26.06.2023
MLSP WILL FINANCE 66 PROJECTS FOR ACCESSIBLE LIVING ENVIRONMENT AND MOBILITY OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
A total of 66 project proposals for accessible housing and mobility of people with disabilities will be financed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy in 2023. The approved projects have a total value of BGN 2,498,598. The funds are allocated under the National Program for Accessible Living Environment and Personal Mobility of Disabled People. The implementation of the projects will increase the quality of life of people with disabilities by creating better conditions for their full and equal participation in public life.
Under Component 1 "Accessible Living Environment", 50 project proposals with a total value of BGN 2,385,068.75 have been approved. The projects envisage the construction and installation of ramps, lifting platforms and elevators in residential buildings where there are people with permanent disabilities who use wheelchairs. The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy will finance each project with up to BGN 100,000.
The approved projects under Component 2 "Personal Mobility" are 16 and have a total value of BGN 113,530. The funds will be allocated for the conversion of a passenger car for a person with permanent disabilities, the installation of an assistive device or a device for loading and unloading a wheelchair in a motor vehicle vehicle, as well as for the purchase of a modified car. Each individual project will be financed with up to BGN 8,000.
Detailed information on the results of the campaign on the two components can be found on the website of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy (www.mlsp.government.bg) under the heading "Policies", subsection "People with disabilities", section: "National Program for accessible living environment and personal mobility" or at the following link: https://www.mlsp.government.bg/natsionalna-programa-za-dostpna-zhilishchna-sreda-i-lichna-mobilnost-1.
23.06.2023
A LARGE NUMBER OF WORKERS HAVE SKILLS THAT ARE NO LONGER NEEDED
Due to population decline, we cannot grow because employers cannot find enough workers or skilled workers. This was stated by the executive director of the Institute for Market Economy, Svetla Kostadinova, in an interview for BTA.
According to her, a significant part of those who work have skills that gradually begin to lose value in the labor market, and very few retrain. This has already had a major effect on the opportunities for foreign and local investors to develop. If we want to attract investments, we have to think in this direction as well.
The Recovery and Resilience Plan is an alternative to not tightening our belts because we have a Eurozone goal. It is good to be used because there is a great need and all other countries are much ahead of us, the executive director of the Institute for Market Economy also pointed out.
And he added that in Bulgaria we have not used anything from this plan so far. We lost two years in which most countries invested in infrastructure and developing the skills of their population, in education reform. That is, we could not take advantage even at the most necessary time, right after the covid pandemic, and I strongly hope that this opportunity will not be completely lost, so that it cannot have any real effect, especially in places, Kostadinova said.
According to her, there are municipalities and regions that succeed in different ways in attracting investors, retaining their people, providing good quality secondary education, but also regions that have no long-term success in any of these areas. They must be supported, including through this Recovery and Resilience Plan.
"There is always an alternative to any policy. What distinguishes the Institute is that our alternative always relies on several principles: low taxes to make the environment good for business; an increase in large social payments, but as much as possible to keep the balance in the budget; and, of course, stop major public policies or part of them that have been proven ineffective," she explained.
According to her, the three percent deficit stated by the Finance Minister sounds good, but if the Recovery and Resilience Plan is not activated and does not actually start working, it will be very difficult to achieve this.
More recent challenges are Schengen, the Eurozone, the budget. Big things are expected to be launched, which could not get in order for a very long time. We are talking about major reforms in the field of education, health care above all - a sector that has an effect on everyone and seizes a large public resource, and there are still many demands on it, the economist pointed out.
22.06.2023
BOSSES AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN THE PITFALLS OF THE LABOR MARKET
"Invisible" - this is how people with disabilities often feel in our country. Invisible to society, to institutions, to employers. For most of them, the world is closed between the four walls of the home, and their lives are divided formally by the dates of appearing before TEMC. And it could have been another way...
In Bulgaria, there are about 655 thousand people with recognized permanently reduced working capacity or degree of some kind of disability. This means nearly 10% of the entire population. Only about 38% of people with disabilities work, and a significant part of them not because they don't want to, but because employers don't want them. At the same time, the labor shortage in the country is becoming more and more acute.
