Category: I’m a resident

Together with the Lechia Gdańsk Foundation, we are helping children from towns affected by the August storm in Pomerania:) Thirty students of grades III-VII from schools in Silo and Pawłów met with Lechia Gdańsk footballers, visited the Energa Gdańsk Stadium and our Olivia business center.

We have another edition of our campaign to help the victims of storms in Pomerania “Together we can do more” – this time we are cooperating with our new resident, the Lechia Gdańsk Foundation. Together, we invited children from schools in Silo and Pawłów to Gdańsk. Thirty students from grades III-VII took part in the m.in on Thursday. in the training of Lechia’s players at the stadium at ul. Traugutta, met there not only with the players, but also with the coaching staff.

“This is an extremely exciting event for our pupils. Olivia Business Centre has been in touch with us from the very beginning, helping us in every situation we have signalled. Employees Recently, for example, the Centre’s companies have donated school starter kits. Now, the Lechia Gdańsk Foundation, which cooperates with Olivia, has proposed that children from the most affected families take part in a meeting with athletes – says Bernadeta Zimnicka, Director of the Municipal Education Complex in the Municipality of Chojnice. – I am very impressed by the openness of the Club and the Lechia Foundation, which invited our pupils to the training of the players and organized a visit to the Energa Gdańsk Stadium. There was a lot of joy. It’s a wonderful gesture. –Adds.

The children’s visit to the Energa Gdańsk Stadium was possible thanks to the cooperation of the Lechia Gdańsk Foundation with Arena Gdańsk Operator Sp. Ltd.

– The Lechia Gdańsk Foundation was established to provide help. Sometimes it is material support, other times it is financial. Sometimes, however, it is also necessary to focus on, it would seem, a smaller form of support, but in a very important aspect of life; In this case, the idea was to bring smiles to the faces of children who experienced the very unpleasant consequences of the August storms. Together with Olivia Business Centre, we wanted this time spent on the pitch with the footballers to charge these children with energy, encourage and inspire them. The joy on the faces of these young people makes me aware that what we do is of great value. – said Janusz Biesiada, President of the Lechia Gdańsk Foundation.

Thursday’s meeting with the White-Greens – the children were welcomed by m.in. Sebastian Mila, Milos Krasic and Dusan Kuciak – these were only some of the attractions. From Traugutt, the children went to the Energa stadium, where, under the care of a guide, they visited all the nooks and crannies of the facility where Lechia’s players play their home matches. Then the participants of the tour visited Olivia, where refreshments awaited them.

See the report on Lechia Gdańsk’s profile:)

– No change can be made without the direct involvement of specific people. At Olivia, we try to motivate the companies or organizations present in our company, but also the people who create them, to work together – summed up Monika Bogdanowicz from Olivia Business Centre, responsible m.in for CSR projects in Olivia. – We are committed to ideas and initiatives that go beyond business and serve m.in. supporting local communities. So far, m.in have joined in helping the victims in Pomerania. employees of Energi, Fujifilm and Staples. Now we are partnered by the Lechia Gdańsk Foundation. We believe that this first of our joint actions will give us all an impulse to build even closer relations –Adds.

Photo gallery on Lechia Gdańsk profile

 

Together with Lechia Gdańsk Foundation, we help children from towns, which were affected by August storm in Pomerania region:) Thirty pupils (from classes 1-7) from schools in Silno and Pawłowo met footballers from Lechia Gdańsk, visited Energa Gdańsk Stadium and our Olivia Business Centre.

There is another part of our aid campaign for people affected by storms in Pomerania region called “Together we can do more” – this time, we are cooperating with our new resident, Lechia Gdańsk Foundation. Together, we invited to Gdańsk children from schools in Silno and Pawłowo. On Thursday, thirty pupils from classes 1-7 participated, among othes, in training of footballers from Lechia club at Traugutta street. There, they met not only the footballers, but also coaching staff.

– It was a very emotional event for the children. From the very beginning, Olivia Business Centre has kept in touch with us and helped us in every signalised situation. Companies’ workers have given us recently, for example, school starters. Now, Lechia Gdańsk Foundation, which cooperates with Olivia, suggested that children from the most affected families take part in the meeting with sportsmen – says Bernadeta Zimnicka, Director of Municipal Educational Complex in Chojnice Borough. – I am hugely impressed by the openness of Lechia Club and Foundation, which invited our children to the training and organised their visit to Energa Gdańsk Stadium. Children had so much fun. It was an admirable gesture. – she added.

Children’s visit to Energa Gdańsk Stadium was possible thanks to the cooperation of Lechia Gdańsk Foundation and Arena Gdańsk Operator Sp. Ltd.

– Lechia Gdańsk Foundation was established to help others. Sometimes it is a material and sometimes financial support. At times, we need to focus on a form of support, which may seem minor, but is needed in a very essential aspect of life; in this case, it was all about bringing smiles to the faces of children, who experienced very distressing consequences of August storms. Together with Olivia Business Centre we wanted the time spent on the pitch with footballers to give children a lot of energy, cheer them up and inspire. Joy on the faces of these young people makes me realise that our actions have great value. – said Janusz Biesiada, Lechia Gdańsk Foundation CEO.

Thursday meeting with Lechia team – children were greeted, among other guests, by Sebastian Mila, Milos Krasic and Dusan Kuciak – was only a part of prepared attractions. From Traugutta street children went to Energa stadium, where, under the custody of a guide, they visited all recesses of the facility, where national matches are played by Lechia’s footballers. Next, participants visited Olivia, where snacks were waiting for them.

