies surveyed were able places of the future. product specifications to generate a full- to reduce costs as a result of RPA, which text product description that can be used enabled them to re-allocate resources to other, higher-value tasks. Therefore, many Author: for e-commerce experiences. companies and BPOs are embracing RPA Auto-summarization, or the process and AI in their business practices. As of generating a summary from long docu- of 2020, 72% of companies are expected ments, helps readers understand text faster to experiment with and deploy RPA. Kajetan by distilling the essence of the content Malinowski, Senior Product without the involvement of humans. This RPA is coming, no matter what, and it Director, Lionbridge technology helps people analyze text faster will change the way companies operate.

Innovative product and make better decisions based on data The good news is that most companies and business leader.

Experienced in digital do not expect to reduce their workforce. that matters.

AI is also gaining ground in Life Sciences.

It is heavily used for the analysis of patient data in order to come up with diagnoses.

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https://blog.google/technology/health/ improving-breast-cancer-screening 5 https://www2.deloitte.com/content/ dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/process-andoperations/us-cons-global-rpa-survey.pdf 4

transformation, operationalizing, productizing and scaling new business models. Focused on taking latest Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence technology and translating it into successful products.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

IPOSTA riposta.pl

BUSINESS

KHARKIV IT CLUSTER, KHARKIV BASED NGO Kharkiv is a Silicon Valley of Ukraine and the City of opportunities.

Our city combines the best choice of IT universities and IT schools in Eastern Europe, world-famous IT companies and a favorable environment for the development of IT.

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Birthday Party, 2019, Kharkiv IT Cluster.

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

Author:

Olga Shapoval, Executive Director, Kharkiv IT Cluster

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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BUSINESS

POWER OF ACCESSORIES AT YOUR OFFICE

An office very often becomes our second home, we spend around eight hours in offices every day, so we should feel well and comfortably inside.

Our convenience and comfort of a well-­ -designed space increases consi­derably with properly chosen lighting, colors of walls and floors, access to daylight, comfortable furniture that can adapt to our individual needs and add-ons.

At the time of renovating and designing of a new office space we often forget of one crucial element that helps us at work – a coziness that we can achieve by virtue of well-thought-through add-ons.

These little helpers are often relegated to the background. We do not want to invest in them "because it is an additional cost", “because it is something small that nobody will notice anyway". I would like to debunk this myth and show how important a role of additional accessories really is in our daily lives.

the same in our offices? Accessories are not only a lamp on a desk or a frame with a photo of your beloved pet. Additions are also pillows, curtains, carpets, figurines, fruit bowls or plates on which to hang not only information about the meeting, but also an interesting newspaper clipping, a piece of cloth or lost pendant.

In our homes, we surround ourselves with At a low cost, we can get rid of the mono­­ all sorts of extras – we add scarf to our tony in our daily work and increase stylish jacket, tie or jewelry, why not do the satisfaction and creativity of our co-workers.

VITALITY OF WORK IN PROPER CONDITIONS Increasingly important for us is not only the job position we hold and kind of company we work for, but also an appearance of an office where we will spend most of the day. The more elements that create a pleasant atmosphere around us, the better we feel and the easier it will be for us to perform our everyday duties.

By placing colorful carpets and pouffes in the space of the creative department, we will show employees that we expect non-standard solutions from them, such as working not necessarily at the desk, but on the carpet surrounded by pillows. Don’t you know at least one person who keeps photos, pins, flowers or other things on its desk in the office?

This proves that we need to beautify and "soften" our spaces. We work better surrounded by objects that make us feel at home.

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HIGHLIGHT CHARACTER OF YOUR COMPANY Some extras can tell a story about the industry in which a company opera­ ­tes. If the office dealing with jewelry simply add gold frame with beautiful graphics that will emphasize luxury tone of the interior and products sold.

In the office of the company dealing with the production of bicycle equipment display parts of the products sold on the shelves or racks. Each type of decorative accessories positively influences the perception of our company.

However, we should remember that the accessories should be compatible with the given space.

FLEXIBLE SPACE Thanks to some add-ons, we can make an easy metamorphosis of our interior design. Changes are something important and enhance our creativity. Every little change in our everyday environment stimulates us. The same refers to space and the modifications associated with it.

We can change the pillowcases on the pillows replacing summer pillowcases with autumn ones, collect a few chestnuts on the way to work and pour them into a golden bowl standing on the coffee table by the reception desk. Insert old newspapers cuts into the frame or suspended paper airplanes under the ceiling.

Additions give us the opportunity to play and quickly transform our office into a completely new place.

USE PLANTS AS DECORATION The trend of introducing plants into the interior has been around for a long time. Plants soothe us with their color and form. They produce oxygen, invi­ gorate space and support our work.

The list of the positive effects plants have on us is very long. Do not forget that they are perfect additions to our offices. Their diversity will allow us to create an unusual and cozy space in any place. Plants do not have to be put traditionally on the windowsill or cabinet. We can choose various types of standing or hanging pots for them. Place them on special stands or arrange plant compositions of different heights yourself.

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BUSINESS

Thanks to some add-ons, we can make an easy metamorphosis of our interior design. Changes are something important and enhance our creativity.

STANDARD ADDITIONS FOR EACH OFFICE Let's not forget about typical office accessories. Every employee needs a pen, pencil or adhesive tape. They do not have to be hidden in a drawer or in a cardboard box at the bottom of the wardrobe. We can put them in specially designed containers, compartments or, for example, colorful pots. Maybe it is sometimes worth to find a non-standard solution and toss pins into the water jug? Instead of tangled cables for charging phones, put an induction charger and a small succulent plant in a cup? Let's not be afraid to experiment and look for interesting solutions. Our office doesn't have to be boring. It can inspire us and show that we can solve many problems in an unusual way.

There are many solutions on the market that will help us to display the plants in our office in the best possible way. The same applies to cut flowers. Each bouquet will attract the attention of even the greatest opponents of plants. A vase will be the perfect highlight for the flowers, and it can also have various forms and colors.

Let's look for interesting solutions while decorating our office. Plants are always a good choice when it comes to decorating the space.

Let's play with add-ons. Not in an obvious way, let us create new compositions. Let's encourage our co-workers to change the space they work in. If we allow addiand make the space more pleasant. We tions to stay in our offices for longer, they are more likely to sit on the couch with will pay back with all they have best in pillows and blankets. We will have a nice them. If you do not feel strong enough conversation in the room with curtains, to introduce yourself to home accessoeven if their purpose is not to cover ries try to engage the decorator or intethe window. rior designer.

The curtains are placed not only to darken the office space but they also isolate the room from external sounds. They are ideal additions introduced to calm the general compositions of the office site. Another advantage of textiles is that TEXTILES they can be easily changed, and thus we Introducing various types of textiles into can change office decoration according the interior is a reliable way to “soften” to our current needs.

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Author:

Centrum IKEA dla Firm Ludwika Umiastowska, Home Furnishing Consultant at IKEA Blue City

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

MAIN INTERVIEW

L O D Z. A GREAT CHALLENGE AND GREAT POTENTIAL

An interview with Adam Pustelnik, First Vice-Mayor of the City of Lodz.

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MAIN INTERVIEW

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

Łódź Fabryczna Station (Fabric Lodz).

An office hub in Lodz is connected by rail to the city of Warsaw.

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MAIN INTERVIEW

Monopolis was due to be presented with the real estate ‘Oscar’ won at the MIPIM Awards 2020 – a prestigious global competition gathering all participants of the real estate market.

Photo: Tomasz Warszewski – stock.adobe.com.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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MAIN INTERVIEW

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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INVESTMENTS NEWS POLAND IS THE MOST ACTIVE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE MARKET IN CE IN 2020 DESPITE FALLS According to experts of global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, this year’s total volume of transactions is expected to reach EUR 9.4 billion in Central Europe, which will represent a one-third decrease on last year’s figure.

Poland’s share in the total transaction volume – albeit down by one-fourth compared with last year – will hit approxi­ mately 60%.

– Generally, 2020 is ending on a positive note despite renewed lockdowns as the vaccine roll-out is a promise of a more normal market in 2021 – says Soren Rodian Olsen, Partner, Head of Capital Markets, Cushman & Wakefield.

The Polish commercial real estate market got off to a flying start to 2020, with EUR 1.72 billion worth of deals, which was the second best result in the first quarter of a year on record. Investment activity slowed afterwards due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, but buyers adapted their strategies to the new situation, which prevented a massive drop in the total annual volume. It is worth noting that 2019 was one of the three most successful years in the last decade, which makes this year’s decrease in investment

activity slightly more pronounced, is still 40% above the strongest year with Poland posting the smallest fall in achieved in the 2008-2015 period. the region.

ROMANIA Transactions in Poland were dominated The Romanian investment market weathby the sales of industrial properties, ered the impact of the pandemic well, accounting for almost half of the total with total investment volumes reaching volume. More than 39% of all deals took almost EUR 1 billion, mainly driven by place in the office sector. office transactions. This is in line with average annual volumes over the past – At EUR 5.6 billion, Poland’s investment 3 years and suggests that the market has volumes are 25% down on the all-time matured in recent years. We expect the record in 2019. Retail has hit a 10-year low liquidity momentum to carry over into whereas office investment activity slowed 2021, with the industrial sector becoming due to investors taking a more cautious a major focus. approach towards large deals. Logistics ended 2020 at a record high of close to Market forecasts 50% of the total volume – comments Jeff Cushman & Wakefield experts predict Alson, CE Partner, Capital Markets Group, that while full economic impact may Cushman & Wakefield. take 1–2 years, there is sentiment for the real estate market to bounce back more Other markets rapidly in Q2/Q3 2021. Investment focus in the office sector next year will mainly be core and value-add assets, while logisCZECH REPUBLIC The overall volume of transactions in tics and alternatives (PRS, data centers) the Czech Republic will reach approx. will continue to be the primary focus of EUR 1.2 bn this year, which means a 63% most investors. decrease compared with very successful – Some investors will not look beyond and better-than-average 2019. major gateway locations despite higher prices but an increasing number of funds SLOVAKIA In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic sus­­­ are seeking opportunity in a broader range pended ongoing transactions and of markets, including CEE. Core yields are temporarily dampened new investment likely to compress in 2021 but only in demand, which, together with growing leading markets and for 100% core product retail and office saturation, caused a 37% – comments Soren Rodian Olsen, Partner, year-on-year decline in transaction Head of Capital Markets, Cushman & volume to EUR 429 million.

