The recovery of the economy in 2021 has once again posed a challenge for the business community in Croatia to attract and retain the best talent. Employer branding, as in 2019, is gaining strong interest from leading companies in Croatia as they see it as a crucial element for quality positioning and maintaining competitiveness in the international market.
For all those who 'care' about employer branding, or will soon start, we present to you Moontop – digital benefits for employees. What is Moontop, what do they offer to the market, and where do they see themselves in the coming years? We spoke with director Josip Miletić.
ONE STOP SHOP – application for digital benefits
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—To begin, we leave the floor to you to introduce yourself to our audience. How did you come up with the idea for the Moontop application, what makes it special?
Moontop is an innovative Croatian tech company from the HR industry, a one-stop shop for digital benefits for employees. We are starting from Croatia with the intention of rapid global expansion, aiming to become a global supplier of digital benefits for employees of international companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Apple. The immense value we offer to these corporations is the simple design of a global benefits program strategy for their employees, wherever they may be.
Companies have complete flexibility in defining the number of employees, benefits, budget amounts, and can tailor the benefits program according to their own organizational structure: by continent, country, location, hierarchy within the company, job position, work results, and so on.
It is noticeable that you emphasize flexibility. Can companies, or their employees, choose benefits independently?
Yes, you are correct. Flexibility is key. In shaping our offer, we aimed to be maximally 'customer-centric', taking into account fundamental differences in lifestyle, age of employees, and gender, so employees can choose: gyms, personal trainers, swimming, tennis, meals at work/from home, hairdressing services, makeup and wellness services, children's gifts, accommodation (house or apartment rental), education and books, dry cleaning services, etc.
With this approach and diverse offerings, we believe we can encompass the desires of all employees in the company, thereby ensuring equal treatment and equality for all in the employee benefits program.
Digital transformation of society is ubiquitous. Do you think it is the right time for such a digital service? Do decision-makers in the business community in Croatia recognize that it is the right moment for such a leap towards employees?
There are several factors that make us optimistic. The first thing you pointed out at the beginning is the intense recovery of the economy. The Croatian National Bank predicted an annual growth of nearly 7 percent in July, and significant growth rates of the Croatian economy are expected in the coming years, especially on the wings of the allocated 22 billion EU funds.
If we put these numbers into context, an economic recovery of 6.8 percent means 25 billion kuna of newly created value. To generate such added value, it is necessary to employ several tens of thousands of new workers. Given the mentioned growth in the coming years, this poses a huge structural challenge for companies in Croatia – a shortage of labor.
The labor shortage in the Croatian labor market is hidden in several combined reasons: the trend of emigration (over the last 10 years, more than 110,000 residents have emigrated than immigrated to Croatia), the natural growth rate is -3.9% (15,000 more deaths than births), increased life expectancy (by 3.4 years), and an increasing number of retirees per employed person (a drop from 3 to 1.3 employed per retiree), parents are becoming parents later, fewer children in marriages, etc.
In this gap, between strong GDP growth and labor shortages, we recognized the future and opportunity for Moontop benefits.
So, demographic and macroeconomic indicators are the pillars of developing awareness about Employer branding.
Yes, employees are the greatest asset of any company, and companies, in the face of labor shortages, are increasingly focusing on employees.
However, it should also be noted the commendable efforts of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, which has done a great job through five rounds of tax relief, and when we talk about entrepreneurs, I would emphasize non-taxable benefits in kind.
Let’s start with income tax, to simplify it; in Croatia, if you increase an employee's salary by 1.00 kuna, it will cost the company up to 2.25 kuna, depending on the level of income and tax bracket.
The state is aware of the position of entrepreneurs and the need to increase income, thus it has facilitated a sort of income growth through non-taxable benefits in kind, without further undermining the financial stability of companies. Now it is up to company leaders to be responsible and take advantage of tax incentives.
All Moontop digital benefits for employees are tax-deductible expenses and non-taxable benefits in kind.
We are entering the market at a carefully chosen time because in the last quarter, most companies plan their budget for the following year. Therefore, this is the ideal time to inform the market, through meetings, to present companies with collaboration opportunities so they can plan non-taxable benefits in kind through the Moontop application in their plans for 2022.
For more information, I invite you to visit our website www.moontop.app and follow us on our LinkedIn page: link, concluded Josip Miletić, CEO.
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