– No change can be introduced without a direct engagement of certain people. In Olivia, we try to motivate to joint activities not only companies and organisations residing here, but most of all people, who create them – summed up Monika Bogdanowicz from Olivia Business Centre, who is responsible, for example, for CSR projects in Olivia. –We get engaged in ideas and initiatives, which go beyond business and are designed to, for example, support local communities. So far, the workers of such companies as Energa, Fujifilm and Staples have decided to help affected people from Pomerania region. Now, Lechia Gdańsk Foundation has become our partner. We believe that our first joint action will give us momentum to build even closer relations – she added.

Photo gallery on the profile of Lechia Gdańsk

Gdańsk with the ISO 37120 certificate, awarded to cities with an exceptionally high quality of life.

How many new residents have arrived in Gdansk? How many bicycle paths are there in the city? How many kilometers is the public transport system? How many trees are planted per year? How many firefighters per 100,000? Residents? This and many other indicators were checked by external auditors from the Polish Register of Shipping, after which they awarded Gdańsk the ISO 37120 certificate; as one of the first cities in Poland!

During a press conference on Thursday, 21 September, Deputy Mayor of Gdansk Aleksandra Dulkiewicz stressed that Gdansk is the first city in Poland to receive the ISO 37120 certificate based on all basic indicators. She also pointed out that this standard makes it possible to compare, for example, the quality of life in Gdańsk and in other cities.

Deputy Director of the Economic Policy Department, Katarzyna Drozd-Wiśniewska pointed out that ISO 37120 certificate, the so-called “smart city”, First of all, it means that the city monitors the quality of life of its residents, the quality of urban services in the indicated several areas. “This helps build trust in the city,” she added.

The standard was published in 2014. by the International Organization for Standardization, in Poland, last year by the Polish Committee for Standardization under the title “Social Sustainability. Indicators of urban services and quality of life”. In order to obtain a certificate of compliance with the ISO 37120 standard, the values of 100 indicators of urban services (according to 17 thematic areas) must be provided, including 46 basic (mandatory) and 54 auxiliary (optional). Gdańsk provided values for as many as 87 indicators.

The thematic areas concern all major areas of the city’s functioning, m.in health, education, communication, environment, civic activity, energy. The certificate makes it possible to compare Gdańsk with other cities in the world that have this document, because they all calculate indicators based on the same guidelines. In terms of transport, the length of bicycle paths or the public transport system is given, for example.

^{Fig. Monika Bogdanowicz, Olivia Business Centre}

Drozd-Wiśniewska pointed out that in comparison with more than 40 other cities, Gdańsk ranks sixth in terms of the length of the public transport system with 236 km per 100,000 km. Residents. In terms of the number of trees planted per 100,000 per year. Gdańsk ranks 12th (over 1.5 thousand trees). In terms of per capita household water consumption, the city ranks 9th (104 liters per day) out of 45 cities.

The Lead Auditor of the Polish Register of Shipping S.A., Michał Gałecki, explained that “the standard tries to give cities a chance to compare themselves”. “Until today, there have been various methodologies for counting the city’s successes, e.g. in environmental protection, transport and other areas, and each of them has counted in such a way as to show its best effect” – he added.

Since the ISO 37120 standard was published relatively recently, there is no global entity that collects information on how many cities are interested in it. However, it is known that about 40 cities have taken up the challenge and published results authorized by external entities. Michał Gałecki informed m.in that there are 15 cities in Europe that have implemented the certificate, m.in London, Paris and Berlin.

In Gdansk, 13 (optional) indicators were not calculated, e.g. the indicator concerning the area of recreational, public and commercial areas per capita or the average number of hours of interruptions in water supply per household. “We will try to reach one hundred indicators and successively examine each of them” – declared Drozd-Wiśniewska.

Check the indicators of the ISO 37120 standard in Gdansk

See the presentation of the City of Gdansk

 

^{PAP/ PR/ Wirtualnemedia.pl/ gdansk.pl}

Gdańsk with ISO 37120 certificate, which is granted to the cities with exceptionally high quality of life.

How many new residents came to Gdańsk? How many cycling routes are there in the city? How many kilometres does the system of municipal transportation have? How many trees are planted annually? How many firemen fall for 100 thousand residents? This and many other indicators were checked by external auditors from the Polish Register of Shipping and then Gdańsk was granted ISO 37120 certificate; as one of the first cities in Poland!

Deputy President of Gdańsk – Aleksandra Dulkiewicz – during a press conference on Thursday, September 21, emphasised that Gdańsk is the first city in Poland, which was granted ISO 37120 certificate in accordance with all basic indicators. She also pointed out that this norm makes it possible to compare, for example, quality of life in Gdańsk and other cities.

Deputy Director of the Economic Policy Unit – Katarzyna Drozd-Wiśniewska – pointed out that ISO 37120 certificate, so called “smart city”, means primarily that the city monitors residents’ quality of life and the quality of urban services in several indicated areas. “It allows us to build confidence in the city” – she added.

The norm was published in 2014 by the International Organisation for Standardisation in Poland, last year it was issued by the Polish Committee for Standardisation under the title “Sustainable social development. Urban services indicators and the quality of life”. To be granted a certificate of compliance with ISO 37120 norm you need to give values of 100 of urban services indicators (according to 17 thematic areas), including 46 basic (mandatory) and 54 auxiliary (facultative). Gdańsk gave the values of as many as 87 indicators.

Thematic areas concern all major fields of city’s functioning, for example health, education, communication, environment, active citizenship, energy. The certificate gives the opportunity to compare Gdańsk with other awarded cities in the world because all of them calculate indicators on the basis of the same guidelines. In the scope of transport, you should indicate, for example, the length of cycling routes or the system of municipal transportation.

Drozd-Wiśniewska indicated that in comparison with more than 40 cities, Gdańsk occupies the sixth place in terms of the length of urban transport system, with its 236 kilometres per 100 thousand residents. In terms of the number of trees planted every year per 100 thousand inhabitants Gdańsk occupies 12th place (more than one and a half thousand trees). In terms of water consumption per person in a household, the city occupies the 9^th place (104 litres per day) out of 45 cities.