Wakefield.

HUNGARY Whilst Hungarian investment levels were down 25% year-on-year, this follows four of the five strongest years on record and

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Belief in the future of offices is stronger than in Q2/Q3 2020, which is positive, but general leasing trends for 2021 remain an area of uncertainty.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

POLAND AS THE MOST ATTRACTIVE WAREHOUSE MARKET IN EUROPE ANALYSIS The Gerald Eve International Alliance of real estate advisory firms, which AXI IMMO is a member of, has prepared a guide of key industrial and logistics markets in Europe. The publication presents prime market rents in 77 locations across 20 countries, split into big box, medium box and SBU (small business unit) facilities, as well as market yields in those locations. Moreover, experts from 20 member countries of Gerald Eve prepared unique data on prices of investment land for industrial and logistics developments in 56 key clusters. Poland remains one of the most attractively priced markets in Europe. This is where all 5 of the cheapest European markets in terms of big box rents are located. Moreover, 4 out of the 10 most affordable logistics locations in terms of land prices are also in Poland.

INVESTORS BET ON WAREHOUSES The industrial and logistics sector across Europe is benefitting from the ongoing growth of e-commerce. The COVID-19 pandemic has additionally accelerated this trend, leading to heightened demand for warehouse space.

Resilience of the sector to the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased investor demand. Investors have withdrawn capital from segments of the markets whose prospects have deteriorated, such as shopping centres, and reallocated it to logistics and industrial faci­ lities. This has led to increases in capital values in the sector, and consequently – to yield compression in many markets.

Logistics yields remain the lowest in the United Kingdom, which is considered to be the most mature and liquid commercial real estate market. Net yields in London stand at 3.5%-3.75%.

Yields on offer in Germany are also low, between 4 and 4.5% in key markets, reflecting the perception of the country as a safe and stable investment destination. Warsaw, which is the most expensive logistics location in Poland, offers gross yields of 5.5% for SBU units and 6.25% for big box facilities.

markets, with EUR 3.3 – 3.5 per sqm per month achievable in Poznań, EUR 3.2 – 3.6 in Central Poland and Upper Silesia, EUR 3.3 – 3.6 in Lower Silesia and EUR 3.0-3.6 outside of Warsaw. These rates are among the lowest in Europe. In fact, according to the data comparison prepared in cooperation with Gerald Eve, five largest Polish industrial and logistics markets are also the five cheapest markets in Europe.

facilities. A location close to the consumer, with access to strategic road infrastructure is necessary for such schemes, but availability of such sites is limited and competition is intense, also from other property sectors. This is exerting upward pressure on rents in this segment of the market.

Warsaw is nevertheless an attractively priced urban logistics location in a European context. Occupiers seeking modern To put it in perspective, prime logistics urban warehouses in the London region and industrial rents in Germany’s most are facing monthly rents of EUR 9.2 – 22.1 affordable market included in the report per sqm. Prime SBU rents in Germany – Cologne & Dusseldorf – stand at EUR range from EUR 6.7-7.2 in Cologne & 5.7-6.2. Meanwhile, A-class warehouses Dusseldorf, EUR 7-7.5 in Frankfurt and in the most expensive German market EUR 7.2-7.7 in Berlin, through to EUR 7.5-8 – Munich – fetch monthly rents of EUR in Munich.

6.5-7 per sqm. There is an even wider gulf between Poland and the United Kingdom INVESTMENT LAND and Scandinavia. The most expensive A unique element of the report prepared location included in the report – Greater in cooperation with Gerald Eve is interLondon – is recording prime monthly national data on transactional land logistics rents as high as EUR 11.3 per sqm. prices for industrial and logistics develOslo takes the second spot with EUR 10.4 opments. The publication includes inforper sqm and Helsinki comes third with mation on prices of investment plots EUR 10 per sqm. in key logistics clusters in 56 markets.

Poland looks attractive on this measure The situation is similar in the SBU as well. Only the South Moravian region segment of the market. Polish cities in Czechia and Eastern Slovakia offer take the first four spots when looking at investment land prices below those availthe most attractive urban logistics rents able in the cheapest of the main Polish in Europe. Warsaw stands out somewhat markets – Poznań. Prices in Warsaw-city from the rest of the country, however. far exceed the levels recorded in the rest SBU rents in the capital are signifi- of the country, with as much as EUR cantly higher compared to other Polish 1.5m per hectare achievable, and more markets, between EUR 4.0 and 5.25 per for selected plots. Nevertheless, investsqm. Warsaw is experiencing rapid growth ment land in Warsaw is 5.5 times cheaper of the e-commerce sector, which is trans- than in Greater London and 2.7 cheaper lating into high demand for last mile than in Munich.

POLAND AS AN ATTRACTIVE DESTINATION FOR OCCUPIERS Prime headline rents for big box units in Poland are relatively unified across the key

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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INVESTMENTS

WHY WE STILL NEED OFFICES We are entering 2021 with a pandemic. How has the coronavirus impacted the office industry, why will offices still be needed, and what is the importance of the business services sector to developers? Katarzyna Zawodna-Bijoch, President and CEO at Skanska office development in CEE, and Arkadiusz Rudzki, Executive Vice President Leasing & Sales at Skanska office development in CEE, describe the changing role of the office in an interview with “Outsourcing&More”, and talk about what awaits us in the future.

Outsourcing&More: The pandemic crisis spares no one, and the real estate industry is suffering as well. What has changed for offices?

Katarzyna Zawodna-Bijoch: Today we know for sure that a lot has changed.

We cannot fully predict the full consequences of the pandemic. There are areas of the real estate market, such as hotels and shopping malls, that have been hit hard by the lockdown and the second wave of the pandemic. As for our part of the market, some speculations have emerged that question the legitimacy of offices. Last spring, the concept that the home office is fantastic and regular offices are completely unnecessary began to gain popularity. The following months of the pandemic, however, clearly showed that we will still need offices, and even those technological giants who loudly proclaimed the end of offices agree with this today. The lack of direct interaction with colleagues has a negative impact on both employees and employers in general. More and more often we are hearing about problems with people’s well-being and mental health, especially among younger employees. Repetitive

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and simple processes can be easily done from home, but creativity, diversity and team spirit need a space that cannot be created by Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

According to Skanska, our way of working in offices should not change at all?

Arkadiusz Rudzki: The theories at the start of the pandemic that offi­ ces would no longer exist were greatly exa­ggerated. Yes, the frequency of remote work will increase. We will work in a mixed, hybrid formula, but it is not possible for offices to disappear completely. They play very important roles: social, culture-forming and also formal. For most companies, the office is part of building a brand as an employer, but also a brand in general, because offices are meeting places – including with clients. I want to emphasize that there has been a change in the approach to the office, which the pandemic has only significantly accelerated. Increasingly, companies will be switching from the ‘you have to come to the office‘ approach to ‘I want you to come to the office’. This change will have a significant impact on office spaces in the future.

So what can be done to make emplo­ yees want to come to the office? How can we encourage them? It seems that companies have already offered everything: relaxation rooms, mini gyms, free meals...

KZB: At this time during the pande­ mic the most important thing for employees is to feel safe – this will encourage them to come into the office. Air quality in the office space is very important, as are as many non-contact solutions as possible, and arranging the office in such a way that it is possible to maintain social distance. Last spring at Skanska we developed and implemented, first in our offices, and later also advising clients, the most important rules for returning to offices and functioning in the new reality. In addition, we have created, in close cooperation with architects and epidemiologist, the Care for Life Office Concept, which addresses epidemiological safety in many ways, from quick actions in already existing offices, through design guidelines for newly planned spaces, to system solutions that can be addressed during the construction of the building.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

AR: From the safety perspective, re-organizing work in offices is also very important. In our offices, we reduced the number of workplaces in order to increase the social distance between people working in the office, and we reduced the number of people simultaneously using common areas and conference rooms. We have also designated special rooms intended only for meetings with external clients. Thanks to the Connected

by Skanska application, easily available on a smartphone, which has been used in our buildings for the past several years, people can move around the building and office without contact. We are pleased that these actions were recognized by the WELL Building Institute (IWBI) with new WELL Health-Safety Rating certificates for our 9 buildings throughout Central and Eastern Europe. This distinction is awarded to office spaces with the highest safety parameters that reduce the risk of disease transmission.

There is no doubt that during the pandemic physical health is essential. But

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

how can we ensure the mental well-­ -being of employees?

KZB: I believe it is very important for our well-being that we simply meet with other people in the office. This is what we have hugely been missing in recent months. We need people, but we also need a change of environment, at least partially separating our work from our private life. In general we want employees to feel at home in offices, but also to address their social needs and interpersonal interactions. A few years ago, we decided that all our new projects will be implemented in accordance with the WELL certificate, which focuses on building users and their well-being. This means that we design spaces to maximize access to natural light, and as a supplement we have intelligent lighting that harmonizes with the daily human cycle, adjusting to the time of day.

Modern ventilation and filtration systems providing fresh air are also installed. It is air with the right level of humidification.

