Today, a strong employer brand is seen as a critical way to both attract and retain the talent that will help drive the future of the organization. 

“How to build your employer brand” was the debated topic at the 5th edition of the HR Executive Learning Breakfast organized by Romania-Insider.com and Ideograf on October 31, 2019. The event was supported by CBRE, Indivizo, Transearch International, Maastricht School of Management in Bucharest, Mindspace and Sweeteria.   

Dragos Gheban, Managing Partner of Catalyst Solutions and hipo.ro, Mihail Pricop, Training Manager of Autonom and Adrian Stanciu, Associate Dean, Maastricht School of Management Romania, shared their knowledge on practices that build an employer brand to over 40 HR directors, general managers, entrepreneurs and HR professionals who gathered at Mindspace last Thursday. The session was moderated by Sandra Jitianu, Management Consultant & Trainer, Ideograf.

The topic was analysed from three different angles: that of a potential employee looking for the best place to work, that of an organization with a very strong employer brand and thirdly, that of a dedicated observer of behaviors at the workplace and of their impact on teams and organizations. 

Dragos Gheban, Managing Partner of Catalyst Solutions and hipo.ro presented the conclusions of Catalyst’s 14th “Most Desired Employers” study carried out this year based on 18.000+ validated responses from candidates all over Romania.

“The top 3 a potential employee is looking at when choosing their future workplace are performance recognition, a pleasant & friendly work environment, and the degree to which leaders encourage employee development,” said Dragos Gheban.

He also added that recruitment touchpoints differ depending on the candidate’s level of experience. Both for entry level and experienced candidates job sites are the first most common contact point with a company. Entry level candidates contact potential employers via job fairs while experienced hires rely more on LinkedIn. 

Autonom, the largest car rental business in Romania, with a 54 mil EUR turnover at group level in 2018 and more than 500 employees, is a company that has been receiving the AON Hewitt “Best Employer” accolade every year since 2014.

The company was represented by Mihail Pricop, Training Manager, who offered numerous examples of practices that influence Autonom’s organization culture, lead to high employee engagement and thus shape its employer brand. 

Learning and education rank very high in the priority list of the company. Each employee is urged to read at least one book every month and share insights with the team, then come up with ideas or innovations. The Autonom team currently proposes on average 800 innovations per year. Also, all employees get involved in educational projects which are not directly related to their job, projects that are carried out through the Autonom Foundation. 

At Autonom people are systematically encouraged to talk about themselves with their colleagues in order to create a psychologically safe environment. “Our monthly meetings start with a discussion about what is going on in people’s personal lives, and then about what is going on in their department and branch. We want people to become vulnerable and open, this gets them close” – said Mihail Pricop.

Starting from Doshi and McGregor’s Total Motivation Theory and from the 8 important questions from Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall’s "Nine Lies About Work", Adrian Stanciu, Associate Dean at the Maastricht School of Management Romania, led the audience through a number of reflections about what actually creates motivation and engagement at the workplace.

Key takeaways include the facts that a company brand is not the logo, but the attitude of the people working there, that having a sense of purpose doubles the effort that people put in what they do. Also, that contrary to common intuition, people do not transact work for anything and some motivators can have bad outcomes. “Monitor people by what they do best, not by where they deviate” is one recommendation that Adrian Stanciu made to the participants.

The last part of the meeting was a lively debate with plenty of questions from the audience made up of HR executives, business owners and top managers.

The next event and the last of this year’s series will take place on November 28 and will cover the topic of HR in the Digital Era. For additional details please contact events@romania-insider.com.

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The HR Executive Learning Breakfast is a series of monthly morning events for a meaningful exchange of ideas & HR best practices. Topics of future events include growth mindset for organizations, team dynamics, managing performance and leading change among others. The audience includes Romanian and foreign HR executives, directors, entrepreneurs who want further inspiration and knowledge on the HR front.

Romania-Insider.com is the most-read English – language news and features website dedicated to Romania, read by over 400,000 unique readers from all over the world every month. Its publisher also prints a yearly expat and travel guide in English and offers a premium executive press review service in English.

Sandra Jitianu, business owner at Ideograf, is a management consultant, trainer and coach with Human Resources and Change Management background and +14 years experience in manufacturing, financial services, oil & gas, utilities, retail, professional services & shared service centers. She has worked with teams in Romania, Rep. of Moldova, Spain and Switzerland.