You are only as strong as your weakest battery

The 4th HR Days conference was held in Rovinj on March 17 and 18 – a two-day professional gathering of HR professionals from the region and the world.

This year’s conference focused on the challenges posed by young talented employees whose work habits and expectations differ from those of previous generations. The conference was opened by representatives of the organizers Igor Žonja, director of Tau on-line which manages the MojPosao portal, Raimo Mäkilä, CEO of the Finnish AlmaCareer Oy group and vice president of Alma Media, and Aleksandar Zemunić, member of the Management Board of SELECTIO.

The role of HR is undergoing significant changes as the characteristics of leaders are changing and everything we have known in companies so far, the conference organizers emphasized. “The most important thing is how to improve the company culture and prepare it for the future. The role of HR in this is crucial. HR is the one who listens to changes and introduces them into companies even where companies do not understand why change would be necessary,” emphasized Raimo Mäkilä.

You are only as strong as your weakest battery

Through two days of interactive lectures and workshops, speakers advised on how to increase employee engagement and generally empower people in a modern business environment where gathering information and creating contacts becomes a priority that is sometimes difficult to keep up with. “In a modern competitive environment, the most important thing is to be flexible. New generations seek flexible working hours, they seek coaches from whom they can learn and time to develop the energy that will support long-term career development. In this, mental, emotional, and physical energy is important. You are only as strong as your weakest battery. Think about what that means when you are under pressure,” said Koen Gonnissen, Executive Coach and Trainer, warning that the biggest challenge for every company is staying too long in the ‘comfort zone’: “Many companies are accelerating business: a lot of emails, meetings. You do a lot, but what have you specifically accomplished? When things are going well, organize breaks. This is the definition of top sports. You cannot solve a problem using the same mindset you had when you created that same problem.”

We are wasting the intelligence and talent of our employees

Jesus Vega, the most renowned Spanish speaker and guest lecturer at COTRUGLI Business School, pointed out that there is only one secret in HR: to convince leaders that they can only be better through people and that they must recognize the value of emotional management. “We are wasting the intelligence and talent of our employees, we are using only 10 percent of it. We usually communicate things that people must do, but we do not involve them in the project. Perhaps in the past it was not so easy to give an individual what they need to have. However, technology has helped us more than ever to adapt policies and programs, schedules, and environments to the needs of all individuals. If technology allows this, why not provide it to people? It is our choice whether we will return to a black-and-white world or create a happy and fun environment,” concluded Vega.

For the first time, young people are poorer than retirees

Mireia Montane, a coach and lecturer in strategic human resource management, warned that by 2030, half of the known jobs will disappear and that workforce reduction is a serious problem we must prepare for. “For more than half of Millennials, the most important thing is to be a good parent, and for 30 percent, a quality marriage. Work is not at the top of the priority list: young people see it as part of life, but not as something that would occupy a particularly important position in their lives. What does this mean? You need to have a work organization where employees can make decisions, and you must trust them to make the best possible decisions. They need to be educated in taking certain risks, but also given trust. A good example is Google, which places employees at the center of its business,” emphasized Montane.

This was confirmed by Yannis Koutrakis, IBM’s Area HR Leader for Southeast Europe, who emphasized that we live in the ‘era of teams’: “Companies are increasingly organizing around communities and community teams. This trend will continue to spread, and such a new challenging environment requires new skills. Millennials possess those skills. They are already working through collaboration, interaction, and technology in ways that we are not. Yet, for the first time in the last thirty years, we have data that young people are poorer than retirees. Young people feel great pressure at work, are unemployed, or underpaid. These are issues that need serious consideration,” warned Koutrakis.

Social interaction today is very complex

Andrey Shtylenko, CEO & founder of Studio Antara, held a speed networking session with participants, a model for meeting business contacts through rapid information exchange in a limited time. Robert Torre, a psychiatrist and columnist, spoke about the syndrome of narcissism in entrepreneurship and how to deal with superiors who create an uncreative and unproductive work environment, while Zdravko Petanjek, a professor of anatomy and neuroscience at the Medical Faculty in Zagreb, gave a lecture on the evolution of the brain through adolescence. Susan Scott Parker, CEO of Business Disability International, delivered a lecture on how to include people with disabilities in the workforce and said that many companies do not feel that they should also engage in the employment of people with disabilities because they are not aware that they employ at least ten percent of people with some form of invisible disability.

The Best HR Practices of 2015 were announced

The conference featured a formal announcement of the Best HR Practices – successful projects that marked the year 2015. These are projects that companies implemented in their operations, thereby increasing the quality of work of their employees and business results.

This year, 19 companies submitted 26 HR projects, and the first place as the Best HR Practice of 2015 was awarded to Podravka for the project “Encouraging Employee Creativity through the Introduction of New Business Practices.” The second place was won by VIPnet for the practice “Vip alumni,” while the third place went to the Financial Agency for the project “Fina DOP – by respecting diversity we grow together.”