Croatian Companies Are Not Interested in Free Labor from Youth

In the world, it is common practice to allow young graduates to work unpaid in companies to gain work experience in their field. This helps them in their job search, and those who prove themselves well can be recruited by the companies. In Croatia, such practice is unknown.

writes Kristina Kardum

A young, highly educated person with knowledge of several foreign languages and a degree from a prestigious foreign university returns to Croatia in search of a job. After a month or two of unsuccessful responses to job ads, they decide, following the example of their colleagues from European countries, to apply for free work experience. And here the problem arises. While in foreign countries it is common for employers to offer ‘internships’ and ‘traineeships’, in our country such categories are almost non-existent in job databases, and free work is reserved for volunteers whose work is not necessarily related to their professional path or to student internships required by several faculties. Given that a person must gain experience somewhere, which is one of the regular requirements in job ads, they have no choice but to offer their free services to employers of interest in exchange for quality work experience. However, there are no responses. Is it really the case that no company cares to provide a chance for young people to gain experience and perhaps discover the talent they need among them? And that for free.

Only Interns

In Croatia, students have the best prospects for gaining free work experience. Not only are many, especially those studying at technical faculties such as Mechanical Engineering or the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, offered internships, but companies are more lenient towards students interested in such work than towards ‘ready’ candidates who did not initially adapt well to the labor market. – We do not practice volunteer work and believe that every person should be paid for their work, regardless of their previous work experience or lack thereof – says Irena Lošćac–Gombač from the Communications Department of Erste Bank. Like many business entities, the bank practices paying internship salaries to its future employees, and here, of course, competition is significant.

– A significant part of the annual employment plan relates to hiring interns, whether they are interns for specific job positions or interns who will be assigned to their job after a general training program. The duration of such programs depends on whether they are interns hired due to the needs of a specific job or interns undergoing a rotation program within the bank. When selecting interns, we take care to choose people who possess specific skills and knowledge that we need in the long term and whom we believe would fit well. We also invest significant resources in their training program. The ultimate desired result would certainly be that all those who satisfied during their internship remain working at the bank – says Lošćac-Gombač.

No Interest

Miroslav Halužan, Senior Executive Director of the Human Resources Management Sector at Privredna Banka Zagreb, says that interest in internship positions is significant. – Inquiries from interested young people mainly relate to paid internship positions and completing internships. According to our experience, interest in unpaid work after completing higher education is much lower – says Halužan. Completely free work is reserved for student programs, while paid internship positions exist for young employees without prior relevant work experience.

– An internship position represents the introduction of an employee into a specific area of the bank’s business. During the internship, the employee is continuously and purposefully educated. Upon entering into employment, interns sign a fixed-term employment contract with a strong intention from the bank to extend the contract for those who demonstrate work qualities and motivation after the internship period (after a maximum of one year). The difference between an internship position and completing an internship is, besides the monetary compensation for work, the length of the internship relationship and the targeted, comprehensive education of the intern, while students during internships touch on a narrower, more specialized, and specific business part – explains Halužan.

European Experiences

Experiences from foreign countries are quite different. Internship programs where only travel expenses are potentially covered are not uncommon, especially in sectors where demand exceeds supply, such as international organizations. Finding a free job in Brussels or London is a real challenge for young professionals whose diplomas are still wet with ink. In the ruthless competition, those who cannot afford such excursions financially are the first to suffer, while others face competition from around the world. If you advertise free work experience on websites like eurobrussels.com, you can expect several thousand responses from interested professionals worldwide. Some partially paid programs, such as internships at the EU Commission or Parliament, attract interest in five-digit numbers. At the European Commission, for example, an internship pays 1,047 euros per month. Private consulting and PR firms or NGO organizations pay significantly less. They advertise the recruitment of new interns several times a year. By securing cheap labor, they also benefit from young staff for whom work experience is invaluable. It is important that interns rarely get the opportunity for further employment in the same company or organization after completing their internship. Most often, they start on the labor market from scratch.

Working with Students

Many companies want to recruit their future staff while they are still in college. The positive aspect of such forms of student engagement is the mutual acquaintance of the organization and the student. Students are provided with valuable first work experiences in the business world, applying already acquired theoretical knowledge in practice, as well as important networking – meeting people from the business world, which can greatly help in finding their first job. Young potentials contribute to the organization with their work, enthusiasm, and energy they bring to their first ‘real’ job. Also, in this way, with already demonstrated initiative in seeking such forms of engagement – the employer gets to know potential future employees who have the opportunity to prove themselves and thus secure an internal or external reference for the future.

– Such forms of engagement are organized when an employee can dedicate part of their working time to educating a student because we want the student to gain experiences during the invested time that will bring them closer to the business world and be useful in the future crystallization of their professional interests. Students to whom we have so far enabled the acquisition of their first work experience in the bank regularly demonstrate significant motivation in their work and interest in acquiring practical knowledge – says Halužan from PBZ.

Although even a third of the current leadership of Coca-Cola HBC Croatia started working in the company as interns, special attention is still given to students. In the past, they collected applications and resumes through specialized meetings, such as Career Days and similar events, but after collecting more than three thousand applications in 2005, they decided to collaborate with partner state and private faculties and colleges that correspond to the company’s profile. – For many years, we have systematically sought to improve the selection process for our future staff by providing them with the opportunity for work practice in our company. This has proven to be the highest quality and most reliable method of selection. Work trials often show what knowledge and references candidates can truly apply in real working conditions – says Zdravka Demeter Bubalo, Director of Human Resources at Coca-Cola HBC Croatia.