"Without thinking and quite formally, we call these people a 'reserve' for the economy. The very definition says that we all have a flaw in our understanding of people with disabilities. In my opinion, they are "potential", said Dobri Mitrev, chairman of the Bulgarian Industrial Association at the National Forum "The social responsibility of large corporations and the work potential of people with disabilities", which was held in Plovdiv. Organizers were Holding KCM 2000 and the Balkan Institute for Labor and Social Policy. "In order for the economy to prosper, people are needed, and we will fail as a nation if we do not do everything necessary to include people with disabilities in the work process," Mitrev was emphatic.
But what is the reality? Employers with 50 and more than 50 workers have a quota for hiring people with permanent disabilities under the Law on Persons with Disabilities. For companies with between 50 and 99 employees, the quota is one person, and for larger enterprises - 2% of the average staff. However, most companies choose the fallback option given to them by law - instead of hiring such a person, they simply pay a compensatory contribution of 30% of the national minimum wage for each vacancy for a person with a permanent disability.
There are several problems here, and the first, perhaps the most important one, which repels employers, is the difficult dismissal of such an employee, commented Georgi Kolev, chairman of the Union of the Disabled in Bulgaria, at the forum. In the event that the employee does not conscientiously fulfill his work commitments, in order to be dismissed, he must have the appropriate permission from the Labor Inspectorate. "Many people with disabilities deliberately do not want to make a decision from TEMC precisely so as not to repel their potential employer," said Kolev. And so a vicious circle is created. Also, disabled people are not well informed about their rights and think that if they start working on a contract, their pensions will be stopped. And there is no such thing, he was categorical.
"These people can be useful to the economy, and above all to themselves," is certain Ivan Neykov from the Balkan Institute for Labor and Social Policy and former Minister of Social Policy. People with intellectual disabilities, for example, often find satisfaction in performing repetitive routine activities. At the same time, employers suffer one of their greatest turnovers precisely in such activities, he cites an international study. According to the US Department of Education, workers with disabilities are rated average or above average on performance, quality, and quantity of work.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy actively supports the inclusion of such people in the labor market. It was stated that under the Human Resources Development Program and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, over BGN 830 million will be invested in programs for employment, training, mentoring and professional development of people from various target groups.
The good example: "Business activities KCM" changed the lives of 100 employees
For 20 years, Holding KCM 2000 has had its own company - "Business Activities KCM", which employs about 100 people with disabilities. At the same time, not only workers who had to leave the production for health reasons, but people from the entire region. The company was created on the idea of the long-time chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO Nikola Dobrev. “It solved two problems. First - people who have a health problem are removed from the difficult working conditions. And secondly, they feel useful and fulfilled. The benefit for the business was that we could organize the workers to do the work for which they were assigned, he explained. - Throughout the two decades, we have never had a doubt that this approach is correct. And I am surprised that it is neglected in quite large corporations," said Nikola Dobrev.
"We are extremely satisfied with the work with people with disabilities. This is part of our corporate social responsibility - to help those who are not like us. And so that we give them the opportunity for decent work and decent pay. If only one of the hundred most successful companies in Bulgaria approaches like we do, 10,000 people with disabilities will live peacefully," said Rumen Tsonev, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Holding KCM 2000. "Such an enterprise has another great advantage - people stay close to their colleagues, and there have been cases when they recover and return to their old jobs," summarized Mariana Gurkopashova, Chief Director of Human Capital Management. The company's statistics show that from 2004 to 2015, an average of five people a year were employed. After that, however, these situations sharply decrease - to less than one person per year. However, this is not a coincidence, but to a significant extent thanks to the occupational medicine service in the holding.
Ever since its establishment, "Business Activities KCM" has been led by Ivanka Piskova. At the forum, she talked about the activities that were entrusted to them even then - maintaining the green areas, cleaning the offices and washing work clothes. Later, a tailoring workshop was opened on the territory of the KCM especially for the employed people with disabilities, and they also coped with this task brilliantly. Then, the activity also expanded in agriculture - with lavender plantations, which were a very successful business for more than ten years. "Behind all these activities are people who are no different from us. You just have to understand them," Ivanka Piskova is emphatic. During the forum, Holding KCM 2000 presented a film telling real stories of those working in "Business Activities KCM" - stories about the satisfaction of being full and confident in your abilities even when you live with the stigma of being defined as 100% unable to work.
21.06.2023
HOW TO EARN FROM YOUR ONLINE STORE
Tips from experts on how to keep your customers
For many online retailers, the period of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is associated with a huge workload, but also with the possibility of incomparably more sales than during the rest of the year. However, after it comes a new challenge for them - namely, how to retain already attracted visitors to their sites and make them engage in shopping again.