We also place a lot of plants in our offi­ ces and ensure the availability of drinking water, because – as research shows – it

We cannot fully predict the full consequences of the pandemic. There are areas of the real estate market, such as hotels and shopping malls, that have been hit hard by the lockdown and the second wave of the pandemic.

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INVESTMENTS

What trends are appearing on the office market. Will there be any big changes in the near future?

AR: Tenants are already asking us about all types of flexibility. As soon as the pandemic situation normalizes, flexi­ ble office space will become popular again, even more so than before the crisis. I believe that it will become more and more popular to provide flexible spaces in common parts of office buildings, i.e. not as part of leasing to a co-working or flexible space operator, but as an additional building benefit for tenants who lease long-term.

Spark building by Skanska.

has a huge impact on our well--being, as well as high acoustic comfort. Aesthetics and art are also surprisingly important for the well-being of people inside the building, which is why, for example, in our Warsaw Spark office we have murals and designer details. If we add to it ergonomic workplaces with a comfortable armchair, a large desk and, for example, two large monitors, they simply provide much more comfortable and better conditions for our health. The employee feels better, establishes direct relationships, feels more connected with the company, and wants to come to the office because it responds to his natural needs.

In the coming years we will observe another big change - the management of office buildings will be completely different. In a few years, office buildings will be like hotels. Most likely, tenants' buildings and spaces will be managed like hotels. We will encourage people to want to come and work in offices.

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AR: It is worth adding that in the coming years we will observe another big change – the management of office buildings will be completely different. In a few years, office buildings will be like hotels.

Most likely, tenants' buildings and spaces will be managed like hotels. We will encourage people to want to come and work in offices. After working remotely for a long time, people will get used to saving time on commuting to offices, so employers will have to help office workers save time in other ways. Hence the growing popularity of, for example, concierge services in office buildings, gyms on the premises, flexible space or conference centers in the buildings. In my opinion, this will be a positive thing caused by the pandemic.

KZB: I think we should also remember that, with regards to the younger gene­ ration, the values shared by and represented by their employers play a key role.

This will become even more important, especially during the climate crisis. In my opinion, sustainable and responsible corporate activities will become the norm.

This is what the world will require of us, but this is also what employees will expect – consistency with their personal values. Skanska once again made the top 20 of the ‘Change the world’ list of the prestigious Fortune magazine. We have social and environmental responsibility in our blood. I am very happy that the entire commercial real estate industry is becoming more and more aware. There is still a long way to go in reducing our negative impact on the environment, so we continue to take decisive steps in this area.

How then do you see the role of our sector when it comes to office leasing in Poland?

KZB: Most of our tenants come from the business services sector, which is why we are closely monitoring what is happening in this industry. We are glad that large international companies continue to expand in Poland, although, of course, these expansions are not as spectacular as a year or two ago.

AR: We watch you grow, support you, and want to continue responding to your needs. Just as we have done in the past.

The scale of changes has simply accele­ rated, but for now – we are keeping up with the pace.

Thank you for the interview.­

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

INVESTMENTS

CSR IN LITHUANIA: A STUDY IN GETTING IT RIGHT The ethical merits of Corporate Social Responsibility have long been established. But the benefits of CSR go far beyond what the famous economist Milton Friedman once referred to as mere “window-dressing”.

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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Author:

Milda Miliune, Investment Advisor | GBS & ICT at Invest Lithuania

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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INVESTMENTS

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE BIG BUSINESS FOR BSS? BASEBALL Yes, baseball. That is where business intelligence finds its roots. Back in 1964 a retired metallurgist started applying science and statistics to analyze baseball games. He advocated a more quantitative approach to player selection and line-up. He was met with skepticism by those that believed in traditional and above all intuitive principles to baseball coaching and talent scouting. A resistance that continued till the 2003 publication of Moneyball. The book chroni­ cles a coach’s economic and scientific approach to bring a languishing, low-budget team up to the highest-level, US-nationwide. It would take another four years for its business equivalent read “Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning” to be published.

Corporations put that book and analytics front and center. For a reason. Research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds that companies in the top

third of their industry in the use of datadriven decision making are on average 5% more productive and 6% more profitable than their competitors.

the technologies, applications, strategies, and practices used to collect, analyze, integrate data, and to present pertinent business information.

BEYOND ANALYTICS – AN ECOSYSTEM

Strikingly, this description seems to have much in parallel with the mission statement of leading Business Services Centers (BSCs).

Business Intelligence (BI) is all about transforming data into business insights.

All with one objective: to support and facilitate better business decisions.

To be clear: BI is not just about analytics.

Corporations have been using analytics for many years in the form of spreadsheets and manually calculating the patterns and trends. Today, with the help of advanced software tools, business analytics has evolved into a much better and speedier process.

Probably the proper thing is to think about BI as an ecosystem that comprises

BI AND THE BSC JOURNEY Through their thirty-years history, BSCs have journeyed from merely cost-saving transactional centers to value-adding business partners. They have become critical nodes in the network of corporate data, and a major custodian of business data. Data just waiting to be used for BI. Parallel this with CEOs and CFOs continuing to expect ever more from their BSC-organization. Inevitably, BI is the next step on the BSC journey (see illustration).

Business services functions over time Business Intelligence

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Engineering

Sales & marketing

Real Estate & Facilities Management Legal

Supply Chain/Manufacturing Support Tax Procurement

Customer service/Contact center IT HR Finance

historically

today

tomorrow

In its Shared Services – Digitalise Your Services report PwC notes that BSC services “are becoming more sophisticated and their scope is expanding.

As SSCs develop towards GBS, while at the same time digitalizing their services, the number of complex, knowledge-based processes is rapidly increasing. This reflects the ever more sophisticated capabilities of today’s shared service organizations.”

Source: Colliers International based on reports by Deloitte, PwC.

Business analytics wage costs – Western Europe 160,000 EUR / year

140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0

Entry level

Mid-level

Technical Lead

Director

Locations covered in the research: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Paris and Stockholm.

Source: Colliers International based on Harnham Data & Analytics Europe Salary Guide 2020.

WIDE SKILL-SET For BSCs to embrace BI, their recruiters face a considerable challenge as the BI job profile is one that calls for a wide skill set.

Just consider this. For a BI function to be efficient and effective it must understand and analyse data relevant to the corporate business model. It will also need to develop quality metrics, financial modelling, forecasting, planning for business enhancement, pricing and ultimately generate strategies for new processes.

Such functionalities aside, the BI function often also needs to serve as a link between several departments of an organization including top management, accounts, marketing, procurement, HR and more.

This means that BI staff must be versatile. Having a proper qualification is highly crucial. All-telling, Quant Crunch, a 2017 study performed by IBM, predicts that

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

more than 39% of data scientist and analyst jobs will require a masters or Ph.D. But BI positions will require more than merely a top degree. They also require communication skills, business and domain knowledge, analytical and critical thinking skills.

MIND THE GAP, AND THE COST! The European Commission’s 2020 European Data Market Monitoring Tool estimates the EU’s (excl. UK) current number of data professionals at around 6.6 mil­­­ lion, up 14% from 2016.

By the Tool’s most conservative (less economically favourable) scenario, the EU needs an additional 2.7 million data professionals by 2025. A number significantly larger than estimated talent supply. The prediction is that there will be at least 759,000 unfilled data professional positions by 2025 as the main sources of data skills such

as the education system and re-training are unable to cope.

To pre-empt this talent crunch, companies are investing in business analytics education and certification programs.

Other corporate initiatives are about sponsoring creative BI and analytics programs to get students involved through internships and co-op programs.

This sets an example for companies across the EU, and especially in Central Europe.

Already today, the supply-demand gap for Business Analytics or Data Science professionals means they are among the highest paying jobs today according to popular surveys by Forbes, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor.

Harnham’s 2020 Salary Guide shows that across key Western European capitals BI wage costs vary significantly, with Copenhagen commanding the higher and Barcelona the lower salary costs (see graph above).

Other research estimates Central European BI wage costs at around 25% below – or for some specific roles close to – the Barcelona price-point.

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INVESTMENTS

This bodes well for many BSCs as more than 50% of the region’s centres are located in such cities.

Locations of top 75 Business Analytics Universities

Europe 37%

Asia Pacific 7%

North America 53%

Middle-East/North Africa & Turkey 3%

Source: Colliers International based on QS World universities rankings, 2020.

LOCATIONS? Two factors seem to prevail when it comes to locating and growing the BI function: • Proximity to leading universities with the proper curriculum, and • Access to a business-savvy talent pool.

To the first factor: the number of universities offering a Business Analytics-related curriculum is growing exponentially year-on-year. But overall, it appears to be the remit of the world’s foremost education institutions (see illustration). But that does not preclude cities with lesser­-known universities from being consi­ dered for locating a BI function.

For Europe, the second factor – talent pool – will likely limit a location search to country capitals and well-diversified secondary cities.

In addition to these factors, the ability to recruit communicative people comes into play. This translates into language and soft skills.

OUTLOOK For the immediate future, the BI location map for Central Europe will quite likely consist of Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities.

It will not be an easy ride though.

The war for BI talent will dominate both corporate and BSC agenda for the foreseeable future. But moving into BI is only an opportunity to lose for Central Europe’s BSCs. The stars seem aligned for the region: • Relatively young demographics • A favorable heritage in terms of STEM education and technology adoption • Moderate wage costs, and • A mature business services ecosystem that includes centers already moving into BI All it takes is some hard work. As Virgil wrote: Sic itur ad astra.

Author: Elias van Herwaarden Elias is Head of Location Strategy, Occupier Services EMEA at Colliers International.

He draws on 30 years ‘experience with cross-border business and over 150 location and sourcing projects for the BSS sector. Elias’ Outsourcing & More columns seek to address burning BSS matters.

