16.06.2023

AN INDIVIDUAL APPROACH AND AN EQUAL START ARE PARAMOUNT TO EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Equal start and individual approach. These two factors were highlighted as key to increasing employee engagement and motivation during the second panel "Reinventing engagement" of the Next Level HR 2023 forum, organized by "Manager" magazine, which Consultancy Center - Berkovica presents to you in detail.

"Why are we reinventing people engagement as key for employers and what are the new ways to engage the people we work with?", these are the questions that the moderator of the second panel of the Next Level HR 2023 forum Maria Stoeva, Director of Sales and Business Development " in "ManpowerGroup" Bulgaria, started the conversation.

"In recent years, we have said a very big and definitive goodbye to the classic office, where people had to go to a certain workplace, start work at 8:30 or 9 and finish work at 5, 5:30 or 18:00 hours. The focus is now on what these people actually do and how effective they are, not so much when and where they work from. Their commitment, self-motivation and self-discipline came to the fore,” she said.

"The fact that the workplace has moved home since the pandemic began has changed quite a few factors that engage employees. What we observed 4-5 years ago was that employees are motivated by being part of a community – being together, having common goals and achieving those goals together. This was actually related to employer branding. It was this factor that was quite leading in terms of employee motivation. However, things have changed now," commented Hristo Borisov, co-founder of ARS Bulgaria.

He said that it is already noticeable that employees are looking more and more at their personal and independent goals, which they achieve individually. Employers should be flexible at this point and treat their employees as freelancers.

"The main role in the motivation of this type of groups is the direct manager, people expect constant feedback and their professional qualities to be developed," added Borisov.

"About 2-3 years ago, we introduced another factor - employee experience. How an employee joins the company, how he develops, how he is cared for, etc., he also said.

According to him, this is a trend that is being strengthened by the new generation of people entering the labor market. "They are quite marked individualists."

"More and more often we talk about developing the company as a community. It is becoming more and more important to have an internal community in order to be able to engage people not only with the mission and vision of the company, but also with the colleagues with whom they work in a team," notes Maria Stoeva.

Nadya Vasileva, chairwoman of the Bulgarian Employment Confederation, said that for her, the individual approach to people and the meaning of the work performed have always been important. "Seeing that you are doing something meaningful is one of the most important reasons that keep people in corporations."

She quotes William McKnight's thought from 1924: "If you put a fence around people, you get sheep."

"My idea was to break down those fences. When I appointed my people, I did not look for them to be exclusively cooperative with the company. For me, the sparkle in the eyes, the desire to learn was important," commented Vasileva.

According to her, it is extremely important for the leader to set the topic.

"In 2007, the crisis developed headlong, naturally it also came to Bulgaria. We had just opened the company and the whole business went downhill. I received instructions from above that I had to fire 50% of the people. I haven't blinked all night. The next day in the morning I called them together and said, "Guys, we're all working a 6-hour day." We worked like this for a year and not a single one was fired. We were able to float and I can't describe what a bond it was," she said. "You have to have an approach and finish things the way you want them to go."

Maria Stoeva pointed out that belonging is certainly important and we increasingly see in a number of reports that it has long been more than just about money when it comes to people's commitment. "Money can be a motivator and a demotivator, but people are looking for a lot more than that," she added, then asked what are the main other motivators?

"I believe everyone here is aware that money has never been the primary motivator for how engaged a person is," said Anna Gabrovska, Head of Culture and Human Capital, Philip Morris Bulgaria.

“I like that we talk about belonging. Even before the pandemic, there was a study by colleagues at Deloitte that talked about the need to create belonging. Naturally, this happens by uniting around a common goal. However, the purpose must be well understood. Just putting the vision in front of us is not enough because that vision becomes chimerical and impractical. If we have a common goal, I need to know what my contribution is to fulfill that goal,” she added.

In her words, the "employee journey," with all its mistakes and trials, is key to being able to go through all the internal processes, understand them well, and know how to contribute.

"This new opportunity - to be able to work from wherever we want is extremely important. Our organization offers 60 to 40 work within a month, which means 60% at home and 40% in the office. However, when we give this freedom, it is good to create conditions to attract people to the office, because that is where those interactions happen, so that they continue to like each other and support each other," said Gabrovska.

"New generations are coming that have certain requirements. I wouldn't call them selfish, but people who know what they want to achieve in the future," she added.