For this purpose, it is necessary to first pay attention to the intuitiveness of the website or e-store, experts from a hosting company advise. The headings, product photos and descriptions - everything should be done so that the customer can navigate quickly and easily place his order. Another way for users to feel cared for with the attention they need is by making a chat connection. Through it, merchants can better understand customer needs and offer them a solution through their products and services.
Emphasis on a well-thought-out email strategy
If a marketer wants to introduce their website audience to new or little-known products, it's a good idea to do so through personalized emails. Experts advise sellers to prepare email newsletters on a monthly basis, in which they include valuable content related to news, upcoming promotions or future activities on their site.
Maintaining the relationship with the customer after the purchase
"It is a good practice to contact customers by email one week after they have placed an order. In it, you could once again thank them for choosing your brand and give them advice on optimal use of the purchased items" - says a marketing manager at a Bulgarian hosting company.
Loyalty programs
are another powerful tool for online merchants to motivate their customers to shop from them more often. In this way, they have the opportunity to thank those who supported them at the beginning of their business development. "The closer you allow customers to the essence of your brand, the closer you get to them and strengthen their conviction that they have made the right choice, trusting you," the expert also notes.
Holiday Marketing Automation
To ensure free time off during Christmas, Easter or other public holidays, online store owners can use email sending software that allows messages to be sent automatically on specific dates. In addition, WordPress plugins and other automation applications could be used that could connect different online services and automatically perform a certain action when an event occurs.
Don't underestimate traffic during the holiday season
Just like preparing for Black Friday, during holiday or seasonal periods, online retailers will need to make sure their sites are up and running quickly, can handle increased visitor traffic, and look good on mobile devices.
Festive or seasonal design
To be ready for Christmas, Easter or seasonal online shopping, online stores should also create a festive atmosphere - through appropriate fonts, banners, checks, animations and even short holiday videos. We can always add themed content in a new and elegant way.
21.06.2023
EC APPROVES EUR 77 MILLION SCHEME TO SUPPORT INVESTMENTS IN AREAS WITH HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT IN BULGARIA
The European Commission has approved, in accordance with EU state aid rules, the re-introduction of a regional aid scheme in Bulgaria to support investments in manufacturing activities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in areas with high unemployment. The initial scheme was approved by the Commission in March 2008 (No. 166/2007), reintroduced in September 2015 (SA.39869), extended in November 2020 (SA.59027) and expired in December 2021.
Bulgaria notified the Commission of its intention to reintroduce the scheme by the end of 2027 with an estimated total budget of EUR 77 million. The aim of the scheme is to promote regional development. Under the scheme, aid will take the form of a corporate income tax exemption to support initial investment projects of SMEs, such as setting up a new enterprise, increasing the capacity of an existing enterprise, diversifying products or fundamentally changing the production process of an existing enterprise . The scheme is aimed at Bulgarian municipalities with an unemployment rate at least 25% higher than the national average. The maximum amount of aid per beneficiary will be 50% of the eligible investment costs, with the exception of municipalities in the South-West region, where the share will be 25%.
The Commission assessed the measure according to EU state aid rules, in particular Art. 107, par. 3(a) and (c) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which allow Member States to promote the economic development of the most disadvantaged regions, as well as the Regional State Aid Guidelines for the period 2022-2027. The Commission found that the scheme complies with the conditions set out in the guidelines. In particular, the aid will not exceed the maximum amount of aid in the eligible regions, as indicated in the Bulgarian regional aid map. The Commission concluded that the scheme is necessary, appropriate and proportionate and contributes to regional development. Furthermore, the Commission finds that the scheme does not adversely affect trading conditions to an extent contrary to the general interest. Based on this, the Commission approved the Bulgarian scheme under EU state aid rules.
The non-confidential version of the decision will be submitted under No. SA.104266 in the State aid register on the Commission's competition website, once any confidentiality issues have been resolved.
20.06.2023
3 WAYS TO ENCOURAGE YOUR EMPLOYEES
For a company to be successful, its employees must be productive, engaged and creative. It directly depends on their motivation. It is crucial for any company to encourage its employees so that they give their best.
What most affects employee motivation?