For further inquiries on this article or Colliers’ Location Strategy services: Elias.vanherwaarden@colliers.com

Edyta Janas, Business Development Director of Randstad Sourceright EMEA, estimates the number of candidates for “data roles” across Poland at around 100,000. But this does not mean companies looking for BI resources will find an easy match to their needs. Where many applicants master basic Excel or SQL skills, at best 10 to 15% have the more advanced skills that BI requires.

And it is not merely about computing and programming. “Mature BI organizations are looking for PhDs,” the expert states. “They need people that can mentally develop and interpret the wide range of information that is needed to grow and innovate business. This leads companies to hunt for talent beyond the traditional pools of MBAs or Economics graduates. Think of scientists with specialization in mathematics, physics or statistics.” Yet owning an advanced degree is no guarantee to a successful BI career. Janas explains, “The BI role is a relatively young one and its requirements are evolving as more businesses start exploring their “Big Data.” But already today we are seeing that the ideal BI candidate must have a wide range of functional skills. These skills include project management, business planning, and finance. As these candidates play an important role in business planning activities, teamwork orientation and leadership skills are key requirements as well.” Cleary such combinations are scarce. And not just in Poland.

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Pro Progressio WE RESPOND TO YOUR NEEDS reports individual real estate Focus On universities

events

cooperation

The BSS Forum The BSS Tour Outsourcing Stars business breakfasts

business NGO public institutions industry associations

consulting

projects

recommendations localizations industry reports

BSS Index Event Tiger

media Outsourcing&More Outsourcing Portal Poland Today Outsourcing Journal Link2Poland Emerging Europe

www.proprogressio.pl Do you have any questions? info@proprogressio.pl

INVESTMENTS

UKRAINE ON THE PATH TO BECOMING THE EUROPEAN GO-TO TECH DESTINATION: THE TECH JOB MARKET TRENDS IN UKRAINE AND LVIV

The tech sector is one of the few industries in Ukraine, and globally that incurred the smallest losses induced by the Corona-crisis. Although there was a slight halt in operations through spring, the IT industry seems to be doing quite well, as overall, the transition to remote work has proved to be painless. While the world continues to find new means to adjust to the new reality, let’s explore the Ukrainian tech job market’s implications for employees, companies, and prospective investors.

FULL VERSION OF THE O&M IS AVAILABLE ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS AND PRO PROGRESSIO CLUB MEMBERS.

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

In the StartupBlink global startup ecosystem report 2020, Ukraine ranked 29th among 100 startup-friendly countries. As compared to 2019, Ukraine jumped two positions to 29th, making it to the top 30 ecosystems worldwide.

Photos: SoftServe.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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INVESTMENTS

FULL VERSION OF THE O&M IS AVAILABLE ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS AND PRO PROGRESSIO CLUB MEMBERS.

Lviv is the second largest IT center in Ukraine and home to some of the leading tech players confidently expanding in foreign markets and a variety of promising startups.

Photo: SoftServe.

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

Learn more:

Photo: SoftServe.

Author:

Mariia Poliova, Content Writer, Lviv IT Cluster

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

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INVESTMENTS WINNER OF 2020

OUTSOURCING STARS

WHAT’S UP IN POZNAŃ?

BUSINESS SUMMARY 2020

We welcomed the year in Poznań with the air of festivity - we hosted events such as BSS Forum or Gala Outsourcing Stars during which we received our next Outsourcing Stars award in the City category.

These were the only modern services sector events visited in large numbers in 2020 that took place in the real world, where we could be together. 2020 moved us all to the digital world.

The Investor Relations Department, using modern technologies to work remotely or in a hybrid model, has stayed in constant contact with investors and promoted Poznań in Poland and abroad.

The first months of the pandemic brought new initiatives and tasks for Invest in Poznań. In collaboration with the Department of Education, we conducted a collection of computer equipment for students who were not able to learn remotely due to the lack of a proper device. Local companies invited to the action showed much support and commitment. We prepared also a series of articles where Poznań modern services centres shared their remote working experiences.

The “ZaGRAjmy w Wielkopolsce” (“Let’s PLAY in Wielkopolska”) project (co-financed

by EU), prepared by the Investor Relations Department for the gamedev sector, had to be postponed to 2021 due to travel restrictions. Instead, this year we have prepared a promotional material – a catalogue of game development studios in Poznań, where you can learn about their activities (available on www.poznan.pl/invest).

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The most important event on the office ONE INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME real estate market has been the start – MULTIPLE DEVELOPMENT PATHS of construction of Andersia Silver – The Investor Relations Department’s the highest building in Poznań.

Internship Scholarships programme has been implemented since 2015. So POZITIVE TECHNOLOGIES far 38 people have benefited from this The online conference organised by us form of support. We have decided to take in collaboration with Partner compa- a look at their further careers. nies: Capgemini Software Solutions Center, Allegro S.A., Sollers Consulting, Wavin Shared Services Sp. z o.o., Paulina GSK Poznań Tech Hub, Sonalake and Małecka: To date we have organised as Egnyte, and with support from the spon- many as 7 internships within the City sors: BAE Systems, Beyond.pl, F-Secure, of Poznań’s programme. The first one GFT, Merixstudio and NEXT: IT, attracted started in 2017 and its beneficiary still almost 1,000 visitors. More than 500 works with Wavin Shared Services Sp. z o.o., people watched the streaming on pozi- at present as a Manager. As many as five tive technologies’ fanpage. For our parti­ people, that is almost 72% our former cipants we prepared the main stage and interns, have remained involved with our 4 thematic paths with names referring organisation and continue working with to Poznań districts: Jeżyce++, GrunSec, us. Two of our former interns are now in WilData, PiątkOps. There were also two management jobs. The remaining three are debates, fantastically led by Wiktor specialists whom we offer further significant Doktór, Pro Progressio CEO, and a live development opportunities and achievable podcast “Piątki po deploy’u” (“After-De- career paths. Everyone who has chosen to ploy Fridays”) hosted by MerixStudio stay with our organisation works under experts. We also had a foreign lecturer, an employment contract.

André Kovac. The event’s success is proven by the average time each parti­ The internship programme gives us an op­­­­cipant spent with us: over 250 minutes! portunity to learn about employees’

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

In 2020, the construction of the tallest building in Poznań – the Andersia Silver office building – began. It will be ready in 2023.

Visualisation: Andersia Property.

competencies, skills and preferences as well as their ways to handle work under time pressure. It turns out that many applicants demonstrate values we highly appreciate and so we are able to propose positions well suited to our young interns’ expectations and ensure that they will be able to continue their development at our organisation.

then established a startup and employed interns himself – on the website www. poznan.pl/invest.

INVESTORS CHOOSE POZNAŃ EVEN IN DIFFICULT TIMES

In 2020, new investment projects in the modern services sector have proved quite a challenge due to the fact that business trips have not been possible.

You can read other stories – of an archi- Luckily, the investment attractiveness tect or a Poznan University of Technology of Poznań is well visible online as well :). student who had been our intern and The company SKF, already present in

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

Poznań in the manufacturing sector, has opened its shared services centre.

There have also been several new projects implemented by companies already active in the Poznań modern services sector. GSK, a global pharmaceutical giant, has decided to strengthen its IT hub in our City by restructuring its operations.

Simpler positions have been eliminated and replaced by new ones, for people with more experience and qualifications – well adjusted to the Poznań IT market.

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INVESTMENTS

In 2020, the investment process related to the expansion of the Beiersdorf factory began.

GFT Poland, an IT company, has also located its new project in Poznań.

The company received a grant of PLN 2.3 million from the Ministry of Eco­­­­­ nomic Development to create 210 new jobs within an R&D centre, of which 75 in Poznań. GFT is searching for specialists to perform highly advanced tasks for global financial institutions as well as the insu­ rance and industrial sectors.

Another IT company, Lumen (CenturyLink), is also going to increase its activity in Poznań.

The news of great importance to Poznań, Poland and the entire Central and Eastern Europe region was Beyond.pl’s announcement regarding the expansion of its Data Center with even more secure and state-of-the-art solutions applied.

According to the plans, Beyond.pl is to increase its target capacity 5 times, from 8 to 42 MW, and the area occupied by the company will be almost four times larger.

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At the end of 2020, we have several open projects that should be successfully completed in 2021. Stay tuned!

Bridgestone is going to allocate over 160 million euro for investments in Poznań. The objective is to increase the daily production capacity to 40,000 WE MANUFACTURE NIVEA tyres. The Japanese tyre manufacturer COSMETICS AND BRIDGESTONE started the construction of new producTYRES – WHAT’S NEXT? tion halls in February 2020. The buildings 160 million euro – this amount is to be will house rolling mill and vulcanisation invested by the company Beiersdorf AG divisions. Their usable area will exceed in the extension of its production plant 50,000 sq m. The investment will create in Gnieźnieńska St. in Poznań. After new jobs as well. The company plans to the extension, the plant will be a work- increase the number of employees by 150. place for up to 800 people (increase by 50 percent compared to the current WHERE HAVE POZNAŃ employment) and will double its produc- BEEN PROMOTED? tion capacity.

In 2020, the Investor Relations Department has published two reports. The first The new facility will apply for the LEED one, on the real estate, in cooperation Certificate confirming its sustainable with CBRE. Then there is a comprehenimpact on the environment. The extended sive report on the investment potential in Beiersdorf Manufacturing Polska factory Poland prepared by the company Walter will become a strategic production centre Herz, which, of course, features Poznań. specialised in innovations. Ultimately, We could not organise a panel discussion the plant will manufacture up to 400 on this occasion in the real world, so we million pcs of products from Beiersdorf’s moved to the digital one. This allowed portfolio per year. us to reach a wider audience. The City

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

AWARDS FOR THE CITY OF POZNAŃ • Outsourcing Stars – An award in the City category granted by Pro Progressio as a result of the competition where the following was taken into account: the number of new investment projects, the number of BSS events supported by the City, the number of economics and computer science graduates.

of Poznań was also present at the events organised by ABSL: ABSL Diamonds and ABSL Digital Forum. We have continued our efforts to attract new employees to Poznań by promotional activities at the JOBICON Job Festival or IT conference 4developers. Our fruitful cooperation with the British Polish Chamber of Commerce has brought about several online events concerning new challenges faced in 2020.