Lead Auditor of the Polish Register of Shipping – Michał Gałecki – explained that “the norm tries to make it possible for cities to compare themselves”. “Until today, different methodologies of counting successes of cities functioned, for example in the scope of environmental protection, transport and other areas. Every city counted them in such a way, to show that their result is the best” – he added.

Due to the fact that ISO 37120 norm was published relatively recently, there is no global unit, which would gather information on how many cities are interested in it. However, we know that about 40 cities took up this challenge and published the results authorised by external units. Michał Gałecki informed, for example, about the fact that in Europe there are 15 cities which implemented the certificate, like London, Paris and Berlin.

In Gdańsk, 13 indicators were not calculated (non-mandatory ones), for example an indicator concerning recreational, public and commercial areas per one resident or the average number of hours of breaks in water delivery per a household. “We will be trying to reach one hundred indicators and we will be studying them successively” – declared Drozd-Wiśniewska.

Check ISO 37120 norm’s indicators in Gdańsk

See the presentation of the City of Gdańsk

Olivia Business Centre patronises Gdańsk edition of European Mobility Week (Sustainable Development). This periodic initiative, which is held in September, promotes sustainable transport and ecological ways of moving around the city. The motto of this year’s edition is “Let’s share mobility”. The idea is very dear to Olivia – over the last few months Olivia Business Centre has developed many projects concerning ecology, promoting the change of habits connected with moving around the city, as well as improving the comfort of people who commute to the city centre.

Two wheels faster than four wheels?

The time needed to commute to work is one of the most important factors which influence the attractiveness of employer’s offer. An office in a well commuted place like city centre makes access not only shorter, but also faster, easier and cheaper.

More and more often we choose a… bike as a means of transport, especially taking into account the fact that in Gdańsk only there are currently 671 kilometres of cycling tracks. More and more people use this means of transport to commute to Olivia Business Centre, especially those who live in surrounding districts: Oliwa, Wrzeszcz, Zaspa, Przymorze, Jelitkowo or Morena.

– Cyclists benefit from a continually expanded infrastructure in the city centre. In Olivia Business Centre there are now more than 500 parking spots for cyclists, 5 big changing rooms with showers, separate lockers in changing rooms and repair stations for bikes. During European Mobility Week we want to serve healthy snacks to cyclists, for example fresh fruit – says Katarzyna Halicka from marketing department in Olivia Business Centre.

OBC supported also a cycling project called European Cycling Challenge, Spin kilometres for Gdańsk. Throughout the whole May, people who commute to Olivia by bike could help themselves with healthy snacks at a special Young City BioBazar stand or swiftly service their two-wheeled vehicle at mobile repair station.

It is nearer if you go by bus

According to the results of surveys carried out among Olivia’s workers, Ujeścisko in Gdańsk was a district, from which it was the most difficult to get directly to the business centre. That is why, very often the only choice left was a car… However, it is not the only option anymore because since May you can get to and from OBC by Olivia’s bus – comfortably, with Wi-Fi and without additional stops. The service covers two morning and two afternoon rides. Stops are located at Piotrkowska Street, near Łostowice-Świętokrzyska tram terminus (new) and opposite Hala Olivia. Monthly fee is only 10 zlotys. You can register via e-mail bus@oliviacentre.com.

Joint commuting by car

In June, Olivia implemented another workers-friendly solution, which helps integrate them – carpooling. Every person who decides to make a seat available in their car and commutes to work together with other centre’s workers has a chance to win, for example, free parking spots in Olivia. Workers have an access to a platform dedicated to this solution: cp.oliviacentre.com. Now, carpooling community has registered more than 70 driving routes.

Electric cars to hire and charge

From this year on, there has been a carsharing service in Olivia, that is a short-term car rental. The solution is addressed to business clients who occasionally use cars. It was introduced by Enspirion

1. z o.o. (ENERGA Group) together with Olivia Business Centre. All vehicles from the fleet are environment-friendly electric cars. It is worth mentioning that in Olivia Business Centre there are two charging points for electric cars.

Over the last few months, Olivia Business Centre has also invested in the construction of new junction in Grunwaldzka Street and development of extensive parking infrastructure. Information on current events in Olivia Business Centre can be found on www.oliviacentre.com and on Facebook: www.facebook.comoliviabusinesscentre

Today, work is a hot topic of analyses and a permanent source of interest of individuals, representatives of companies, business and media environments. The key point is to enable business environment to have permanent access to current knowledge on the newest solutions in HR sector, which may be useful for managers and staff which manages companies.

Thanks to Olivia Business Centre’s cooperation with HR Club, a periodic event organised by Marcelina Godlewska from ABSL (Association of Business Service Leaders) and Richard Piskorz (BNP Paribas), we will have an opportunity to participate in Tri-City in a meeting concerning the newest directions in the sector. It will be held on September 21^st in Olivia Sky Club (you need to register by contacting ABSL – http://absl.pl/pl/inicjatywy/kluby-absl/klub-hr/)

During the event there will be presented for example a report on applications in business, in HR sector, the newest technologies: artificial intelligence. The guests of HR Club will be, for example, the developers of Emplocity platform – Krzysztof Sobczak and Arkadiusz Talun.

Emplocity is an advanced solution, which integrates labour market on the level of workers and employers and significantly enhances competitiveness of the above-mentioned segments. By introducing the technique of inverted recruitment, it offers effective recruitment tools, creating an attractive alternative for old-fashioned HR techniques and being an innovation in the field of costly headhunting processes.

