In another installment of the #HRSpotlight interview series, we sat down with Cristina Stoica, HR Director at Oracle Romania, to talk about the latest trends, opportunities, and challenges of the new ways of working.

Starting with a bit of background, how was 2021 from an HR perspective and what were the most important actions and programs you undertook for your employees?

2021 was better… than 2020. In the sense that we all got more accustomed to working remotely full time, adjusted our practices and became very intimate with Zoom and other videoconferencing platforms, which replaced our physical interaction. Full virtual relationships started to thrive. Our most important actions continued to be focused on maintaining employee health and engagement at a high level, supporting them and their family members surpass challenges with our internal program You Matter @ Oracle, reminding them to put themselves first. The rest would follow. Second focus was on supporting and to a point educating and empowering managers on handling daily situations to the best of their abilities and as per Oracle’s expectations.

Employee wellbeing is no longer seen as a benefit, so how can employers and HR leaders take this concept to new heights and get more involved in the personal wellness of their people?

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From our perspective, personal wellness is personal. Therefore, each individual holds the responsibility of working towards identifying what makes them happy/unhappy, satisfied/dissatisfied, chill/stressed, and take action towards limiting the stressors and activating the catalysts for their wellbeing. We equip and encourage our managers to have open conversations, in a safe environment, to listen to what makes our employees more productive and happy, and take action in that direction.  In parallel, by facilitating employees’ free of charge access to specialists, role-models, therapists, counselling of different kinds and to various internal communities, HR supports and completes these conversations and efforts.

We can’t talk about the #futureofwork without talking about the future workplace. Is it going to be back to office or WFH? How does WFH impact HR activities?

It’s most probably going to be a mix of WFH and office work, were the employee will lead by preference and the employer would facilitate by taking the appropriate actions to ensure local  legislation is observed as well. We are in a process of looking at our own internal HR activities from that perspective, using technology upgrades to ensure our employees benefit of smooth processes for each type of HR related request/need they might have. Basically, our goal is to migrate all HR activities in the cloud for a smooth employee experience within our teams.

Recent studies show that many employees expect their employer, and business in general, to be a force for good in society. How involved are your employees in your CSR and Sustainability programs and what are you doing to increase this involvement?

Our employees are our heroes, they inspire us with their passion for supporting the community and for offering their assistance to good causes. They find the time, energy and resources to support numerous NGOs in their mission to protect the environment, help disadvantaged children, accompany the elderly, build shelters for stray animals, offer support for abused women and donate to many social causes. And we could not be more proud of them. Oracle provides various opportunities for employees to get engaged in Corporate Citizenship activities, including time for their volunteering during the workday.

Summing up the previous questions and adding own insights which might not have been covered so far, what are the most important trend that HR leaders will focus on in 2022 (and beyond)?

Digitization of HR processes which will streamline the employee experience for the hybrid models of work, adapting our practices to the new way of working, in order to keep our employees engaged and motivated.