We hope that 2021 will give us more occasions to meet in the real world and spend time together. Poznań has a splendid business community, open to new employers and employees. Come to Poznań! More information:

Investor Relations Department City of Poznań Za Bramką 1 Street, 61-842 Poznan Phone: +48 61 878 54 28 e-mail: inwestor@um.poznan.pl www.poznan.pl/invest

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

• Golden A-grade Municipality / „Złota Gmina na 5” – Poznań is in the prestigious group of 46 local governments which received the most points in this year’s ranking. The subject of analysis was one-sided and two-sided communication of Polish municipalities in the field of services for entrepreneurs.

• Pearls of Local Government 2020– Poznań received a distinction in the “Good Practice Leader” category for two projects launched in 2019: the pozitive technologies conference and the EU project “ZaGRAjmy w Wielkopolsce” (“Let’s PLAY in Wielkopolska”).

Pearls of Local Government is an annual competition organised by the daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

• Prime Property Prize 2020 – The Prime Property Prize competition, organised by the publisher of the PropertyNews.pl and PropertyDesign.pl portals, aims to select companies and projects with the greatest impact on the events in the commercial real estate market in the previous year. Poznań won in the Investor-Friendly City category.

The award confirms that Poznań provides entrepreneurs with friendly conditions to do business and an adequate support.

• Emerging Europe Business-Friendly Cities Perception Index 2020 – Poznań was ranked high in three categories: 3rd in the “LOCAL AUTHORITY SUPPORT” category 4th in the “SMART CITY DEVELOPMENT” category (the first among Polish cities in this category) 6th in the “QUALITY OF LIFE” category • The 20 Best Places For Americans To Live, Invest, Work In Europe by Forbes – The American Forbes Magazine put Poznań, as the only Polish city, on the list of the 20 best European cities for Americans to live.

• Smart City! – The City of Poznań was awarded in the Smart City Competition. The award committee appreciated Poznań because of its implementation of the smart city idea, use of innovative solutions and effective resource management and development strategy for the improvement of the quality of life of residents in the areas of transport, infrastructure, power industry, spatial management and the environment.

INVESTMENTS

FRIENDLY AND FLEXIBLE

– BYDGOSZCZ OPEN TO INVESTMENTS IN "NEW REALITY" The current "new reality", triggered by the pandemic, has brought many new challenges – both for business, new investments and for the City, which is an economic, social and natural environment for the companies or potential investors located there. At this difficult time, Bydgoszcz is making efforts not only to support the development of local business, but also to adapt its investment offer to the changing circumstances and needs of investors and to provide them with additional arguments for choosing this location for new projects.

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For both business development and the City, the most important aspect today is the people who create its climate, build its potential and define its identity.

Bydgoszcz is more and more frequently chosen as the optimal location for business development. Investors choose the City because it provides them with everything they need most – a convenient location with access to an international airport, competent human resources and training opportunities suited to business needs, attractive investment areas and modern office space in the very centre of the City. In addition, investors can count on professional support for their projects from the Bydgoszcz Regional Development Agency (BARR), a muni­ cipal company set up to serve investors and support entrepreneurship.

The City also offers entrepreneurs a stable business environment, in which diversified economy, based on various sectors and industries, ensures synergies of competences. In addition to strong production with long-standing traditions, the logistics and warehouse sector are developing intensively today, while the modern business services sector (especially in the IT industry) is recording a spectacular growth. The interaction between the different sectors is very clear

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

here. For example, the manufacturing industry takes advantage of the technological solutions available within Industry 4.0, such as robotics in the manufacturing process and inventory automation, which are the solutions also provided by local IT companies.

For both business development and the City, the most important aspect today is the people who create its climate, build its potential and define its identity. That is why the indicators of the quality of life are increasingly important for the further development of investments – and this is also an aspect that is an asset of Bydgoszcz. As a "boutique" location, that is, a large City without many inconveniences characterising large metropolises, it can attract more talented professionals who will have the opportunity to develop here while maintaining work-life balance.

Being the strongest business centre in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Bydgoszcz is committed to being a City convenient for life – with an attractive cultural, residential and educational offer and interesting places for active recreation and realisation of passions. It is a City

that combines its industrial heritage with modern technologies and services, which cares about nature and constantly invests, so that even in today's difficult situation, it continues to maintain its status as a City that is friendly to residents and business.

NEW PERSPECTIVES IN THE "CITY OPEN TO OUTSOURCING" Modern business services are an important sector for the local economy and still developing in Poland, despite the pandemic. Bydgoszcz is today one of the important locations in the country for the further development of investments from the BSS sector. There are currently around 60 BPO, SSC, IT and R&D service centres, employing more than 11,000 people. More than 80% of employment in the sector is generated by IT services, creating a strong local speciali­ sation in Bydgoszcz, which is unique in the country.

The market for modern office space, whose current resources have already exceeded 120,000 sq m, has also res­­­ ponded rapidly to the dynamic growth of the local BPO/SSC sector in recent years.

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INVESTMENTS

Chillispaces.com – one of the leaders in flex office spaces in Poland – has decided to invest in Bydgoszcz. By the end of Q1 2021, the company will offer flexible offices located in a new Preludium office building located in the city centre.

Further 85,000 sq m of office area remains under construction. New office buildings attract with a high standard, location in the City centre, easy access to public transport, as well as numerous technological facilities, or the possibility of arranging space according to individual expectations. It also increases the attractiveness of workplaces, offering employees more comfort and safety.

The time will show the final results of this situation but experts forecast further growth in the BPO/SSC industry.

Poland will remain a desirable direction for companies looking for opportunities to move parts of processes to more cost-effective locations, and based on the experience of remote work, an increase in the popularity of the concept of offices and satellite teams is projected.

This creates new opportunities for cities The pandemic has put both the BSS sector such as Bydgoszcz to allow greater and the related office market to the test. access to work for corporations Due to the specifics of the industry, espe- located in the capital or other parts cially in the case of IT services, including of the country and even the world from the numerous experiences of Bydgoszcz this friendly location. centres related to the remote service of international projects, most of them – Bydgoszcz has been awarded many were able to successfully start the remote times in various plebiscites in recent years work mode and ensure a good level of effi- for creating a good climate for busiciency. Customers appreciated the ability ness development. Such distinctions are of Bydgoszcz companies to provide always welcome, but in these difficult services without interruption. Perhaps times for the economy, we regard them the temporarily adopted solutions will primarily as an even greater commitment. permanently become part of the organisa- We are also aware that further economic tional culture of business service centres, consequences of the current situation are and the remote or hybrid work model will yet to come and further challenges for busibecome not only an additional employee ness and the City will appear. In the crisis, benefit but a commonly used tool. however, continuous mobilisation of forces

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is important, which is why we gather experience, adapt the City's investment offer to current market demands and meet the expectations of investors – points out Edyta Wiwatowska, the President of BARR.

FIRST FLEXIBLE OFFICES SOON TO BE AVAILABLE IN BYDGOSZCZ A redefinition of the needs in terms of the required office space, that plays a more social role as a place for meetings or creative teamworking, is also expected. More flexible lease forms, e.g. coworking spaces or contracts for the duration of a specific project, will probably gain value and become more available. This solution becomes an excellent alternative to remote work, thus providing employees with access to modern infrastructure with conference and social facilities, while not having to be associated with a long-term lease. Consi­ dering this trend and attractive resources available in Bydgoszcz, representatives of BARR have started discussions with national and international suppliers of such solutions. As a result, soon their offer will be available also to investors in Bydgoszcz.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

New investment in the city

Name of the investor: Chillispaces Country of origin: Poland Number of workplaces: 267 Sector: real estate Company's residence in the city: Preludium Occupied place: 1533 sq m

Good design is the strength of the Chillispaces.com brand. It will be no different in the Bydgoszcz office, located in the Preludium office building.

Bydgoszcz is the third city where Chillispaces.com – one of the leaders in flex office spaces in Poland - has decided to invest in Bydgoszcz. By the end of Q1 2021, the company will offer flexi­­ble offices located in a new Preludium office building located in the city centre. This will be one of the first flex office investments in Bydgoszcz. The designer space of 1,500 sq m, will include 267 workspaces, 14 conference rooms, a relaxation area and a bar. According to Robert Jarząbek, the co-owner of Chillispaces. com, the company chose this location due to its high business potential and low market saturation with serviced offered. In his opinion Bydgoszcz is successively strengthening its image of one of the best locations for investments, including in the field of IT and business services. At the same time, the growing office space is based mainly on facilities offering traditional, longterm leases. In the face of the revolution currently taking place on the market, this creates a significant gap and challenge for companies that want to more flexi­ ­bly respond to the shape of their offices in Bydgoszcz. This is especially important in the face of the pandemic and

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

the growing role of hybrid work which combines performing duties from home and from the office.

our flex offices will appear. We focus

The offer from Chillispaces.com is a signi­ ficant enrichment to the office offer in Bydgoszcz. – We are glad that it was in our City and in our offices that Chillispaces.com saw the potential to develop its operations in Poland. The solutions that will bring the creation of a modern, comfortable and attractive flex office space in the city centre will provide an excellent alternative when choosing a place of business for both new investors considering this location, as well as entrepreneurs already present in our City or start-ups – concludes Rafał Bruski, the Mayor of Bydgoszcz.

zone will be comfortable, modern and

on a well-organized space in which both the work zone and the chillout flexible. In addition to conference rooms, kitchens and cafes, in Chillispaces.com offices employees can use conference rooms, phone booths, nap rooms, as well as cocktail bars with soft sofas, consoles and pool tables. Our branches are also distinguished by great internet connection. 1000Mbps high speed redundant network is one of the key factors, attracting companies from the IT, e-commerce, finance and marketing sectors and tech startups to our offices.