Maria Stoeva summarized that with regard to work outside the office, it is important that people have the necessary flexibility to have well-being in their personal lives, but it is also important that they see each other in the office from time to time and that something is done with them.

"Last year we did a study and developed personas of all the people who have a different approach to their working hours. It turned out that all that connected these people was the word freedom. It's not even flexibility because it's within the framework. Freedom is the feeling that you have the right to choose. I believe that this is what should lead us," said Gabrovska.

"A sense of freedom is very key. When people feel truly autonomous in their work and are highly engaged, they are usually also highly responsible," added Stoeva.

She noted that around the world and in Bulgaria we see that the standard 40-hour model is also being called into question. "We are seeing more and more countries and companies adapting the 4-day working model."

"The less work time we have, the more concentrated we are. It would be logical that the 4-day work week could give people the freedom we talked about to a greater extent," said Nadya Vasileva.

However, according to her, the people themselves should have sufficient responsibility and choose how to work.

“We have people with active bodies, we have people with passive bodies. Some can work from home and some can't. It's extremely important to bring that understanding, that's where the individual approach comes from - what paradigm everyone has around them," she said, adding that her dream is for people to work 2 hours a day.

In terms of macroeconomic trends, including declining economic growth and rising costs of living, she said this was because everyone in work was "wasting an enormous amount of valuable time in administrative work, crunching data into spreadsheets to can prove they deserve a salary'.

"That needs to go away, and if it wasn't there, everyone would be a lot more productive." I hope that digitization and robots will take over exactly this part of the work," Vasileva added.

"For me, this is the future, especially in a country like Bulgaria with the demographic problem we have. We are melting at 10 people per hour - 7 are born and 17 die. I don't see how it will happen without importing people from outside. Its economy needs at least 300,000 people and more," she added.

Hristo Borisov also commented on the 40-hour work week.

“What I would share is unlikely to appeal to all employees. We have to take a comprehensive look at the tracks of the Bulgarian economy. The coefficient of beneficial action in Bulgaria is extremely low. How then to solve this problem? It also depends on the industry. If, at this efficiency factor, we decide to shorten the work week by 1 day, what will most likely happen is that the employer will have to hire new people to make up for that 1 day. The employer will have to hire people which will cost him quite a lot,” he said.

According to him, this cost will be transferred to the services and products produced by the respective company.

"Regardless of whether it is the foreign market or the Bulgarian market, we are very price sensitive. This is the one element to look at. Yes, it is surmountable, but until that moment comes, companies should look flexibly at this challenge and at the 40-hour work week as an added benefit. Some people would prefer to leave work earlier, others to have more paid leave," added Borisov.

Maria Stoeva noted that for a year and a half ManpowerGroup has been working on a 4-day work model.

“I can say that it's definitely a process. If we just automatically cut 20% of the working hours, we'll need more people or we won't get as much work done. But if it's seen as a process where we use technology, artificial intelligence, the higher concentration of people because they want to get their work done by Thursday, then we get much different levels of engagement and a better ROI than those people. It's a process, not something that happens from today to tomorrow," she commented, adding that it has positives in many ways.

Anna Gabrovska also shares the opinion that the end of the time has come when the employer could afford not to care about the well-being of his employees.

“I believe it's not just about people's demands, but how the employer is going to achieve that productivity. In order for us to achieve productivity that leads to a 4-day work week, people must have the necessary training. I do not believe that the Bulgarian is not productive. I believe he is capable of doing this. If he is prepared to be productive enough, he can also switch to a 4-day work week," she is emphatic.

“When it comes to the other elements of well-being, mental health care has come to the fore. The COVD-19 pandemic has shown needs in this direction. I think we need to bring this topic closer to people," Gabrovska also said.

According to her, the Workshops do not solve these issues, as there is a need for an individual approach to people.

"In large organisations, this is difficult, but talking to people is the other thing that can help us understand exactly where we need an individual approach." Just as marketing initiatives have target groups, we need to have target groups inside the organization – knowing them well enough and knowing what works for them,” she said.

Maria Stoeva asked what other practices, besides the 4-day work week, could support employee engagement and well-being.

"We're back to the individual approach again. Everyone has their own understanding of things. In this case, what our panel is about is to look at other concepts from the point of view of the managers' attitude, precisely about skills such as empathy, trust, as well as the attitude towards intra-company entrepreneurship", answered Nadya Vasileva.

"Managers have to help their people. In many cases, they fall into micromanagement, which leads to the destruction of complexes, and the manager is ultimately left alone. It is important to make sure our managers know what they are doing and how they are doing it," she added.