If we look at the process of job hunting from a worker’s perspective, we can see a picture of the large number of job offers, very often in the absence of possibility to use them in the place of residence or impossibility to fulfil some criteria (for example language ones). If we look at it from employer’s perspective, we can see a huge number of data for analysis, which is necessary to recruit a worker efficiently. Very often, this task effectively blocks HR departments and their effective support of business development. To be able to join real needs and possibilities of companies and workers, the solutions of the future are being designed. They are now available in Poland, for example, due to companies which invest in innovations in business.

You are kindly invited to read the interview with Krzysztof Sobczak, Emplocity CEO, who will be the guest of the periodic event organised by ABSL – HR Club.

How to find the right worker and new job more effectively thanks to new technologies?

Monika Bogdanowicz (Olivia Business Centre Communication): New technologies are more and more boldly pushing their way into our lives and areas, in which, until now, people played a dominant role. Growing demand for the process of effective headhunting – for companies and very often tedious searching for a proper place/position – by workers, make recruitment more and more difficult. That is why, we have higher expectations on both sides of this process. What is more, the newest technologies and Internet 4.0 are stepping in: artificial intelligence, automation and virtual reality. How and in which aspects can your project Emplocity.pl help companies and workers?

Krzysztof Sobczak (Emplocity CEO): The main reason to use our solution is time efficiency. Most people don’t have enough time to search for a job, especially when they are already working somewhere. Browsing job offers, applying and managing this process are very often a full-time activity. Our bot will do it for you. It will be anonymously presenting your candidacy to hundreds of employers.

Only when they express their interest in inviting you to recruitment process and – what is very important – when your expectations concerning the offer are met; for example benefits, remuneration, form of cooperation etc., the bot will ask you if you accept the invitation and want to share your personal details. Entire heavy lifting connected with communication and candidate’s job hunting is transferred to the bot, at the same time inverting the rules of recruitment process.

What is more, when it comes to companies, our system supports the most difficult steps of recruitment and selection of candidates and helps make right decisions without prejudices or cognitive errors. We analyse a huge amount of market information and data from diverse sources. Thanks to that we enable our clients to effectively conduct decisive processes connected with employment. We use the newest technological solutions to help employers automate recruitment process, influence the improvement of candidates’ satisfaction and increase the recruiters’ productivity. Our services make it possible to significantly reduce the time needed to recruit workers and are an alternative to a traditional offer of recruitment agencies.

A change in HR sector

MB.: Your company wants to revolutionise the whole headhunting process, mainly thanks to the use of artificial intelligence. How did you come up with the idea of such a business project and what exactly triggered its creation? What contributed to the next stages of its development?

KS: The idea resulted from our previous negative experiences. We realised that recruitment process is frustrating, ineffective and time-consuming for both parties. A candidate wastes a lot of time reading unrealistic job offers and participating in conversations with their authors. Browsing websites and offers is tedious and time-consuming. It feels like a nightmare for me. They all look the same, we don’t know what we are going to do, for how much and whether our application reaches an employer. We came to the conclusion that this is a task which a machine can do better than a human being.

MB.: Is the application designed exclusively for Polish market and only for HR sector? Who else can benefit from using it?

KS: Currently, we are concentrating on the Polish market, but of course in time we will take into account a global variant, considering the scalability of this solution. Both medium and big companies with HR departments can use it, but we also have an offer for smaller organisations, which also search for workers, however they don’t have people dedicated to recruitment. Such a peculiar, external and outsourced HR department is an invaluable support for them.

MB.: Do we know the effects of using the app by workers and what scale of operations/reaching people do you aim to achieve within the next months, year. How many companies and people will have been using Emplocity within 3 years?

KS.: Within three years we would like to become the third most important player in recruitment market along with Pracuj.pl, LinkedIn or GoldenLine. This is our plan. We need a real support of robots and artificial intelligence in recruitment processes.

MB.: How do companies and HR specialists react to the possibilities of solutions offered by your company? Do you manage to build trust for such ways of supporting their work? Which obstacles do you encounter while convincing people that the application has many advantages?

KS: Already now, we are receiving many enquiries from employers both via e-mail and phone. These are companies of different size and from different sectors, less or better known brands, but they have one thing in common – all of them have problems with reaching right candidates.

During meetings with them we often hear that solutions that are available in the market, such as recruitment websites or business social networks don’t actually work and an alternative is needed, which will enable to reach people who don’t have their accounts on Pracuj.pl, GoldenLine or LinkedIn. On Facebook there are about 10 million people in working age, whom we are able to reach thanks to our Emplobot, which functions in Messenger. That is why, there is a huge potential to act and HR specialists usually approach it with a lot of enthusiasm. It is worth mentioning that in the middle of the year we asked 300 representatives of HR sectors about their approach to new technologies, including artificial intelligence in recruitment. As many as 72% of surveyed people claim that nowadays you need to implement new technologies on the stage of reaching candidates and acquiring their applications. Additionally, only 5% of recruiters think that robots will deprive them of work. It shows that a vast majority treats it as a real support in these most time-consuming activities during recruitment process.

To sum up, companies come to us and talk to us eagerly about collaboration opportunities.

MB.: I hope that thanks to your company it will be possible to have a visible impact on changes, which will help people find great jobs and employers find the best workers.

KS.: Such an idea stands behind our everyday work on the development of this project!

^{Krzysztof Sobczak – CEO, co-founder of Emplocity. He is a co-founder of Emplocity and doggedly and faithfully manages the key aspects of its activity, believing in company’s mission. A few years ago, he resigned from originally chosen career path to develop in the direction, which really gives him satisfaction. After working hours, he is a dreamer, traveller, runner, populariser of ambitious initiatives – he finished the most difficult ultra-run in the world called Jungle Marathon (254 km) and raised 130 thousand zlotys for a good cause.}

^{Association of Business Service Leaders (ABSL) – is a leading organisation, which represents modern services for Polish business. It sets standards and directions of sector’s development, which is now the most dynamic branch of Polish economy and provides employment for nearly 250 thousand people, as well as registers growth on the level of 15-20% per year. ABSL focuses Shared Service Centres (SSC), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO), Research & Development (R&D) and companies supporting sector’s development. ABSL initiates numerous actions which aim to promote Poland as an attractive country that is open for foreign investors.}

^{HR ABSL Club – the mission of HR Club is the integration of the sector within the scope of exchange of good HR practices, referring to legal barriers and stimulating the environment to actions, which will help companies and sectors develop and help Poland become the first choice of location for BPO/SSC operations and desirable workplace.}

 

Interview with Magdalena Bączyk Manager | Human Capital, Deloitte Advisory Sp. Ltd.

