Sorina Donisa, CEO APT Resources & Services: In a market of candidates, companies have to invest in the employer brand and have a quick reaction in the recruitment and employment processes

The HR priorities in 2021

Employee safety remains the number one priority. We see an increasingly need to bring people back to the office, not necessarily out of the business need, but out of the need to ensure employees have a framework to socialize. Once again, it appears as a great challenge for companies to increase the loyalty of their employees. HR departments have, as a priority, the recreation of the human connection beyond the business need by finding the best solutions and competitive benefits for their employees and new ways to attract candidates. An example is given by the pandemic-specific benefits, so that employees have the opportunity to be vaccinated or tested. Another priority is to reconfigure the workspace according to the number of employees they expect to have back to the office.

Going work-flexible

For us, flexible work means a mixed model. Due to the specifics of the activity, the internal APT team has been working in a mixed system since June 2020, coming to the office 1 day and then 2 days a week. Our work system depends on two main factors, namely the business need of customers and the ability of our employees to work safely. We expect to continue in the current system of 3 days / week with office presence until the end of the year and we consider keeping this system on a long-term basis while ensuring a high level of service quality.

Although the year 2020 was difficult, it helped us to increase the cohesion of the team and the level of trust between the team members. The key words for us were communication, socialization and to have the opportunity to get to know each other better; while the main message we sent was “you are not alone”.

During years 2020 and 2021 we have successfully implemented remote work systems and ERP on the area of ​​personnel administration to increase the efficiency of the human resources process.  There is the need to implement the electronic signature at least for the area of ​​employment of specialists.

Continuous team expansion

We are constantly growing and expanding due to the fact that we offer human resources services and the service line of the temporary work activity experienced in 2020 an unprecedented increase, APT being one of the companies that employed in 2020 over 2000 temporary employees. Internally, we have sized our team to meet our business requirements. We have expansion plans and this year, in addition to the organic growth at our headquarter and the already existing branches, we are opening another branch in the southern part of the country.

The demand in the market is increasing both for the recruitment services and for the temporary work services, the need for companies to return to the pace of employment before the pandemic is being felt more and more.

The biggest challenge is finding and attracting the right candidates, we are already seeing difficulties since the spring of 2021, but at the moment the demand from customers is high. We are talking again about a market of candidates, companies having to adapt their benefit packages, to invest in the employer brand, to have a quick reaction in the recruitment and employment processes.

Major trends are given by digitization to help simplify work processes, increase skills through internal rotation in other departments (shadowing systems)

The employees can experience flexibility in benefit packages, adapted development plans, atmosphere and work environment, continuous learning, integration of new colleagues, redesign of the working space and employee experience.

The most used tools are online applications, online visibility elements on social media platforms including job posting for white and blue collar candidates, outdoor adds spread in various parts of the country, partnerships with universities and student associations, workshops for recent graduates, participation in career fairs, display and distribution of flyers campaigns for blue collar business line.

In 2021 we continued the process of development and training of APT employees. We opted for trainings dedicated to all employees in order to refresh the importance of communication, regardless of the work model and courses dedicated to each type of role that would improve job performance.