10 Things We Learned from Employer Branding Forum 2018 in Sofia

The lack of skilled and qualified workforce is not only a Macedonian reality. The same thing is happening in neighboring Bulgaria where the unemployment rate is about 5 percent and only those who don’t want to work are currently without job. In order to attract top talents, companies are forced to work on their brand as a desirable employer.

Under the motto “The New World of the Workplace”, the biggest HR event in Sofia was opened where some big names from the field of PR and HR presented the best practices for creating a brand of a desirable employer that will help companies to reach the best talents in the labor market.

The conference was opened by the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy of the Republic of Bulgaria – Ms. Zornitsa Rusinova, noting that employers should start to communicate with the hidden segment of the labor market represented by young people, people who are not motivated to work and people with health problems.

Work is not just about the performance, but also the motivation to be part and belong to a company, stressed Deputy Minister Rusinova in front of hundreds of guests present on the forum.

The President of the Bulgarian Human Resources Association – Ms. Detelina Smilkova addressed the conference and pointed out that in the battle for talents, only those who dictate the changes will succeed and that by 2025 the workplace could be everywhere around us. According to her, the business world is dramatically changing, and management and HR professionals need to adapt. There is no accurate recipe for success. Employers should hear the voice of candidates and employees, no just dictate. She also mentioned nine ways to retain talents in an organization such as recognition, feedback, strong leadership and culture.

In addition, several key points from the conference speakers:

1. Behind every good employer’s brand, there is an authentic human-made story. When launching an Employer Branding Management Strategy, research needs to be done, setting performance indicators and improving workflows. Companies should not be afraid of negative comments online but continue to communicate with outside and in-house audiences, knowing exactly who they are talking with. At the core of attracting talents is building trust, which requires dialogue and patience. – Katia Dimitrova, Founder and Managing Partner at Interpartners Communications Group, and Svetlozer Petrov, Executive Director of JobTiger
2. Companies should have their own unique proposal, which is not simply calculated by the amount of money. Employers need to find out where the real talents are and fight for them. Every problem requires a different set of competencies and therefore the employer must be flexible and support employees by offering them opportunities for growth and training. This builds competence in the workers and gives them motivation and commitment, which are key to the recruitment of new talents. – PhD. Vanya Babanin, a reputation management and branding consultant
3. HR professionals are effective when they have information. They need to know the company and its goals, but also to know future employees. This makes them business partners, not just a business sector. Training and initiatives in internal communication are good, but the most important thing is to make sure that employees feel valuable and important. – Stanka Stoyanova, Human Resources Manager at BHTC Bulgaria
4. Before hearing their future employers, talents must first accept them. To accomplish this, businesses can use communities in the workplace. The new democracy is a process of forming communities with their own values created around a common problem, trend, humor or interest. They form themselves, have their own hierarchy and are natural. However, companies can provide the opportunity for their existence, use them as a means of getting to know their employees and use them as a channel for attracting new talents. – Alexander Hristov, a communication and PR professional and partner in Paragraph 42
5. It is crucial to create an environment that will lead the talents to come and want to stay alone. For this purpose, the leader must be vulnerable, sharing not only tasks and plans, but also intentions, visions and ideas, listening and hearing. People connect not with positions, but with other people, so understanding is needed. The environment is shaping new additions, so if companies want new talented people, they have to start developing the staff they already have. – Klimentina Rasheva, founder and managing partner in Denkstat Bulgaria
6. To build a successful employer’s brand, core is needed, not just a wrapper. Big companies should not just declare their values, but live them. Authentic stories are needed to touch the hearts of future employees, because people have nothing more valuable than the feeling of belonging. Sensing this, they are motivated to share their experience and to be lawyers of the employer’s brand. – Maria Gergova-Bengtsson, CEO of United Partners and President of BAPRA
7. Employer Brand is actually a corporate social responsibility targeting the employees. The mission and values that business communicates with external audiences will be tested by team members. When all parts of the company work together with a common goal, the business is experiencing success. – Elena Mateeva, Director of Communication Strategies and CSR at Sopharma AD
8. Companies need to find a balance between the business environment and pay. If a business has great customers but a bad team, it will lose. The wonderful team, however, even when working with just one customer will be so successful that will attract new customers. – Maxim Behar, Chief Executive Officer at M3 Communications Group Inc.
9. Love is the basis for the successful attraction of talent. Love is trust and confidence, manifested in what we do to the people we do, and to ourselves. Love must be a driving force, as it is at the heart of our culture, including that of the corporation. Great leaders are not great because someone has them, but because they make people around them bigger than themselves. They make the greatest of others and see an opportunity where others see problems. – Nadia Vaneva, founder and director of the 3CON agency
10. Managers have a great impact on employee satisfaction. People are not replaceable as machines and therefore a deeper approach is needed. Each person has four dimensions: body, heart, mind and spirit – which leaders should keep in mind while working with their employees. If before the CEOs were good operating managers, it is now necessary for them to become inspirational orchestras. – Irina Goryalova, an organizational leadership coach for executive directors

For me, it was a huge pleasure to be part of such an event where I had an opportunity to exchange valuable knowledge for strategy building, attracting and retaining talents and providing growth with a large number of HR professionals, talent specialists, communication experts and PR and Employer Branding professionals.