We live in a world of constant change and development, on an unprecedented scale, of the relationship between man and new technologies. The latter fill almost every element of our lives. Technological progress has reached an unprecedented pace. Artificial intelligence, mobile platforms, and social collaboration systems have revolutionized our lives, including work. People are good at adopting new technologies, but business is doing so to a much lesser extent.

According to a study by the consulting firm Deloitte, Organizations around the world are embracing technology to meet the growing demands of their employees, who are beginning to be treated as customers. In this respect, Polish HR systems remain… behind.

Although one of the most important priorities for companies in Poland is to attract the most talented employees, as many as 62 per cent of respondents believe that they are in the right place. of them admit that they are unprepared for it. The new era, often referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution or the term “Big Shift” we coin, means radical changes in business, the wider economy and society. In this pivotal era, top executives, both in business and HR, are under intense pressure to reinvent the principles of organization, recruitment, development, management, and engagement for the 21st century.

As part of the business breakfast organized by the American Chamber of Commerce Poland entitled “HR Trends 2017. Changing the rules in the digital era”, which took place on 11 September this year. in Olivia Sky Club, the above-mentioned report was presented to the Tri-City HR community.

We invite you to read the interview with Magdalena Bączyk, an expert from Delloitte, who presented during the above-mentioned meetings, main theses and results of the report.

Download the report (PDF, 39.5 MB) HR Trends 2017

–/–

Monika Bogdanowicz (Communication Olivia Business Centre): The way the world’s most efficient companies do business today is radically different from what it was 10 years ago. Many companies, however, still operate according to models from 100 years ago. They are burdened by outdated practices, systems, and behaviors that are difficult to abandon. How does this situation affect the opportunities for change, and what is necessary for organizations to be ready to keep pace with the technological revolution?

Magdalena Bączyk, Manager | Human Capital, Deloitte Advisory Sp. Ltd.: The main observation from our survey this year HR Trends is that for the first time, CEOs and HR leaders are speaking in unison: The way we used to organize workplaces and understand what work is in general has changed. Organizations are moving away from rigid divisions into divisions and departments – we work in project teams composed of people with different competences, appointed for the time necessary to perform a specific task. Teams no longer communicate primarily by email – they use collaboration platforms such as Slack or Basecamp to do so. Not all team members are full-time employees – we have subcontractors, freelancers, crowdsourcing platforms. Finally, we have robots that take over some of the work previously done by humans. But it’s not teams or even robots that make it possible for us to talk about a revolution in the world of work.

The revolution is driven by a seemingly innocuous statement that resonated clearly in this year’s survey: we must treat employees as our customers. Therefore, we ask employees about their needs just as we study the needs of customers. On the basis of the information obtained, we adapt all processes, work organization and communication to individual employee segments, just as we adapt communication and offer to customer segments. Treating an employee as a customer is a trend that ranked 4th in terms of importance in this year’s survey. What is already a standard in marketing departments is slowly moving to HR departments.

MB.: So what are the main global trends in HR, and how do they compare to the conclusions drawn from the analysis of the Polish results of the report?

Magdalena Bączyk: Compared to global results, in Poland, the trend of building the organization of the future, which is number one on an international scale, turned out to be much less important, taking the fifth place among the priorities of HR leaders. It was overtaken by issues related to the career and education of employees as well as talent acquisition, which took first and second place in Poland, respectively. This may indicate that in Poland we have a more reactive approach to human capital management than in other countries, focusing mainly on the current difficulties related to the shortage of employees with the desired qualifications and competences. Such an attitude can be explained by the fact that in our region, significant talent shortages, affecting almost all industries and types and levels of positions, are a relatively new phenomenon if we take into account its scale. Nevertheless, the comparison of Polish and global results shows that, apart from the above-mentioned difference, the thinking of our leaders about the future of HR does not differ significantly from the views expressed by leaders from other countries.

This can be seen primarily in the results related to shaping the employee experience and the need to change the approach to performance management – Polish leaders are looking closely at these areas and taking action. 60% of the surveyed organizations in Poland declare that they have implemented some elements or a full strategy for building employee experience, and 61% are implementing changes in performance management systems, including a greater emphasis on strengthening employee strengths and coaching. In this respect, the level of advancement of Polish enterprises is the same, or even slightly higher, than the level of advancement of companies in global terms.

MB.: In the context of the technological revolution, and above all in connection with the development of machine intelligence and its impact on the work environment, it is worth asking about the level of awareness of leaders in terms of the importance of the U.S. place and role… companies of the future.

Magdalena Bączyk: 31% of this year’s survey respondents said that they are in the process of implementing artificial intelligence and robotics systems, and 34% are at the stage of pilot programs in selected areas. And 10% say they are already fully automated or have achieved a significant degree of automation. Interestingly, when asked about the effects of the implemented solutions, only 20% of respondents predict a decrease in the number of jobs. As many as 77% intend to transform their existing positions so that employees can take advantage of new technology solutions and focus more on typical human skills such as problem-solving and decision-making.

MB.: So we have optimistic information! People will be the best and irreplaceable in their main roles in business development.

Magdalena Bączyk: Yes, everything points to it.