More information:

4C Unii Lubelskiej Street 85-059 Bydgoszcz Phone: +48 52 585 88 23 e-mail: barr@barr.pl www.barr.pl

Robert Jarząbek, co-owner of Chillispaces.com

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INVESTMENTS

RESIDENTS FEEL GOOD IN A CITY THAT IS DEVELOPING

Symbol

2020

In November of previous year, Częstochowa got the title: Symbol of Polish Self-Government 2020.

The jury appreciated the innovation of social activities and a comprehensive approach to attracting business, which is directly related to improving the living conditions of residents because a well-educated, happy and well-rested resident is also a kind entrepreneur and willing employee.

Behind every success of Częstochowa are entrepreneurs, teachers, employees of factories and plants, salespeople, students and graduates of schools, as well as officials open to innovation, focusing on lasting relationships with residents.

The pandemic has shown that working together with people and for people is the best solution.

Częstochowa, like other local governments, suffered from the ongoing pandemic. We do not know when the threat will end or how to protect against it in the future. Of course, the safety of the inhabitants remains a prime thing, so it was necessary to adjust the investment activities to the situation. However, this did not stop valuable investments for the city.

We are currently implementing the largest tram investment in the history of Częstochowa. We are also completing the construction of transfer centres at railway stations, the building of the Aqua Park, revitalization of the Old Market Square. We are finishing numerous road

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investments, and the city builds another production hall for rent in the "zone" of Skorki.

The inhabitants are always the most im­­­­­ portant – the human being is the subject of all activities. The current situation has shown the great value of mutual support, mutual assistance, kindness and responsibility. We want residents to feel good in a city that is developing, to know that they co-create it and decide on the directions of this development. For the quality of management, programs and forms of support for entrepreneurs and people employed in newly created workplaces, as well as the de minimis aid program, which is an effective tool for actively encouraging new investors to invest in the city, are significant. New investments are also supported by the real estate tax relief system and support in the investment process, which is being implemented by the municipal Investor Assistance Center.

government. With this in mind, we built a system of incentives for investors and entrepreneurs. We created a program to support entrepreneurship, including developing solutions related to the aforementioned municipal property tax reliefs.

We prepared investment areas and won the SEZ status for them. We built better roads. We have always tried to priori­ tize the needs of the business community of Częstochowa, whether in terms of possible facilitation in administrative procedures or in planning muni­cipal investments that support the business environment and the development of economic activity zones.

The priority of these activities is a higher quality of work understood as better paid, but also performed by qualified employees. That is why we have started activities aimed at raising employment standards in the city. On the one hand, we have successfully sought to locate investments in Częstochowa that would provide better-quality jobs, such as investments In recent years, new and better jobs have by ZF, Guardian or shared services centres. been a priority for the Częstochowa local On the other hand, we prepared young

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

people to work in specialities sought on the local labour market, and we enable them to improve their professional competences. In terms of cooperation with entrepreneurs, attracting investors and innovative projects in the economic, educational and social spheres – we certainly have something to be proud.

of Competence Development". From qualification courses or project results with the participation of working and unemployed people. In this way, we help in obtaining prospective, better paid and more developmental work.

We provide extensive support for vocational education, quickly educating specialists in searching for specialiThe "Better Job Now" program has three ties on the market. Let me remind you lines of action. The first for the imple- that our "Better Job Now" program mentation of the Fair Play program dedi- was in the final of the "Innovative Self-­ cated to employers which supports, -Government 2020" competition organi­ among others, discounts for socially ­zed by the Local Government Service responsible employers and granting of the Polish Press Agency.

"Better Job" certificates. The second – to operate the Center for Better Workplaces, The "Better Job Now" program has which is responsible for the job offer a clear goal – new investors, new jobs, bank, the career office and the platform less unemployment. Better work is one associating employers and employees, that meets expectations, gives satisfacfrom the position of graduates and tion, a sense of security, enables develstudents of technical and vocational opment and fulfilment of ambitions. schools in Częstochowa. The third direc- The labour market in Częstochowa must tion – looking for a job and lifting poles become the market of a socially sensitive for people who want better quality employer who cares about its employee. and focus on their development. Such In the Fair Play component, there are a project was, for example, "Academy allowances rewarding employers who

In recent years, new and better jobs have been a priority for the Częstochowa local government. With this in mind, we built a system of incentives for investors and entrepreneurs.

We created a program to support entrepreneurship, including developing solutions related to the aforementioned municipal property tax reliefs.

Only in the first edition of “Professional Cooperation” students took part in paid internships with about 100 Częstochowa employers, some of them – as school graduates – already work in these companies.

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INVESTMENTS

In terms of cooperation with entrepreneurs, attracting investors and innovative projects in the economic, educational and social spheres – we certainly have something to be proud.

understand this under the Employee Rights Ombudsman and certificates awarded to employers. In turn, the Center of Better Workplaces is a platform that connects our previous activities – it is here that employers "meet" employees and school students. On the praca.czestochowa.pl portal you can find comprehensive information on employees, employers and secondary schools in Częstochowa, collected in one place. Courses and skills improvement courses in finding a better local job. Therefore, under the last component of the "Goal: Your Development" program there are, among others, subsequent editions of projects co-financed

by EU funds: "Professional Cooperation", "Center of Development Services", "Active Parents – Happy Children".

associating schools and students with companies that are waiting for graduates and can hire young people with good and perspective working conditions. This program is also beneficial for employers because it meets their expectations and demand for good staff.

New investments in Częstochowa mean new jobs. The inhabitants of Częstochowa will benefit from them, but also perhaps people who have not been connected with our city so far. An attractive offer, a good job can make them decide to move and become residents of Częstochowa. That is why activities which We have just completed recruitment increase the attractiveness of compafor the 3rd edition of the "Active Parents nies and making them perceived as – Happy Children" project. Thanks to its a career-friendly environment, and implementation, new places are created the city-friendly to life, are so important. in the Reksio Municipal Nursery, new The growing role of employer branding nannies find employment, and new and the benefits that result from it cannot parents may return to the labour market. be overestimated, also for a city such as Częstochowa. Several thousand people have already Text: Anna Tymoshenko based on an interview benefited from individual components with the Mayor of Częstochowa, Krzysztof Matyjaszczyk. of the program – raising their compe- Translation: Magdalena Wytrzymała tences, finding a job or an employee, Only in the first edition of "Professional and receiving subsidies. The total More information: Cooperation" students took part in paid value of projects implemented under internships with about 100 Częstochowa the Better Job Now program is approx. employers, some of them – as school PLN 90 million. graduates – already work in these compaInvestor Assistance Center Department nies. This year, we have also obtained Building the employer's brand is a prinof European Funds and Development funds for the continuation of the "Profes- cipal issue in the context of stimulating City Hall of Częstochowa sional Cooperation" project for the next the labour market. It is worth knowing Waszyngtona 5 Street, two years. The aim of "Professional Coop- how people today look for a job and make 42-217 Częstochowa Phone: +48 34 3707 212, +48 34 3707 213 eration" is not only to improve the quality employment decisions, how valuable are e-mail: coi@czestochowa.um.gov.pl, and conditions of education and appren- professional and business relations as well fer@czestochowa.um.gov.pl ticeship in schools. It is also about as interpersonal relations in the company. www.czestochowa.pl

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

HR NEWS

ELIAS VAN HERWAARDEN – THE HEAD OF EMEA LOCATION STRATEGY, COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL Colliers International today announced that industry specialist Elias van Herwaarden has been appointed as the Head of EMEA Location Strategy to provide Location Strategy advisory services to global corporations.

optimisation, corporate capital solutions, complex and emerging markets solutions, data center advisory, corporate industrial advisory, digital and technology solutions, workplace advisory, enterprise FM advisory, project management, lease administration, ESG, and occupier Elias joins Colliers from Deloitte and has tenant representation. spent more than three decades advising global organisations on the location The Location Strategy service proposition strategy for their global business foot- aims to optimise global business operaprint and will now join the EMEA division tions through a range of nearshoring and of the global real estate advisory firm as offshoring portfolio and labour strategies. part of the Occupier Services business. His experience includes advising on corporate expansion and footprint optimisation as well business process outsourcing and global business services operating models for a wide range of industries across more than 250 cities and 47 countries worldwide. In addition, he has extensively been called on to provide strategic advice for real estate developers and economic development corporations in every region of the world.

It examines such aspects as labour market opportunities, infrastructure maturity, real estate availability, government incentives, and tax optimisation for corporations looking to operate and optimise business operations and supply chains on a global basis.

Elias also teaches International Business Strategy at KU Leuven, sits on the boards of various international business associa­ tions and is a member of the Site Selectors Guild.

Elias’ primary focus will be to lead Colliers’ strategic location consulting capability for key corporate clients based on corporate location drivers such as labour arbitrage, talent availability, business expansion, and real estate portfolio optimization. Elias will leverage Colliers industry leading occupier services operating platform including portfolio strategy, asset

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

WILL REMOTE WORKING REPLACE TELEWORKING?

