People Empowering Business Forum 2019: Leadership is evolving to people coming together as a team

The latest trends like demographic upheaval, globalization, digital technology, and changing social values and worker expectations, are disrupting business models and radically changing the workplace were discussed during the fifth edition of People Empowering Business Forum 2019 organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest on October, 30 at Radisson Blu Hotel in Bucharest.

The event has been moderated by Colin C. Lovering, Vice Chairman – British Romanian Chamber of Commerce, Senior Vice-President – Avison Young Real Estate, along with: Diamond Partner WIPRO, Gold Partners: NOERR, ACCA, COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL, ADP, SOCIETE GENERALE EBS, NUCLEARLECTRICA, Partners: VASTINT, HAYS and the support of: ABSL, ANIS, CLUJIT, HRS, WAVE and SEA ONE.

The annual event dedicated to the human resources brought together cross industries HR leaders to collaboratively map solutions to the challenges of building sustainable and agile learning organizations. The discussions will be focused on the most successful operating models, as well as characteristics of the talent and leadership the companies need, how data can be leveraged to provide relevant insights, and the technology worth investing in.

The half-day conference has been moderated by Colin C. Lovering, Vice Chairman – British Romanian Chamber of Commerce, Senior Vice-President – Avison Young Real Estate and will unfold the latest trends in Employee Engagement, Strategic Talent Acquisition and Retention, HR Technologies.

Find below the main statements uttered by KOLs during the events’ three sessions:

• CEO Talks SESSION

The global organizations are navigating today into a new world of work culture and employment and this demands critical changes in the leadership, HR dynamics and workforce skills. Employers and employees, organizations and stakeholders need to sign up in this common journey that should be the pursuit of a healthy work environment, commitment to thrive and personal evolution.

Colin C. Lovering, Vice Chairman – British Romanian Chamber of Commerce, Senior Vice-President – Avison Young Real Estate: The annual event dedicated to the human resources brings together cross industries HR leaders to collaboratively map solutions to the challenges of building sustainable and agile learning organizations. The discussions will be focused on the most successful operating models, as well as characteristics of the talent and leadership the companies need, how data can be leveraged to provide relevant insights, and the technology worth investing in”

Shibu Nambiar, Chief Operating Officer, Genpact Europe: “Leadership has changed in magnitude. Every year the definition of leadership could potentially change. Leadership is evolving to people coming together as a team. It’s about intellect coming together. I have to aggregate people together and empower them to take decisions. Leadership is all about everybody coming together to solve problems”

Antoniu Panait, Managing Director, Vastint Romania: “Romania evolved a lot from a management point of view in the last couple of years. We are all managers at Vastint. I must do a lot of listening from my side. That’s true. We share the decisions in our company. I am proud to say we take decisions together at Vastint”

Andrei Romanescu, Managing Director, Veeam Software: “A great leader should be a great listener. Listening skills are very important. Great leaders should be hungry, humble and smart. We need to think more about ‘we, rather than ‘I’. I encourage people to make mistakes. People fear they will get beaten when making mistakes. We are so focused on creating problem solvers. I’ve grown as a problem solver. An entrepreneur does not solve problems, but identifies opportunities. We still need problem solvers, but we also need opportunity finders”

• Strategic Talent Acquisition and Retention SESSION

In the current era of record-low unemployment and high job seeker option value, only the most capable talent teams will successfully attract top candidates. 2019 will continue the trend of companies leveraging branding as a culture-building and recruiting tool. Companies must consider building creative marketing and social media campaigns that focus on company values. By doing so, organizations attract talent that matches their culture through self-selection—prospective applicants’ interactions with a brand help them determine whether they’re a good fit for the company, and vice versa. From data analytics for successful recruiting and maximizing your digital footprint to content strategy and data-driven recruiting practices, learn how to improve your social strategy with best practices and data-driven solutions.

Mircea-Catalin Roman, Coordinator Employment Practice Noerr, Senior Associate: “Employees are looking for a nice workplace to work in. The term of workplace is changing. This is an opportunity to be on the same level with our employees. We need to find solutions for to keep our employees happy, to offer them flexibility”

Corina Vasilescu, CFO, ADP: “We need to look forward, to digitalize everything. We need to have information very fast and this is the way. Our goal is to inspire others, people need support. I encourage people to be very aware about the unconscious bias in the workplace

Andreea Vilceanu, HR Specialist, Nuclearelectrica: “In our work there is little to no room for error. For an employer like Nuclearelectrica, the workplace challenge is multiplied. We need to maintain our high standard of no errors. We don’t have the opportunity to work from home. We cannot compromise on our safety procedures”

George Didoiu, Director Tenant Services, Colliers International: “There are two reasons why the optics are changing when it comes to recruiting. The first one is the very competitive market. The second reason is that we are dealing with a whole different mentality on job searching. We are talking about a generation who would rather not work than work in bad environments or for bad companies. The workplace has become a very important tool in the recruiting process”

Mihaela Robu, Business Development Manager, ACCA: “We need to empower people to develop their skills for the future. Learning is about empowering people. Our students don’t want to have traditional jobs”

Sandor Bodnar, Managing Director, Hays: “The ideal candidate for 2030 should have the ability to adapt. Companies are always looking for people able to adapt quickly. Companies are making a lot of mistakes in the recruiting process, and that influences the candidates behaviour. We found out candidates are having big issues when companies don’t get back at them with a feedback after they apply for a job. Around 80 percent of the candidates who had a bad experience with a company are not going to a reapply for a job at the same company”

Manuel Dujardin, Director Training & Recruitment, Societe Generale European Business Services: “We are looking for a candidate’s ability to adapt, the capacity to change. We need to have an active search, to contact the candidates. We have deep discussions with candidates before they come into our office” 

Noni Jain, DOP – Talent Acquisition, Wipro: “The market is very dynamic, very volatile. We are all fighting for the right candidates. When you put out a job description you must understand your business needs. We should focus on the non-assessable skills. The key point is to check what exactly are you looking for. We are asking job candidates how we can improve the job description”

• Employee Engagement Trends for 2019 

Due to various innovations in new technologies, expansion of global markets and changing candidate expectations, the Global Talent Acquisition landscape is in a constant state of change. We’ll take forward agile business transformation and what it means for HR and, beyond that, for the human employee, the organization they work in, the leadership there, and society overall.

Adela Jansen, HR Executive Director, BRD Group Société Générale

“The pleasure of going to a workplace implies a complexity of factors. Young employees desire different things compared to their older colleagues. A manager should be a coach and should also be humble, generous, should be seeing the people around him. We need the type of manager that not only delivers, but also coaches the employees”

Adnana Popa, Managing Partner, Sago Finance at People Empowering Business Forum 2019

“It is very challenging to help people show their emotions. A financial decision always has an emotional component. I’ve learned that we feel engaged by doing something meaningful for us or for the company. Our objective is to help employees see that their job is meaningful”

Roxana Serban, Talent Coach, ADP

“Once you are aware about your strengths, then your performance can improve hundreds of times. One of our strategy is about mindful working, and we support mindful working. People need more than just feedback, coaching is better for self-improvement. We are 60% biased when we are rating some other person”