Workshop on sharing best practice – A great employer on the market, or how does a Top Employer distinguish itself? On 16 October 2014 in Business School of the Technical University of Warsaw the Top Employers Institute organised another meeting in a series of workshops for sharing best HR practices. This event was fully devoted to the topics of innovative practices in communication and the ROI of development programmes. These topics are being discussed more and more frequently as the effect of changes worldwide, the development of global markets and growing need for examining the ROI of particular investments.
According to the Top Employers research from the last year, which consisted of analysing the EVP of Polish companies operating in different sectors ranging from telecommunications to banking to production, 28 per cent of participants measures their return on investment. The participants from the whole Europe scored 4 per cent less.
The significance of appropriate measures for determining the return on investment in human capital is growing and companies choose to invest in the development of particular groups of staff and key employees. Citi shared its practices as the company sees the need and investment potential related to training programmes for students and graduates.
‘The companies which want to attract and retain young employees, have to understand the needs and expectations of this generation and consequently offer attractive development programmes for students and graduates’, says Joanna Grzeszkowska, Campus Marketing & Graduate Recruitment Manager. According to the information provided, the number of students will decrease by about 20% in the year 2015/2016 and the need for employees will greatly outweigh the market capacity. This will cause young talent to be scarce and desirable. This was the reason for Citi to introduce diverse development programmes: the company is already working towards its future potential by providing broad recruitment processes and offering great opportunities to the graduates of these programmes.
Innovative communication, effective conveying of information and adapting communication to a new group of employees were another topic discussed during the meeting. Małgorzata Miętek-Bechta, Head of HR & General Affairs in Samsung Electronics, explained in her speech that an organisation can build engagement using non-standard communication channels. The company finds face-to-face meetings very important. This is achieved by regular meetings within whole company, the availability of HR to employees, commitment of the board and the CEO’s open-door policy. The organisation implemented a special programme where employees become ambassadors of the company and co-creators of its employer brand. The company places great emphasis on public recognition of achievements of employees and promoting the integration of staff in a creative way. Given the nature of the company, it is only natural that innovative technology is being used. An example is communicating via MMS and text messages. According to Małgorzata Miętek-Bechta, no one would be surprised to receive an important text message from the CEO: this belongs to the company’s DNA and employees value this communication channel. This strategy results in a below average turnover rate, a very high rate of internal recommendations and the highest employee engagement/ satisfaction score among all European location of Samsung.
The research conducted by the Top Employers Institute shows that the EVP and standards of HR procedures and processes implemented by the companies operating in Poland are in no way inferior to those implemented by their European fellow companies. The Top Employers meetings provide an excellent opportunity to exchange experiences, discuss best practices and get new inspiration.
We can look back at a succesful HR Best Practice workshop. Would you like to know more about our Top Employer certification programmes please contact us at info@top-employers.com
