Florina Pravat, Valoris: A company’s image as an employer is shaped by the entire journey of its people

In the past years, the HR and everything related to employees and employer branding have been of utmost importance for the companies’ overall business development strategy.  We talked to Florina Pravat, Staffing & Training Manager, Valoris to find more on the company’s insights on HR and L&D programs and strategies, workplace culture and business-wise evolutions.  

2021 continued the transformation of the work environment as well as the HR’s

The COVID-19 pandemic has acquainted an unexpected level of uncertainty into all our lives, so this year has its challenges. Nevertheless, these challenges are positively influenced by the favorable context the BPO industry finds itself in these days.

After successfully crossing the transition to a “new normal” in 2020, we have successfully implemented new ways of working that are adapted to the situation related to the pandemic, so this year we are consolidating the successes of the previous year.

The main priority of the HR department remains the human resource, followed by the actions related to the HR strategy aligned to the company’s business strategy.                   

Our HR department is more flexible, constantly thinking and implementing effective engagement programs designed for all the people in the company

Our colleagues understood that the human resources team has a full-grown plan for them. We have created new strategies based on the feedback received from them, and their voice is clear because our people are actively involved in the smooth running of the organization.

Another priority for us is the automatization of repetitive and time-consuming processes, along with the adaptation of structures, roles and procedures to ever-changing conditions. We want our teams to be prepared for change and to understand why flexibility and adaptation to new working conditions are beneficial.

The flexible work system (work from home or hybrid) performed very well in our company, and we noticed that people’s productivity increased a lot. At the same time, we acknowledged a positive impact in the recruitment processes because it allowed us to expand with recruitment at a national level. It was a good practice, and the fact that we managed to organize ourselves well has increased our confidence and made us maintain this trend in the long run.

The current focus is on motivating employees because, although we are talking about an increase in productivity, at the same time, we’ve seen a demotivation caused by the large number of changes they faced in 2020. Many people woke up overnight to install the home office, to take care at the same time of the children who no longer go to school, and to face

At a national level, we noticed that the employment and recruitment activity did not cease. The market was quite dynamic for both companies and candidates

In the light of the numerical growth (from the last two years) of the employments within our company, I can affirm with confidence that we are doing well. In Romania, we always hear about the problem of labor availability. From my perspective, a healthy developed company with a well-established and ambitious human resources department will succeed. Indeed, people migrate, come and go, but in our field, you need to be a little creative and not to raise any barriers.

Fastly adjusting to remote work

Last year, if I may say “overnight” all our employees went 100% remote.

The transition was quite easy, due to the procedures and standards we had already established. It was a great achievement for us, and we are proud of it. Our team remained connected and managed to work remotely, while easily adapting to the needs of our clients. Our activity did not stop at all, and we started to develop even more. Moreover, the need for employment actually increased.

The remote employment process along with teleworking were brand new experiences for us. Shifting to online interviews was a challenge and a good way to practice and improve. We innovated and we stepped out of the comfort zone with confidence. Therefore, we rapidly implemented all work systems, from recruitment & employment, training and development, to operational.

As I previously said, there was also a slight demotivation feeling caused by the large number of changes that people faced in this period of time. 

Taking all these aspects into account, I will briefly point out three main directions for us:

• Caring for our people remains our priority. Those who are not happy do not perform, and this unhappiness translates into the market, to customers, or to partners. Employees are the real image of a company.
• In the selection and recruitment process, we have become more careful and we prefer quality over volume.
• Preserving the spirit of belonging to a team is a process we continuously carry out for our employees.

For us and for the whole BPO industry, it is time to prepare for whatever the next decade will bring

We expect to reach a two digits million euro revenue this year, along with consolidating and diversifying our language portfolio, while also enhancing automation for back-office projects. As part of the business strategy, we are already prospecting and landing new customers by offering them complex services.

Remote work has been the ideal way to diversify our candidate pool since the pandemic started. Now, one of our challenges is to consolidate remote teams, to create and keep the belonging feeling, and to find the right balance for a sustainable hybrid work model.

Digitalization remains an important pillar for HR, because recruitment, onboarding and training are now possible due to platforms and virtual solutions.

In terms of automation, we started the process in 2020 and we are currently in the stage of full implementation. Our goal is to accelerate all projects that involve automation and to increase the competitiveness of the services we are offering.

A company’s image as an employer is shaped by the entire journey of the people working there.

It begins with the attractiveness of the employer and it goes through the whole experience towards staff retention. Starting with the job description, the work environment and the way the dismissals are made, the employer brand is affected by all these activities and actions.

We are constantly improving our activity hence we regularly analyze data from surveys and feedback received from within the organization, from clients, from candidates, and from or co-workers who have left the organization.

Our employer brand message is delivered through communication and recruitment processes. We create visibility in the market through active presence both in physical form and online, adding to a pleasant work environment, at the office or virtually.

Identifying and building new skills are essential for the future of our company

Since 2020, the new normality in which Covid-19 landed us, forced us to adopt a transition to online training. Distance learning has also become a trend we adopted.

Our development programs cover both soft skills and technical areas. We also create project-based learning sessions, adapted to our clients’ requirements, as well as programs meant to develop the soft skills area of ​​the employees.

Our learning plan is built to help people gain time and develop new skills aligned with the needs of our company.

For this year, we set out to implement an E-learning system, a hybrid between online learning and trainer-assisted learning, that can measure the evolution of trainees. Studies show that the rate of information retention in hybrid courses can increase by up to 80%.

The L&D segment for our company represents an important pillar, so we budgeted accordingly for 2021. Last, but not least, we identified new ways to communicate with our teams in order to increase their engagement in the learning process.