SOFTSERVE POLAND RECOGNIZED AS A GREAT PLACE TO WORK-CERTIFIED™ COMPANY

The head of the Ministry of Family, Labour • the detailed terms and conditions and Social Policy (MRPiPS) announced of remote work, just like in the case today via the Polish Press Agency PAP of teleworking, will in principle be that the provisions on remote work to be agreed between the employer and included in the Labour Code will gene­ the employee; such an agreement can rally follow the existing legislation on be made already at the time of hiring teleworking. What exactly does MRPiPS the employee, or later in the course of have in mind with regard to remote work? employment – then the remote work arrangement can be made upon the The Minister of Family, Labour and Social employer’s initiative or the employee’s Policy Marlena Maląg announced today request; that the provisions on remote work will • in specific circumstances the employer replace the existing Labour Code proviwould be able to instruct the employee sions on teleworking. to work remotely; in such a case, the remote working arrangement would When can we expect the new regulations? be possible only after obtaining the According to Deputy Minister Stanisław employee’s statement regarding the Szwed – It appears that the first quarter appropriate housing and technical conditions to work in such a way; of next year is the optimal time for these changes to come into effect.

• the terms and conditions of remote work will be established in consultation Below is the list of provisions included with the trade unions or in staff regulations – if no agreement is reached in the draft proposal of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy: with the trade unions or if there are no trade unions in the workplace; Labour • remote work can be provided entirely or partly away from the employer’s Code provisions will specify only the premi­ses or another permanent work minimum scope of the agreement and/ location, as specified in the employment or staff regulations; contract or identified by the employer; • in the absence of any agreement with this may be the employee’s home or the trade unions or absence of staff another place of their choice; regulations, remote work would also • remote work can be provided using be a possibility upon an instruction means of remote communication – for from the employer, upon the employinstance email, telephone and instant ee’s request or by mutual agreement messaging technologies identified by with the employee to accommodate the employer, but also without the their legitimate needs. use of such means – for instance, if the employee’s job involves analysis of You can read more about remote work at: https://grantthornton.pl/en documents;

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

SoftServe, a leading digital authority and consulting company, was recognized as a Great Place to Work-Certified™ company by Great Place to Work Poland, a global authority on workplace culture.

The certification demonstrates that Soft­ Serve Poland creates a positive workplace culture based on the level of trust, pride, and camaraderie that employees experience. Anonymous employee feedback was gathered through an independent survey conducted by Great Place to Work Poland. The research collected showed that 84% of employees who took part in the survey consistently had positive experiences working at SoftServe.

– We are committed to achieving people excellence and firmly believe that our employees are our greatest asset – said Paweł Łopatka, VP and Country Manager at SoftServe Poland. – Achieving the dis­­ t­inction as a Great Place to Work-Certified™ company reaffirms our commitment to creating optimal employee experiences through professional development and a productive and collaborative environment for our team of experienced experts and visionaries. Positive employee experiences result in greater productivity, customer experiences, and overall business results.

SoftServe supports employees by pro­­­ viding continuous learning opportunities through SoftServe University, a corporate learning hub that provides associates with managerial and leadership competencies and IT skills.

If you are ready to begin the next step in your career and start creating solutions for today’s toughest digital transformation challenges, please visit SoftServe’s career page.

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CAREER & DEVELOPMENT

FIXING RECRUITMENT WITH

THE

HUMAN CLOUD

Recruiting as we know it today is unnecessarily painful for everyone. The whole process is certainly dogged by all kinds of obstacles not only for those who are in search of a job but also for those looking for new talent to hire. focus on every potential employee as they are overwhelmed by the amount of information involved in the process. Available data shows that on average, recruiters can take as little as seven seconds to scan a resume.4 This is a real problem as not only interviewing the wrong people is a costly process both in time and money, but the average cost of a bad hire is 30% of the person’s salary.5 However, thanks to The number of middlemen standing the huge inventory, variety and accuracy between candidates and the company is of data as well as AI/ML supported soluway too high as well. Before a candidate tions, recruitment managers need only is able to face the ‘’final boss’’, they some- spend a few minutes to find the right OBSTACLES FOR A PROSPECTIVE times need to have the same conversation talent in the Cloud.

EMPLOYEE with many people on the “recruitment For candidates, one of the main issues ladder’’. It can be simplified by involving According to Wonderlic, 93%6 of emplo­ with searching for the right employer is the Human Cloud, where a manager can yers consider soft skills an “essential” or the time-consuming nature of the pro­­­ see all of the important information and “very important” factor in hiring decicess, which can even take a few months3 select a candidate because of the skills sions. According to LinkedIn, 89% of to conclude. According to Talent they really need that the person has. managers say bad hires typically lack soft skills. The problem is that you won’t Alpha’s study, it can take only 2–3 days for specialist engagement in a project TALENT SEEKERS’ PROBLEMS see psychometrics in a standard resume. with the Human Cloud, which allows We all know that talent seekers don’t have There are tools that measure cognitive, for a quick response to a company’s it easy either. In some cases, it takes weeks social and personal capabilities, but it needs. In addition, standard job-search or even months, to find the right person takes a great deal of time to complete platforms don’t provide the necessary for the right position and what’s more the tests, which in themselves are repeti­ 1 – it’s expensive! The recruiter’s role is to tive processes as a prospective employee Yello.

2 Rethinking the Workforce Playbook, Talent pick out the most promising candidates. 4 TheLadders.

Alpha, 2020 .

5 3 However, they are unable to sufficiently 6 Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Yello.

A recruitment process sometimes takes up to three months and costs more than $6,000 per-hire1! On top of this, the talent gap, especially in the tech industry, is growing. 86% of HR technology leaders are concerned about the shortage of criti­cal skills and competencies.2 Fortunately, the Human Cloud supported

by Talent Analytics and AI/ML solutions is in pole position to significantly help companies to match the best people with the right opportunities, even if they are scattered around the world.

tools to present real, detailed, accurate and standardized information about people’s technical and soft skills. How can someone find the best company for them if they’re not able to present their strengths in a comprehensive way and have to compete with other people who can basically include whatever they want in their CV?

Wonderlic.

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

has to take the tests every time they change employer. Things would change if you had a tool which provided relevant information about people’s strengths in minutes and one authoritative source with all of the data.

HERE COMES OUR KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR – THE HUMAN CLOUD! Matthew Mottola, a CoFounder and CEO of Venture L, and most importantly the author of the Human Cloud, says: The Human Cloud is a way to think about accessing and engaging the right talent at the right time. Because the Human Cloud is digital and globally distributed, it has never been easier to tap into the world’s most talented experts for the specific skill you need at a specific time.

Organizations are now facing several challenges including talent shortages, the failure of traditional ways of accessing talent, the time lost on bad hires, and a decline in productivity rates. These issues have taken on even more importance against the backdrop of the global pandemic. COVID-19 has ushered in a new reality, where most processes are happening remotely. This is where the Human Cloud can help us all. Being able to respond to almost every problem there is within the hiring process means that the Human Cloud can make it a near painless and crystal clear procedure. It can help you in accessing, managing, measuring, as well as accessing and sharing talent much more easily.

– I believe it is most efficient to look for the right talent capability to do the work exactly when it’s needed by using the best skills inside and outside of the organization. And on the other side of the equation – most specialists prefer to be rewarded for the real advantages they bring to companies and projects – Przemek Berendt, CEO of Talent Alpha.

Companies will gain a real insight into what talent they need and have the chance to communicate this in order to find the most suitable candidates.

The Human Cloud is a way of getting the work done remotely, providing companies with access to top talents from anywhere in the world. Having this insight into the real skills, soft skills, personality traits and cognitive abilities of candidates, improves the chances of choosing the right person for a specific task. These aspects of the Human Cloud can have a positive influence on a company’s HR processes, recruitment and up/ re-skilling efficiency, and can also help in cutting recruitment costs and shorte­ ning the whole process, which can result in a reduction of talent acquisition expenditure by up to 35%7, according to Talent Alpha’s experience.

How does it work in practice? With Human Cloud solutions provided by Talent Alpha, Novartis was able to increase tenfold the speed and efficiency of parsing CV data and matching candidates to role requirements. Using psychometric data in the process, helps to gain a much better understanding of a talent’s importance. Providing more accurate data about a candidate’s capabilities and personal qualities, allows a company to make better informed, data driven hiring decisions.

Rethinking the Workforce Playbook, Talent Alpha, 2020.

7

– During the project we captured 30% more data points than in our traditional screening process, and the full profiles were created in a matter of days instead of weeks – said Kristina Hardy, a Disruptor from the Novartis Business Services X Team.

The Human Cloud and advanced HRTech platforms such as Talent Alpha’s, opens up new opportunities for talent, allowing organizations to share resources in the Cloud, access IT talent from other companies and provide advanced insights about which employees are best for upskilling, reskilling and internal mobility opportunities. It can offer solutions to the challenges connected with managing remote teams, understanding, and indexing skills in a dispersed organization, enabling data-driven workforce decisions as well as matching specialists with the right projects and opportunities.

To learn more about

how the Human Cloud and Talent Analytics can help you today, check out this page:

Author:

Patrycja Kalinowska, Talent Alpha

CAREER & DEVELOPMENT

THE REPORT: THE IT INDUSTRY FACING NEW NORMAL. WHO IS TO GAIN AND WHO IS TO LOSE? The IT industry has not remained indifferent to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. One in three experts admits that they have experienced changes in their job offer. What’s more, nearly half of the IT workers (42%) have seen their pay rises and promotions grind to a halt. For some experts bonuses and incentives have already become a thing of the past – this is what seems to follow from the Devire's latest report "The IT industry facing new normal. Who has gained and who has lost in 2020?”.

