Working Romania | Alina Soare (Endava): Flexibility will be much greater in the coming period

Alina Soare, Head of People Development & Recruitment for Bucharest, Pitesti & Brasov at Endava, was one of the speakers of the recent Working Romania online HR conference, featuring in the first panel of the event titled The latest trends in the Future World of Work │ How do we prepare and how will we work in the NEW ENVIRONMENT?

In this period it is necessary that employers have a clear and firm attitude towards employees in order to help them get easier through this difficult times, said Alina Soare, Head of People Development & Recruitment, at Business Review’s Working Romania event.

“We are going through a difficult period, in which adaptability is the watchword. It is very hard to adapt and in this context it is necessary for employers in the labor market to have a clear and firm attitude,” says Alina Soare. “At Endava, we have a strategy to help our colleagues get through this period more easily, but also to help the larger IT community in which we operate,” explains Soare, pointing out the steps needed to be taken for this strategy.

“We look at people’s strategy as a life-cycle. A life cycle from the employee’s perspective, but we begin with the early stages, those of recruiting. Then, we go through all the stages that the employee follows, development, integration into work, staying in the company in the long run. We have initiatives for each stage as we treat them as different projects,” says Soare.

Endava is in a good position as it is strongly digitized, so the transition to work-from-home was easy to do even overnight. “It helped that we didn’t have to make any changes in the infrastructure used and in the way we collaborate,” said Soare.

“We have made a good practice guide for the employee and the employer, which includes online interviews. On the one hand you save time by doing the interview from home, but on the other hand there are some things that may not be the same as in the face-to-face interview, like understanding body-language,” said Soare.

Another project developed further is LearningInDaHouse, through which employees have the opportunity to learn from home. “It is a regional program, it applies here in Romania, but also in other locations in the region where we have teams. I worked with all the teams in the region for this program,” says Soare.

“Endava’s projects are carried out at community level. There is a community at the company level, the a community of those working on a project, then that of the technical trainers or that of all people in IT. Through these we develop programs that reach those who need them as easily as possible,” explains Soare.

Learning programs were available in every company before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the challenge today is to keep the interest for them. So the programs must be adapted to be relevant in the new conditions. “It changes topics, it changes the approach, it also changes the duration or time of day when it takes place. These are the conditions in the virtual environment,” says Soare.

“In the post-crisis period we will not return completely to what it was before. There will certainly be employees that will go to the office every day, but I expect this to happen gradually. Maybe, 30 percent of employees in the first phase, then more and more. I also expect more flexibility from companies in order to cover all needs; there are parents who face the needs of their children at home and will remain so until September. In highly digitalized work environments, I expect flexibility to be much greater in the coming period,” says Alina Soare.

Endava did not stop recruiting during this period of restrictions. But some changes will occur, like the need of highly specialized people, whom are not easy to find. “Volume recruitment will depend on how the economy develops in the next period,” concludes Soare.

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