Employees like to be incentivized and rewarded when they achieve results. Financial benefits have a significant impact on their work morale, and development opportunities keep them engaged. Factors such as work-leisure balance, a positive work environment and flexible working hours also play a role in maintaining high motivation. In the next few lines, we will look at three main ways to encourage company employees to be more motivated.
Choose the right social benefits and bonuses
When your employees achieve high results, praise alone is not enough. Choose the right benefits and bonuses to reward high performers. Social benefits should be part of your arsenal even for those employees who achieve the set goals and work with commitment and dedication.
Choosing social benefits and bonuses that will appeal to each individual employee is not easy. Therefore, there are universal tools such as food vouchers, bonus schemes, supplementary health insurance, corporate discounts. They give each employee the opportunity to choose how to spend the honestly earned amount according to his taste and preference.
Organize fun events
If you want to raise the level of emotions among the team, then you can build on the financial incentives and organize a company party, team-building or a more modest event in the office, where employees can relax and have fun together. Whether you will rent a karaoke bar where everyone can show off their singing skills, whether you will organize a nice weekend away from the office or just have an evening cocktail-making competition in one of the company's meeting rooms, it doesn't really matter. The important thing is to do it often enough and make sure everyone participates.
Give feedback
Something that won't cost any money, but the effect is undeniable, is providing feedback. Very often, employees leave a company because they did not understand in time whether and how much they are valued by the employer, and especially by their direct supervisor. Create a company culture where feedback is important. Don't let managers wait for the annual appraisal to give feedback to team members. Uncertainty about how an employee is performing causes him or her to look for a new job just in case. In addition, through timely and correct feedback, some minor shortcomings in the employee's work can be prevented. It's not an easy job, but if you succeed, there's a chance you can significantly reduce the number of people who leave voluntarily, and also increase the efficiency and productivity of employees.
What are the mistakes you should not make?
Perhaps the most effective way to realize for yourself the mistakes you make when managing a team and trying to keep the motivation level high is by putting yourself in the shoes of your employees. However, this is by no means an easy task. Therefore, we have prepared some common mistakes that you should avoid.
The list is long, but back to the original advice – when you get to the stage of deciding on motivators and the work environment, put yourself in your employees' shoes and think about how this will affect their motivation or engagement. This way you will almost always manage to avoid mistakes.
20.06.2023
BDB WILL GIVE LOANS TO COMPANIES WITH PROJECTS UNDER NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN PROGRAMS
The Bulgarian Development Bank will support companies implementing projects under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the European Structural and Investment Funds.
This is the first loan program of the state bank developed entirely in sync with business. Through it, the Bulgarian Development Bank will provide access to resources for the implementation of projects under European and National programs, making it easier for companies encountering difficulties in starting their activities due to a lack of bridging or supplementary financing.
The bank will provide investment loans of up to BGN 5 million with a repayment term of up to 6 years and a grace period of up to 2 years for companies applying for grants under National and European programs.
Companies can also take advantage of an unsecured working credit of up to BGN 200,000 in addition to investment funds. The terms of both loans are preferential.
The Bulgarian Development Bank provides financing for the full value of the projects (100%) to already approved applicants, as well as up to 85% of the costs for those who have not yet signed their grant contracts.
The new program is in fulfillment of the bank's strategic goals of supporting the implementation of government policies and contributing to increasing investment activity among small and medium-sized businesses. It will provide an instrument for accelerated absorption of EU funds and will support the green transition of the Bulgarian economy.
19.06.2023
ONLY 8% OF THE EMPLOYED IN OUR COUNTRY HAVE ABOVE AVERAGE DIGITAL SKILLS
Only 8% of the employed in our country have above average digital skills and only 30% have basic digital skills. And the implementation of high technologies in medium and small enterprises reaches 25 percent or half of the average share for the European Union.
A conference of the Bulgarian Industrial Chamber is looking for solutions to these problems, with the participation of employers, trade unionists, representatives of the Ministry of Social Affairs and non-governmental organizations.
The labor market needs an unprecedented change of skills and competence in the workplace, from the Bulgarian Industrial Chamber says.
At the same time, a study by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences shows that most of the employed would not participate in training if it did not lead to increased wages.
And the lower the position, the less likely they are to participate in digital skills training. This leads to the danger of digital marginalization of the population, warned the Deputy Minister of Social Affairs.
"We are talking about relegation, exclusion from the socio-economic life of a large part of the population. We have a rather serious financial resource. I would say unprecedented, which the state has never had before in terms of training for adults, in particular digital skills - over Bulgaria has invested 1.6 billion euros from all funds in the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience".