–/–

^{Magdalena Bączyk is a manager from the Human Capital Advisory team at Deloitte. He has over 7 years of experience in consulting in the field of human resources management. He specializes in the implementation of projects in the area of change management (both technological and organizational), transformation of HR functions, optimization of organizational structures, design and implementation of competency models, development of talent development programs, leadership development programs and design of management by objectives systems. She is a graduate of management at the University of Warsaw.}

^{The report “HR Trends 2017. Changing the rules in the digital era” is one of Deloitte’s most extensive research efforts on talent, leadership, and the challenges facing HR departments in the era of technological revolution.}

 

 

A trip around the world, extreme mountaineering, an adrenaline rush on the racetrack with your employer’s money? Impossible? And yet! A Polish IT company will allocate PLN 300,000 to develop the passions of its employees.

Sii, a resident of Olivia Business Centre, one of the largest IT and engineering companies in Poland, will allocate as much as PLN 300,000 per year to sponsor the passion of its engineers. Tech enthusiasts, sports enthusiasts, but also more artistic talents present in the team can count on financial support. The employer appreciates employees for their expertise, commitment, and extraordinary personalities. Anyone who is passionate, persistent in pursuing their interests, and the ability to inspire others can become a sponsor.

Sports cards and medical care are definitely not enough – discover a new dimension of benefits for programmers

Sii was already known as a company that “goes ahead of the line” when it comes to the offered working conditions in IT compared to the competition. The Best Place to Work in IT according to Computerworld, or Great Place to Work – prestigious awards for top employers, which have been awarded to Sii many times, seem to confirm this. So what is the recipe for the company’s success? In addition to stable working conditions and a wide range of technological projects that are implemented all over the world, Sii focuses on unique benefits. The company has long invested in advanced training programs for engineers, provides industry-specific certifications, and had an extensive cafeteria system. The plans for Sii’s new office, which will include a slide, a climbing wall and many unusual attractions that Google itself would not be ashamed of, have been widely echoed. However, this is only the beginning of the company’s plans.

PLN 300,000 goes to employees to sponsor passions

By the decision of President Gregoire Nitot, in the coming year employees will receive as much as PLN 300,000 to develop their hobbies and interests. – Passion for Technology – Sii’s motto emphasizes our key value, which is passion – primarily for IT, but not only. It is also our daily approach at work, which has accompanied us since the beginning of Sii’s existence and is inscribed in our DNA. Technology is the foundation of Sii’s business – it is our great passion, but together with it, the focus is on the employee and their needs. Our mission is Power People – we care about the satisfaction of people employed at Sii. The passion sponsorship program simply combines what is most important to us. Therefore, I am giving Power People this money with a view to enabling them to realize themselves, make their dreams come true and develop.

Conquering peaks – even the highest ones – suddenly becomes possible

The diversity of beneficiaries of the program is evidenced by the examples of people who have already benefited from the project – the first PLN 50,000 went to the sponsors. They have one thing in common – they live with passion and develop professionally at Sii. The fact that perseverance allows you to “aim high” was personally experienced by Michał, Engineering for Rural Development. Tests and Analyses at Sii Gdansk. “I’ve been planning this trip for a long time. It was thanks to the company’s support that I was able to reach the top of my dreams,” says Michał. In 2017, thanks to sponsorship, he managed to go to Denali – the highest peak in North America. As he says himself, climbing is for him a fight with his own weaknesses, because he had… fear of heights. On a daily basis, he deals with software tests, which he writes and analyzes, using tools such as m.in. Repo Tool or the Google Test framework.

Passion Drives Power People – this slogan has many faces

There is no shortage of athletes among Sii’s experts. Artur, marathon runner and Olympian, and on a daily basis a Marine Engineer. Software. After hours, he infects his colleagues with his passion by conducting running trainings for employees and anyone who is interested. Kamil from Katowice is a cycling enthusiast and a Team Leader at the same time. Michał from Cracow is a freediver. There are also music enthusiasts in the company – Grzesiek, DJ, creator and organizer of the Bassriver festival, is a Release Manager at Sii. There is also no shortage of adrenaline and thrill enthusiasts – Łukasz, the Junior System Administrator, takes part in car races, and his namesake, the Assistant Engineer. He has travelled around South America on a motorcycle – today he is planning another trip.

Football, basketball, mountaineering or maybe salsa as part of an interest group? We say yes!

Sii experts also join internal interest groups, which are also financed by the employer. There are currently 47 interest groups across the company. Among them were m.in. volleyball teams, basketball, board games, soccer, salsa, movie club and many more. All of them, along with the stories of the beneficiaries of the passion sponsorship program, create an image of Sii as a diverse IT environment full of interesting people. Each subsequent edition of this project surprises – allowing Sii employees to get to know each other even better from a new side. This is just the beginning of the list of enthusiasts, as the company is just announcing a new recruitment for the passion support program. Soon, more employees will be selected to join the group of sponsors.

So what kind of company is Sii?

Sii employs 3000 IT experts who work in 8 branches of the company in: Warsaw, Krakow, Poznań, Gdańsk, Wrocław, Lublin, Łódź, Katowice and carry out projects for over 200 clients, companies from the banking and finance, insurance, telecommunications, Hi-Tech, energy and industry sectors from all over the world. Sii supports clients in the field of consulting, analysis and testing, software development, infrastructure management, system integration and maintenance, and industrial engineering. In addition, it is the fastest growing IT company in Poland, which is confirmed by record financial results. The company has been awarded many times in prestigious plebiscites for the best employers. It is the Best Place to Work in Poland according to the Computerworld ranking and a three-time winner of the international Great Place to Work ranking. Find out more about working at Sii and the passion sponsorship program at www.kariera.sii.pl.