PAY RISES AND PROMOTIONS UNDER QUESTION

conditions. Most employers have introduced a remote working mode, yet this is no novelty The main changes experienced for IT experts. What hurts the most are,

by IT experts concern remote working and of course, financial issues. A large proportion salary – 84% of those surveyed switched to of employers have suspended pay rises and remote working. Pay rises and promotions planned promotions. To make matters worse, have been put on hold for 42% of respond- either bonuses have been brought to stop ents. Nearly one in three employees also or salaries have been temporarily reduced. had to take their outstanding leave. Agata The report "IT industry facing new Miller, IT team leader in the recruitment Moreover, as the study reveals, during normal" was a nationwide study carried and outsourcing company Devire explains: the pandemic, employers grapple with out among specialists, managers and Companies providing IT services to industries postponing or closing projects (24%). leaders of the organization in the period directly affected by the pandemic (e.g. devel- There is also a reduction in the scope from June to August 2020. As a matter oping software for airlines) have lost projects. of a given project or a reduction in salary of fact, 426 respondents from the IT In order to make it through, they were forced for its execution. industry responded. to implement changes in employment – Some workers might have been taken aback by a decision to use their outstanding leave at a time when a travel ban was still Has anything changed in your current in force. On the other hand, this was delibe­ form of employment due to COVID-19? rate move made by employers looking for savings – adds Agata Miller.

The vast majority of IT experts claim that after the COVID-19 pandemic their employment conditions remained the same (62%). Still, every third expert in Poland was affected by changes in the contract with the employer (38%) – in the level of salary, projects implemented or the form of contract.

yes

62%

86

no

38%

As Ewelina admits, Security Specialist in an IT company: The main consequence of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the IT industry was to halt cutting-edge projects in companies.

The teams experienced the feeling of insecurity, which was mainly due to the growing gap between a number of new projects and frozen ones. For instance, out of two new projects there were five that were called off.

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

FLEXIBLE FORMS OF CONTRACT BECOMING INCREASINGLY POPULAR What we also learn from the report is that after the outbreak of the pandemic, 5% of industry experts had to change the form of the contract, e.g. employment contract to B2B. Although the employment contract still enjoys the greatest popularity with 52% of respondents indicating this; employees themselves are increasingly willing to choose flexible forms of employment. 47% of them would choose a B2B contract as opposed to 41% of respondents who currently provide services in this form.

The above data shows that an employer who wants to gain the best talent from the IT market should create an attractive offer both for the group of specialists inte­ rested in the employment contract and for contractors providing their services based on B2B contracts.

What is your current form of employment?

Employment contract 52%

B2B 41%

Currently unemployed 5%

Contract of mandate 2%

How has your attitude to changing job changed?

I am not actively looking for job but I am open to new proposals

I want to change job and I am actively looking for a new one

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

I am looking for a job, but there are no offers that match my experience

I am not looking for a job and do not want to change the current one

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CAREER & DEVELOPMENT

You can download the report here:

Grzegorz Opala, Executive Manager in Devire explains: Although, initially, owing to the pandemic, some contractors may have sought greater stability guaranteed by the employment contract, the effect has turned out to be short-lived. If the companies do not want to limit their access to the pool of candidates, they are faced with the challenge of appropriate adjustment and design of the implemented tasks, also in terms of formal and legal regulations. In practice, this means deciding which tasks to delegate to internal employees and which tasks to outsource to external specialists due to their nature.

LESS INCLINATION TO CHANGE The rotation and frequent changes of projects have so far been written into the DNA of work in the IT industry. As it turns out, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the willingness to change significantly decreased.

Though IT specialists admit that they are open to new professional challenges, 43% of them are waiting for their employer to present them with an attractive offer. At the same time, fewer industry experts are actively seeking new professional challenges – 23% of those surveyed in 2020 compared to 34% in 2019.

Respondents also indicate that they are not looking for a job and do not want to change the current one – 17% in 2020 in contrast to 12% in 2019.

The greatest inactivity in looking for a job is shown among young people, with 64% of respondents in this group admitting that they are waiting for an employer's offer. Conversely, managers as well as project managers are most active – every third of them is proactively searching for a job (33%). This may be due to the aforementioned shifting or complete closure of projects. Author:

Comments: Agata Miller, Senior Team Leader in Devire Grzegorz Opala, Executive Manager in Devire

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Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

CAREER & DEVELOPMENT

EMPLOYEE MOOD BAROMETER: TIPS FOR EMPLOYERS 2020 has been full of challenges and experiences that would suffice for a whole generation: lockdown, a sudden collapse of certain sectors coupled with rapid growth in others, and forced retraining. There has also been a revolutionary change in the manner of performing work: first a shift to home office (whenever possible), followed by a timid return to the offices.

It was in this situation on the labour market that we conducted our “Employee Mood Barometer” survey on a group of almost 1,000 people selected from among the clients and candidates of Gi Group, Grafton Recruitment, Wyser, and TACK TMI. We asked them about their sentiments connected with employment. The conclusions are, unfortunately, not very optimistic: employees have a middling opinion of all the fields under analysis, while employers fail to read the moods in their teams correctly.

an average of 6.2.; they proved to be greater pessimists when providing an answer on how the employees in their organisation assessed their position on the labour market in terms of remunerations. In my opinion, their assessment also followed from a better know­ ledge of their organisation’s financial standing as well as the economic situation of the industry or even the country as a whole. The question concerning potential pay raises in the coming quarter serves as a case in point here. As many as 80% of employers who rated employment We asked the respondents about stability in their organisations at 5 or lower the degree to which they were satis- answered definitively there would be no fied with their salaries and employ- raises. This reaction was most probably ment stability as well as about the level connected with the COVD-19 pandemic of their job satisfaction and trust in their and their macroeconomic knowledge. superiors. We were interested whether the perspectives of employees and Where else have we noticed a discrepemployers were similar. The result of any ancy between employers and employees given category is always an average concerning salaries? When asked about of all the replies provided according to the level of raise that employees would a 10-degree scale. have to be granted to rate their situation as 6 or higher, the biggest group As it turns out, employees have a middling of employers (42%) replied it would opinion on all of the analysed aspects have to amount to around 20%. What (between 6 and 7) and their superiors fail did employees have to say to that? to read the team moods correctly.

The difference in this case was huge: a pay raise of 20% and 25% was indicated Interestingly, as regards salaries, the senti- by two groups of 25% respondents (with ment barometer displayed a higher an almost equal distribution) as a condireading in the case of employees (6.6). tion necessary for them to rate their posiEmployers were less optimistic, with tion as 6 or higher.

90

The above difference can also be explained otherwise: perhaps the general opinion that “employers think their employees are always dissatisfied with their wages, no matter how much they are paid” is proving to be true? Let me leave it here as food for thought.

The next question was concerned with employment stability and, as it turns out, employees had a better opinion about it. The mood barometer equalled 7.1 in their case, compared to 7 in the group of employers. Does it mean that the employee market continues, as labour market experts have been claiming all along? This suggestion is supported by information received from our clients: most organisations refrained from layoffs and many have actually expanded their teams.

It is a good sign that employees have a sense of security concerning their jobs despite the current economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, when asked about the factors that make employees at their organisations consider their jobs stable, employers listed safety and regularity of salary payments as the main priority. Safety of the organisation ranked second, followed by the attractiveness of the product or service offered by the organisation. Meanwhile, employees

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

You can download the report here:

listed the security of the organisation as the primary factor contributing to their sense of employment stability, followed by the safety and regularity of salary payments. These results may indicate that, in light of the pandemic, employees pay greater attention to the condition of the organisation. Contrary to numerous opinions, they are not focused exclusively on their salaries. It is clear that employees are ready to negotiate or modify the terms of their employment so that they can keep their jobs and weather the difficult times together with their organisation. This attitude should be appreciated and, after the organisation gets back on its feet, rewarded in some manner, e.g. if they had to give up a part of their salary or switch to a different employment mode.

In our survey, we also asked employees about their relationship with and confidence in the employer and about their assessment of the actions and attitude of their employer in crisis situations.

At the same time, employers got to assess the degree to which the people within their organisation trust them and perceive their actions during a crisis.

To conclude, we are perfectly aware that the first edition of the “Employee Mood Barometer” was created in very special conditions and at a unique time that certainly influenced the answers The mood barometer concerning confi- of employers and employees alike. dence in the employer equalled 6.6 This is why we are planning to repeat among employees and employers alike. it. The next, completely new edition This consistent rating in a 10-degree of the Barometer will be released as soon scale is a rather low result. It seems as in January 2021 and I kindly invite you that employers have a lot of work to do to leaf through it once it is published.  in terms of building their position within the organisation and gaining their Methodology: “Employee Mood Baromemployees’ trust, especially if we take eter.” CAVI survey 12.07-23.08.2020. specific grades into consideration: as Employees: candidates from the bases many as 71.38% employers and only of Gi Group, Grafton Recruitment, 65.44% employees rated the confidence and Wyser, n=591. Employers: clients of persons within the organisation in their of Gi Group, Grafton Recruitment, Wyser, employer at 6 or higher. What is more, ProProgressio, and LeanPassion, n=370. employers assigned higher grades to the relationship with superiors in all cate- Author: gories: for example, a good relationship with the superior was selected by 22.55% employees and as many as 36.95% employers as a primary factor contri­ buting to the employees’ job satisfaction!

The lowest results in the whole survey were reported in the section devoted to job satisfaction. In this case, the mood barometer of employees reached 6 and of employers only 5.9. It seems that employers are getting increasingly hard pressed to maintain a high level of commitment of their teams, especially when promotions and pay raises have been put on hold. Meanwhile, job satisfaction is a necessary condition of incentivising employees and, as A critical opinion of employers, their a result, of success. competences and attitudes was confirmed

Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021

by yet another ratio, namely the assessment of the employer by employees in crisis situations (on average 6.7 among employees and 6.5% among employers).

Joanna Wanatowicz, Business Director, Grafton Recruitment

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FOCU

US ON complete reports about Polish cities

www.proprogressio.pl