Irina Butnaru, Romania Country Lead & General Manager, Wipro: It is not only employer’s duty to invest in their employees, but the employees need to take ownership of their relevance

As we start a new year, we all understand to work on mitigating risks associated with economic situation, geopolitical environment & talent pool scarcity independent of the industry we operate in.

Cybersecurity and cloud remain at the top and probably they will continue for a while, followed by consumer services which is driven by 2024 being human centric, elevating the services to the next level.

Now more than in the past years the focus is human centric. With the developments we see on the global scene, it will be a challenge to drive people and business to be adaptable, scalable and risk free. Hence leaders have to be able to assess the risks, feel the market and lead constant change generated by the general dynamic.

Current market situation demands flexibility from all stakeholders and this involves the employees too – re-skilling and up-skilling is needed more than ever. Employees need to be open to learn new technologies to be able to stay relevant. One example is AI – on the one hand using it can be beneficial and drives efficiency but on the other hand, using it ethically is the challenge. Employees have to make decisions now on what technology to learn, how to apply technology ethically and how to stay relevant long term. It is not only employer’s duty to invest in their employees, but the employees need to take ownership of their relevance.

Also, customers expect now more than ever a higher degree of adaptability to their rapid changing needs which is driving an increased speed of execution.

We are honored to have been awarded by Top Employer Institute the “Top employer” 1^st rank in Romania and Europe. This award is not only the result of continued commitment to invest in our people and communities, but also the result of our people being committed to grow along us, live our shared values and habits. In 2023 only, we have spent over 20.000 hours together, focusing on our collective needs, our hopes, our wellbeing, planning our future together in the country, as ONE Wipro. I am proud of each end every employee of Wipro who contributed to this success. This award is the result of our collective effort and will also set new standards for all of us.  

Wipro is committed to invest in education and environment initiatives in 2024 too. We believe Romania needs now the support of the business community to ensure we work together in maintaining our workforce relevant in the next few years and we add new resources to the labor market, resources that are prepared for the future and for being adaptable. 

This can only be possible if we all join forces to help education remove some barriers – all companies can build academies, can better integrate graduates, can look into employing undergraduates, to push existent professionals on the market to their next level of their career.