Sii has been developing its business in Gdańsk for 10 years. Currently, the Tri-City branch employs almost 800 people and there is no shortage of passionate people. In the Gdańsk office of the leader of the technology industry, there are several interest groups, including football, basketball, squash, Cuban salsa, building a racing simulator and board games. The company also supports other initiatives related to active leisure – employees can represent their employer in runs and races.

A trip around the world, extreme high-mountain climbing, a shot of adrenaline on the race track for the money of your employer? Impossible? Think again! A Polish IT company will spend 300 000 PLN for the development of passions of its workers.

Sii, one of the biggest IT and engineering companies in Poland, will allocate 300 000 PLN in a year for sponsoring the passions of hired engineers. Enthusiasts of technology, sports but also artistic talents on the team can count on financial support. The employer appreciates its employees for their expert knowledge, engagement but also unique personalities. Each person who is passionate, persistent in pursuing their goals and has the ability to inspire others can be sponsored.

Sports cards and private healthcare is not enough – get to know the new dimension of benefits for programmers

When it comes to offered work conditions in IT, Sii is known for standing out from the crowd. The Best Place to Work in IT according to Computerworld or Great Place to Work – prestigious awards for top employers, which Sii has received many times, seem to confirm this truth. Then, what is the recipe for the company’s success? Except for stable work conditions and a wide range of technological projects, which are carried out across the world – Sii wants to focus on unique benefits. The company has been investing in advanced training programs for engineers, and providing them with industry certificates for years. It also has a well-developed benefit system. The information about Sii’s office, equipped with a slide, climbing wall and many unusual attractions, worthy of Google, bounced wide coverage. Yet, this is only the beginning of what Sii is planning.

300 000 PLN goes to employees for the sponsorship of passions

By the decision of CEO Gregoire Nitot, as much as 300 000 PLN will go to the employees for developing their hobbies and interests – Passion for Technology – the motto of the company, highlights our key value – passion, especially for IT, but not only. This is also our approach in everyday work, which has accompanied us from the start of Sii’s existence and is inscribed in our DNA. Technology is a basis of Sii’s operation – it is our great passion, but side by side with it are our employees and their needs. Our mission is Power People – we care for the contentment and satisfaction of the persons working for Sii. The passions sponsoring program simply combines the elements which are the most important to us. So I give this money to our Power People with the thought in mind, that they will have the opportunity to make their dreams come true.

Reaching even the highest peaks is suddenly possible

The current beneficiaries of the program are a proof of the variety of projects that can be sponsored – they have just received the first 50 000 PLN. There is one thing they all have in common– they live with passion and develop professionally at Sii. Michał, Tests and Analyses engineer at Sii Gdańsk, has experienced for himself that “perseverance lets you aim high” – I have been planning the expedition for some time. It is, among others, thanks to my company’s support that I could reach the peak of my dreams – says Michał. In 2017, thanks to the sponsorship, he could go to Denali – the highest peak of North America. As he says, climbing is to him a battle with his weaknesses, as he used to have a fear of heights. In everyday life he is a software tester. He writes and analyzes tests using i.a. Repo Tool or the Google Test framework.

Passion Drives Power People – one motto, many ideas

Among Sii experts you will find a few athletes. One of them is Arthur, marathon runner and olympian, and in everyday life, software engineer. After hours, he shares his passion with his colleagues and carries out running trainings for other employees and everyone interested. Kamil from Katowice is a fan of cycling and a Team Leader. Michał from Cracow is a fan of free diving, that is diving without the use of any diving equipment. In the company we also have people passionate about music – Grzesiek, a DJ and the creator and organizer of the Bassriver festival. At Sii he is a Release Manager. We also have enthusiasts of adrenaline and extreme experiences – Łukasz, Junior system administrator, participates in car races, and his namesake – a software engineer took a tour of South America on a motorbike – today he is already planning an new expedition.

Football, basketball, mountain climbing or maybe salsa as one of our interest groups? We are saying yes!

Sii experts create internal interest groups, which are also financed by the employer. In the entire company, there are in total 47 interest groups. Among them: volleyball, basketball and football teams, board games and salsa groups, as well as a film group and many more. All of them, together with the history of the beneficiaries of the passions sponsorship program create an image of Sii, as an IT environment which is versatile and full of interesting people. Every edition of the project brings surprises – each one lets Sii employees get to know each other from a new perspective. This is only the beginning of the list of persons with passion, as the company is recruiting for the next edition of the program. Soon, new employees will be selected and will join the ones that have already benefited from the company’s sponsorship.

What kind of company is Sii?

Sii employs 3000 IT experts, who work in 8 branches of the company, in: Warsaw, Cracow, Poznań, Gdańsk, Wrocław, Lublin, Łódź and Katowice. They carry out projects for more than 200 clients from the banking & finance, insurance, telecommunications, Hi-Tech, energy and industrial sectors around the world. Sii supports clients in the area of consulting, analyses and tests, software development, infrastructure management, integration and management of systems and industrial engineering. What is more, it is the fastest developing IT company in Poland. This is confirmed by record high financial results. The company is a many-time awardee of prestigious plebiscites for the best employers. It is the Best Place to Work in IT according to the Computerworld ranking and a three time laureate of the international Great Place to Work ranking. Find out more about work at Sii and the passions sponsorship program at www.kariera.sii.pl/en.

Sii, an IT expert and engineering services leader, has been developing in Gdańsk for the past 10 years. Currently, there are almost 800 people employed in the company’s Tricity office and all of them are full of passion. In Sii Gdańsk there are many active interest groups, such as football, basketball, squash, cuban salsa, building a racing simulator, board games and many others. The company also supports many other ways of spending free time – Sii employees may represent their employer in runs and races.

Interview with Magdalena Bączyk Manager | Human Capital, Deloitte Advisory Sp. Ltd.