The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy is implementing an investment of BGN 380 million for the digital training of 500,000 persons by the end of 2026, and 200,000 of them will be trained by the middle of next year.
16.06.2023
SUCCESS TECHNIQUES: BY HOURS OR BY TASKS? HOW IS IT BETTER TO STRUCTURE YOUR DAY
The first mechanical clocks in the world were those of the clock towers, created in Europe during the Renaissance, somewhere between 1270-1300, and in Bulgaria during the Renaissance around 1700. They had neither a dial nor hands, and the time was announced by the ringing of a bell. You can still hear them in many parts of the world and our country. People at that time had some idea of the time of day, but only in general terms. Bells were mainly used to announce collective events - church services, funerals, town meetings, etc.
In the late 1700s, a new device similar to the one we use today was created to measure time. It determined the time to the hour, minute and second. As a result, people began to behave and organize differently than before. The Industrial Revolution is the best example of how people began to organize their time using clocks while working in shifts on assembly lines. Their arrival and departure marks the working day. Public transport is developed where the clock determines when the train arrives at the station and when it leaves. Overall, the goal was to increase efficiency, and the watch turned out to be a great tool to achieve that. However, dividing the day into hours and minutes also implies that every minute must be accounted for, and this can be very limiting.
A world ruled by clocks
Let's go back in time to 2023. Watches are everywhere - from mobile devices that are always with us to sophisticated sports gadgets that show not only the time, but also the heart rate and the number of calories burned. At the same time, we live in a society that values not only time off from work, but also the very idea of the need for periodic rest for recharging and greater productivity. However, many of us also plan our free time with the help of watches.
It's kind of an oxymoron. Because the most important thing in the rest breaks at work and in the breaks from work itself is not to be efficient or responsible for every second. When someone needs a recharge, they want to stop, think, give themselves to the moment. But by continuing to divide the day into hours and minutes, we only turn our "free time" into another task that needs to be done efficiently and "on time." In a culture obsessed with timeliness, there is no room left for other ways to control our time.
Impact or effectiveness
In the study done by Psychology today, participants were asked to plan their day either by hours and minutes, or by the tasks they had to complete that day. It was then measured how using these two different ways of structuring time affected their sense of well-being and control over their actions.
The results obtained are quite unexpected. The prevailing assumption is that people who are punctual and structure their day based on units of time are more in control of their own actions and are more focused than those who divide their day based on tasks, because at first glance it is not clear when their day starts and ends for them. However, the study produced the opposite results.
Those who planned their day based on hourly units reported less control over their own actions and attributed most of their results to luck or coincidence (eg, "I did well on the exam because I was lucky, it was easy") . Those who planned based on the performance of tasks reported a stronger sense of control and mostly attributed the results to themselves (eg, "I did well on the exam because I studied hard on the outline and knew the answers to most of them ").
Researchers go further and examine how the type of day definition that affects a sense of control also affects those actions of a person that can benefit the environment or society - for example, by contributing to the reduction of global warming or donating money for charity. And again got unexpected results.
Those whose day was organized by hours reported less willingness to sacrifice than those whose day was defined by tasks. Furthermore, participants who use the time and are forced by the researchers to choose a charity to donate to are less interested in its goals (what the money will go to) and more in its results (impact and effectiveness). On the other hand, those who ignore time and strive to complete the task are as interested in the goals of the charities (eg donations for cancer research, fighting poverty, illiteracy, etc.) as they are in their effectiveness.
Back to the roots
People who use watches are likely to be more efficient at tasks, but less in tune with their emotions and ability to be in the moment. Using an external mechanism to control their world also makes them see the reality around them as a random, chaotic place where their efforts have no effect on the outcome, so what's the point of sacrificing if it doesn't change anything anyway?! People who throughout the day are guided by an inner feeling "Is the task accomplished?" Can I move on to the next one?” see more commonality and causality in the world and therefore believe that giving can matter.
Being more efficient and achieving the set goal may have been a strategy suited to the industrial times of the 19th and 20th centuries. But today, special importance is attached not only to the connections between people and the impact on the surrounding reality that the actions of an individual can have, but also to the opportunity to stop and take a breath. All of this is more suited to a world where people use watches less and manage their own sense of time, just as it was before the invention of the first mechanical clock.
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.
