Today’s topic at hand is one of the core questions in HR and business and I did a short interview with the company I’m currently working for through a short article below.

“The first guest of the column is Roman Šakirovski , Expert Professional Placement Consultant and our favorite HR blogger ( myhrsimplified ). As he himself states, his journey in the field of human resources started working in smaller agencies abroad which was then replaced by a larger corporation and finally (luckily), ManpowerGroup Croatia. He is an expert in hiring various positions through 180/360 cycles and effective business communication management, which he proves on a daily basis in relation to clients, candidates and colleagues.

You can watch Roman’s view on HR topics, satisfaction, motivation and remote work in a video in English or read in Croatian in the text below.“

• In your experience, what are the universal factors that affect employee happiness and satisfaction?

The quick answer is Company culture, making an impact, relationship with the manager and co-workers, as well as learning and development are all factors which heavily influence the state of mind of a single employee, no matter the salary, which according to a number of conducted research is at the bottom of the list when it comes to complete employee satisfaction. This is one of the reasons why companies on a global scale started investing a lot more in each of the HR sub-sphere. Simplicity in complexity is key here and if HR strategy is built towards employees in general, odds are their happiness will be more pronounced.

• How to motivate employees to take responsibility in addition to competencies?

There are dozen of ways to motivate employees for the management that wants to take their time and invest in such a factor but I would summarize it in 3 unique areas. Regular performance reviews, professional skill development/growth and accomplishment recognition or the ever so popular feedback. Those areas generally encompass the majority of activities which sum up the employee motivation and if any of those aren’t in the company’s focus, there will be a missing link in employee performance, be it by lack of competencies or just general motivation.

• How do analytics / employee data shape the business?

My counter question would be „How does it not?“. By conducting regular statistical analysis, HR departments can predict and reduce the hidden cost of the workforce, calculate the ROI of various HR practices which align the overall business. By aligning the HR practice with the business goals, a company gets a perfect business model for success. In fact, one of the key roles in any HR department is to shape the business towards profit with adequate spending of the resources. We could even say that business would rarely be successful without careful strategic planning of the HR department.

• Is remote work a future or a present?

Short answer would be both. The majority of the global workforce is already working from home at least once a week, let alone more. The pandemic has ushered businesses to adapt their strategy in accordance with remote work as well as how the employee performance should be measured in such environment. If anything, the talent market will look down upon companies who won’t have the flexible perk of working remotely. It’s still considered an employer branding tool and as an aforementioned perk but it will soon become the norm without which companies won’t be able to successfully advertise themselves on the market. Remote work is here and it is here to stay for the foreseeable future because of simplicity and pure work-life balance convenience.