We are living in the world full of continuous changes and development, on an unprecedented scale, of the relation between a human being and new technologies. These latter ones fill nearly every element of our lives. Technological progress has reached unprecedented pace. Artificial intelligence, mobile platforms and social system of cooperation revolutionised our lives, including work. People are good at adopting new technologies, but business does it to a substantially lesser degree.

According to the research carried out by a consulting company Deloitte, organisations all around the world use technology to meet growing expectations of workers, whom they are starting to treat in the same ways as clients. In this respect, Polish HR systems… lag behind.

Although for companies in Poland one of the most important priorities is recruiting the most talented workers, as many as 62% of them admit that they are not prepared for it. New era, very often described as fourth industrial revolution or Big Shift, which is a term coined by us, means radical changes in business, in wider economy and society. In this ground-breaking era, top management staff, both from business and HR departments, feels a huge pressure to create from scratch the rules of organisation, recruitment, development, management and involvement of employees, which are appropriate for the 21st^century.

During business breakfast organised by American Chamber of Commerce Poland called “2017 HR Trends. Change of the rules in the digital era”, which was held on September 11, 2017 in Olivia Sky Club, the above-mentioned report was presented to Tricity HR community.

We invite you to read an interview with Magdalena Bączyk, an expert in Delloitte, who presented main theses and the results of the report during the above-mentioned event.

Download the report in Polish (PDF, 39,5 MB) 2017 HR Trends

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Monika Bogdanowicz (Olivia Business Centre Communication): The current way of carrying business activity by the most efficient companies in the world is completely different from the one that was valid 10 years ago. However, many companies use the models that were used 100 years ago. They are burdened by outdated practices, systems and behaviours, which are difficult to give up. How does such a situation influence the possibilities of changes and what is essential to make organisations ready to keep up with the pace of technological revolution?

Magdalena Bączyk, Manager | Human Capital, Deloitte Advisory Sp. Ltd.: There is one main conclusion that can be drawn from his year’s HR Trends research: for the first time, chairmen and HR leaders are unanimous: the way we organised workplaces and understood the meaning of work up to now, has changed. Organisations have started to abandon rigid divisions into sectors and departments – we work in project teams, which consist of people with different competences, who are appointed for the time needed to do a certain task. First of all, teams don’t communicate via e-mails anymore – they use such cooperation platforms as Slack or Basecamp. Not all team members are full-time workers – we have subcontractors, freelancers, crowdsourcing platforms. Finally, we have robots, which take over part of the work, which up to now was performed by people. But these are not teams and robots that make it possible to speak boldly about the revolution in the world of work.

The revolution is driven by a seemingly innocent statement, which was explicit in this year’s research: we have to treat workers in the same way as our clients. That is why, we ask employees about their needs in the same way we study clients’ needs. On the basis of obtained information we adjust all processes, ways of work organisation and communication to certain segments of workers in the same way we adjust communication and offers to segments of clients. Treating workers in the same way as clients is a trend, which occupied 4^th place in this year’s research in terms of importance. The thing, that is a standard in marketing departments, is slowly being transferred to HR departments.

MB.: What are the main global HR trends, then? How do they relate to conclusions from Polish results of the report?

Magdalena Bączyk: In comparison to global results, in Poland the trend connected with creating organisations of the future, which is a number at international level, turned out to be much less important and occupied 5^th place among the priorities of HR leaders. It was outrun by issues connected with employee’s career and education, as well as talent acquisition, which in Poland occupied respectively first and second place. This may indicate that in Poland, to a greater extent than in other countries, we approach human capital management reactively, focusing mainly on current difficulties connected with the shortage of workers with desirable qualifications and competences. Such an attitude can be explained by the fact that in our region significant shortages of talents, which affect nearly all industries and types and levels of positions, are a relatively new phenomenon, if we take into account its scale. However, comparing Polish and global results indicates that apart from the above-mentioned difference, the way our leaders think about the future of HR doesn’t deviate significantly from the views expressed by leaders from different countries.

It is best illustrated by the example of results connected with shaping worker’s experience and the need to change the attitude towards performance management – Polish leaders are carefully looking at these areas and are taking actions. 60% of surveyed organisations in Poland declare that they implemented some elements or a full strategy of building worker’s experience and 61% introduce changes in the systems of performance management, taking into account greater emphasis on enhancing workers’ strengths and coaching. In this respect, the level of advancement of Polish enterprises is the same, or even slightly higher than the level of advancement of companies globally.

MB.: In the context of technological revolution, and most of all in connection with the development of machines’ intelligence and their influence on working environment, it is worth asking about the level of leaders’ awareness in terms of the place and role of… human beings in companies of the future.

Magdalena Bączyk: 31% of this year’s respondents of the survey claimed that they are in the process of implementing the systems of artificial intelligence and robotics and 34% of them are at the phase of pilot programmes in chosen areas. 10% claim that they are fully automated or that they have reached a significant degree of automation. Interestingly, asked about the results of implemented solutions, only 20% of respondents expect a reduction in the number of working places. As many as 77% of respondents are going to transform existing positions in such a way to enable workers to use new technological solutions and focus more on typical human skills, such as problem solving and decision making.

MB.: So, we have optimistic information! People will be the best and irreplaceable in their main roles in business development.

Magdalena Bączyk: Yes, everything indicates that.

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^{Magdalena Bączyk is a manager in Human Capital Advisory team in Deloitte. She has more than 7 years of experience in consulting in the area of human resources management. She specialises in implementing projects in the area of change management (both technological and organisational), the transformation of HR functions, optimisation of organisational structures, designing and implementing competence models, creating talent development programmes, leadership development programmes and designing systems of management by objectives. She graduated from the faculty of management at the University of Warsaw.}

^{“2017 HR Trends. Change}

of the rules in the digital era” report ^{is one of the most extensive research projects carried out by Deloitte, which concerns talents, leadership and challenges facing HR departments in the era of technological revolution.}