Maria Stoeva added that in the organization everything starts with the leadership - what is he like and what kind of culture does he create in the organization.

The next topic from the panel was that of policies focusing on mothers of young children.

"I can give an example from our company. This group is quite well defined and should be paid attention to, especially in these times when ladies do not want to lag behind in their career development. A mother wants to spend more time with her child, and when she is not with him, to know that he is in safe hands," said Hristo Borisov.

"Many companies in Bulgaria open their own kindergartens, where their employees have the opportunity to accommodate the children. The other practice is to pay extra fees for private kindergartens to solve the problem with state ones. These are the two main moments that we observe in companies. Flexible working hours are also very important so that the mother can leave and pick up her child from kindergarten on time," he added.

Anna Gabrovska also gave a personal example.

"What we introduced is that within a total of 4 months of the first leave, we pay extra on top of what the state pays mothers - their full salary. Along with this, we have given a total of 18 weeks of leave for fathers because they are also parents. It's something that's everyone's idea," she said.

Gabrovska also comments on parents who work from home when their children are with them.

"It's something that will continue to happen. We have a program in this direction so that we can talk to parents about what they need to be able to find a balance. The other is to give parents the knowledge to take care of their finances so that they can provide for university for the children who are currently growing up. We all understand that this is a long term policy. We should all have a family long-term policy to take care of our children," she commented.

Maria Stoeva noted that very often we see good and working examples from organizations that have values and a vision in this direction. However, she emphasized that there are still employers who pay women differently.

"I read this week that on the subject of pensions it turns out that men currently receive higher pensions than women. There are differences in the work they've done, but aren't we provided the same? There is a difference of about BGN 148 between men and women," said Nadia Vasileva.

It highlights an important and hidden problem – we have a large percentage of single women, whether mothers or not, who take care of their families and parents alone.

“This should be taken into account when negotiating the salary. There is an extremely large percentage of women who are exhausted," Vassilev added.

Maria Stoeva also paid attention to the policies for diversity, the inclusion of people who are different in some way from the rest. "We are talking about very young people, people over the age of 55 or people with mental differences. These policies are increasingly becoming very important in companies."

"In Bulgaria, this balance between women and men is more of a balance than an imbalance compared to other countries in Europe. In our organization, we have 67% women, and over 65% are in senior management positions. They are well represented," said Anna Gabrovska.

"I am skeptical that we should put the social and personal demotion of anyone on the table, because then it would be very difficult for us to balance the rest of the equality of all employees in an organization. We don't want to have the reverse discrimination against men," she added.

According to her, these are policies, and the other is awareness and strategy of the organization.

"There can be inequality of people who are not only divided by gender, but perhaps by religion. We are an open company that respects everyone. This is proven by the standard we pursue. The other is the internal culture and willingness to cooperate. Internal culture is what creates a sense of belonging. If it shares identical values and people share them, they would certainly be ones to support the policies. That is, the policy should come afterwards, not put it up front," she added.

Maria Stoeva shared the results of a survey on LinkedIn with the question: "Should there be quotas for female leaders in a given company?".

According to her, 68% of people answered "no".

"It's not equal if we interfere. At the same time, we need to be committed to attracting those people who are not normally part of the regular labor market," she added.

Hristo Borisov stated that most of the companies he encountered on the market have similar policies, but another question is how they implement them.

“I heard comments about justice here. To me, all of these policies are about fairness and the culture of the company or employer. Where does justice come from? It came again from the management, from the leaders. In order for us to implement these policies, there must be a high level of fairness on the part of the company's leaders themselves. For me, fairness should be the main criterion in choosing a leader. You have to have a high level of fairness that is recognized by employees,” he said.

Borisov also said that in Bulgaria we do not have such serious problems among employers.

“When it comes to women in business, I've talked a lot about quotas. There is a huge difference between how women leaders feel in Eastern and Western Europe, and especially in the Anglo-Saxon world. Many of the problems facing the Anglo-Saxon world were incomprehensible to me until I met with leaders from the region. I asked them if quotas solve the problem. They replied that they did not need quotas, but an opportunity to prove themselves. It is much more important for them to reach these positions by proving themselves than with quotas," commented Borisov.

"I don't think that with this lack of people we can have quotas in Bulgaria. Here, we do not do selection, but mining, and we still cannot find them," added Nadya Vasileva.