Working Romania, 11th edition: Changes in HR are engulfing employers and employees altogether

The 11th edition of Working Romania, the conference dedicated to the HR sector, organized by Business Review, brought together specialists from the most important players on the market, as well as from the Ministry of Labour. The labor market continues to undergo changes as employees seek to work from home as much as possible, office buildings are modernized to meet ESG requirements, and companies seek flexible spaces to accommodate a number employee variable.

By Aurel Dragan

The first Working Romania panel was attended by Cristian Vasilcoiu, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Labour, Inga Tigai, Tax Partner, Head of Tax & Legal Technology at KPMG Romania, Antoniu Panait, Managing Director at Vastint Romania and Cezar Carligeanu, Head of Sales at OLX Romania.

Cristian Vasilcoiu pointed out that we are currently in a labor market that is constantly changing due to technological changes, due to the phenomenon of immigration and emigration, and we must learn to adapt on the fly. “Technology is changing so much that we have to try to keep up. It is enough to look at the technology we were using 20 years ago and imagine what it will be in 20 years to see how quickly everything changes”, says Cristian Vasilcoiu.

Of course, technology arrives differently in economic sectors. We already use AI in IT and white-collar jobs, but we still need plumbers and bricklayers. Digitization is coming like a tsunami over us. “If we consider that Netflix needed 5 years to reach one million users, and Chat GPT needed only five days, it is clear the pace at which the workforce is changing,” says Inga Tigai. Regarding the phenomenon of immigration, Inga Tigai specified that we have reached a contingent of foreign workers the size of a city like Oradea, but we do not have enough inclusion programs for them, for those who want to stay in Romania and participate in supporting future pensions through the taxes paid.

A current topic is the application of ESG principles in the daily activity of companies and employees. Recently, the European Union adopted the law by which gas thermal power plants will be completely eliminated starting in 2040. “How this will be done, however, remains to be seen. One thing is clear: these steps are needed and we must take them”, says Antoniu Panait. Auditing companies from an ESG point of view, which is mandatory from next year, also means that green-washing will no longer be possible. Vastint, the company led by Antoniu Panait, already owns office buildings in Bucharest that no longer use gas-fired thermal plants, but heat pumps and photovoltaic panels. “The new Timpuri Noi project will not use fossil fuels at all,” says Antoniu Panait.

But, to predict the future, we must understand the present, as Cezar Carligeanu showed. OLX, the classifieds platform including jobs (600,000 ads in total) has launched the Job Index, a report now in its eighth edition covering the entire labor market. “Until 2026, we need 440,000 new people for the labor market, and we can find them in the country, there should be no need to bring them from outside,” says Cezar Carligeanu. “We are trying to bring to a common denominator, a common language, between employers and employees, because often employees have the feeling that they will be paid the minimum wage in the economy, although employers offer much more benefits than the minimum wage”, say Cezar Carligeanu.

The 5 profiles of eco-innovation maturity and ambitions

A keynote speech was held by Andreea Nicolae, co-founder and Managing Partner at Pivot-C, who spoke about the fact that we are facing big problems today and we should be realistic and understand that the plan to stop climate change it is not feasible. “The explosion of CO2 emissions is a result of human action, and this shows us that we must be aware of our role in creating these problems,” says Andreea Nicolae.

“In 2050 there will be 9.2 billion people on earth and we will consume double the available resources. That’s why sustainability is so important and represents a problem that we all have to address”, explains Andreea Nicolae. Especially since, many times, at the declarative level we show that we are doing things in the direction of sustainability and are concerned about it, in fact we don’t do much, we just check a few things that the law obliges us to do.

Employer Branding: Get Inspired by the Best

The second panel was attended by Andreea Voinea, HR Executive Director at BCR, Cristina Mancas, HRVP SEE at Schneider Electric, Gina Cruceru, Group HR Director at KMG International, Catalin Nastasoiu, VP Marketing Strategy at Genesis Property, Radu Costan, Head of EHS and Wellbeing at BET DBS Romania and Darius Gisca, Business Development Manager at Romanian Software. The panel was moderated by Adelina Mihai, consultant at Ascendis.

“In 2024, the definition of an employer with good employer branding is to help you grow and maintain your relevance. We live in unprecedented times and we have learned, in recent years, to adapt quickly, and employers have learned to value their employees and help them grow”, says Andreea Voinea. “We are also witnessing a change in the way the company helps you, that is, before the employer chose the directions in which the employee should develop, but now the employee decides in which direction he wants to go. BCR has been doing this since 2019 and it was accelerated by the pandemic”, says Andreea Voinea.

How much a company can let the employee choose the direction in which they want to develop depends on the industry, the age of the employee, several factors, as shown by Gina Cruceru. “Through the development plan we focus on soft skills, not the technical ones, because we want to find the points that the employees want and the direction in which they want to go”, says Gina Cruceru, who also shows that, currently, the candidates and employees now come directly to a specific job, with specifications they already know and want to move towards.

Speaking about sustainability, Cristina Mancas showed that the vast majority of those who are employees or candidates know what sustainability means and know how sustainable Schneider Electric is. “Many years ago, the idea of team building was team games. Now they are much modified and we no longer go on excursions. For example, we had a team of engineers build a kindergarten. They didn’t leave there until they solved all the problems, including the installation of a new electrical panel”, says Cristina Mancas, who also explains that they later went to other social activities, including planting trees.

Urban regeneration also means, as Catalin Nastasoiu showed, the transformation of a gray, concrete parking lot, which is no longer in use, into an urban forest of a thousand square meters where people can take their 10,000 daily steps. “We brought nature to the door of the office and we are glad that it was so easily populated by the people of Unity Park, as well as the thanks we receive daily. A plan made before the pandemic brought us a lot of joy”, says Catalin Nastasoiu, who also shows that it doesn’t matter how many days you come to the office, it matters to know that you are well received and have a space where you really feel good. “I can definitely tell you that beautiful toys are not made in a sad factory,” points out Catalin Nastasoiu.

On the wellness side, it can be said that all methods are good for creating a wellness program. “Well-being affects people differently, some relax by painting a picture, others go to the gym. We encourage these differences and if we see happier people around us, our mood is also better”, explains Radu Costan. “We also brought in financial consultants to identify exactly what each person wants, through one-on-one discussions. Likewise, we brought in nutritionists. And in all the programs we have, if you bring professionals, people will participate in large numbers”, says Radu Costan.

Regarding the area of digitalization of HR processes, Darius Gisca showed that we already have implemented solutions for the digitalization of simple processes, such as payroll, personnel administration. “Colourful.hr is a solution that we offer, a modern solution that helps clients to streamline every HR process. Both the basic ones, i.e. time attendance, administered, etc., as well as those for employee evaluation, training, recruitment, etc. If we talk about the need, we can say that before the pandemic companies were looking to make basic processes more efficient, but now they are looking to digitize those of evaluation, recruitment and others”, says Darius Gisca.

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