General @en, motivation and employer branding

The Significance of Workplace Ethics

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Nowadays, workplace ethics, also known as business ethics, turns out to be more and more frequently valued by employers at the workplace. This is simply due to the fact that business ethics is the moral guide of our behavior, which plays a significant role in the decision making process as well as in identifying what is right and what is wrong on the workplace. Even more, strongly developed business ethics within employees of a company leads to achieving better results that tremendously benefit the whole company.

Creating a Friendly Work Environment

Now, you may ask yourself how workplace ethics is related to the outcomes produced by a company and the answer to this concern consists in the development of a friendly working environment. Yes, a friendly work environment is the key to successful results since employees are enjoying their time at the workplace and so, they feel much more motivated to dedicate themselves to the aims of the company they are currently working for. As it is claimed in a research conducted by the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, “An extensive study into happiness and productivity has found that workers are 13% more productive when happy.” (Oxford News, 2019)

The Aim of Workplace Ethics

The objective of workplace ethics as well as another reason due to which it should be considered as vital is in terms of transparency. This is so on the grounds that transparency in the workplace is the source of trust between employees and management which also stimulates engagement within the goals of the company. But what is primordial to be achieved before to speak about transparency in the workplace, is the understanding as well as the setting of clear rules with regards to equality. Along this line of thinking, already developed workplace ethics enable the management of a company to treat all members of it equally and also to value the perspectives as well as the ideas of each of them. In this sense, favoritism should be necessarily excluded since it affects in a negative way the work environment as well as violates the policies of the company and in some cases may be even considered as an illegal discrimination.

Benefits of Business Ethics

Some of the most commonly recognizable advantages of business ethics are the personal qualities which every employee achieves to develop. Such is, for example, the ability to be persistent. Undoubtedly, being persistent toward the goals of a company might be challenging sometimes since it requires your constant devotion to them, but it is also the key to successful results. Being so, developing good workplace ethics will help you also to become persistence toward the aims of the company you are currently working for. Even more, it will make you stand out as a praise-worthy employee since you will have already maintained a strong character, which will seriously benefit the company you are working for.

General @en

Gender pay gap in Bulgaria

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The topic about gender pay gap has always been intriguing and has raised many discussions in the business sector. A recent study (2021) has shown that in Bulgaria, women receive salaries which are 14% lower than the salaries of men for the same position. Which means that full gender equality is not yet achieved, despite the huge progress in Bulgaria.

Why is there gender pay gap?

Some of the reasons are that women work more hours of unpaid work, caring for family members and doing housework. There is a difference in unpaid working hours in all EU countries, ranging from 6-8 hours per week in the Nordic countries to over 15 hours per week in Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Cyprus, etc.

This leaves less time for paid work: only 8% of men in the EU work part-time, compared to almost 30% of women. When paid and unpaid hours of work are taken into account, it turns out that women work more.

Moreover, breaks in professional development are much more common among women than in men, and some of their career decisions are influenced by taking on family responsibilities.

All this does not mean that there is no real discrimination in the workplace – for example, when women receive less than their male counterparts for the same work or when they are demoted when they return from maternity leave. Unfortunately, it is very unfair to think that a woman is not able to take a managerial position or she will do the job worse than a man, which is linked to stereotypes.

What can be done to reduce the pay gap and finally prevent the inequality?

It is high time to leave all those stereotypes…

Equal pay is not only a matter of fairness and an incentive to work harder, but would also boost the economy, as women would have more money to spend. It would also lead to the collection of more taxes from the treasury and would ease some of the burden on social assistance systems.

As an employer, there are few steps to consider in order to reduce the gender pay gap in your organization. You can not only diversify your interviewees, but also you can start investing in female leadership potential, and just offer equal incentives and wages to everyone at the same position, regardless of their gender. Another way to overcome the pay gap is to offer childcare and early childhood education. And there are even cheaper options- such as encouraging open and transparent discussions about their wages/salaries/bonuses.

It is not that difficult to change that, it just takes time, awareness, and small steps towards improvement in order to live in a better world.

General @en, Personal @en

Working from home – Pros and Cons

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In the early 2020 the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic started spreading rapidly all over the world. Governments had to implement strict measures and restrictions in order to keep the deadly disease from spreading. In many countries this included complete or partial lockdowns, closing stores and restaurants, isolation, remote working, quarantine and social distancing. The rapid changes in everyday life have brought various challenges and changes to human life worldwide, causing an unprecedented impact on human health, lifestyle, and social life. One of the biggest changes that people all over the work had to face was working from home.

Impact of the “New Normal”

Since working from home has become a globally implemented practice due to the Covid-19 pandemic, people are experiencing the positive and negative sides of home offices. The opportunity to work from home has brought a new type of flexibility to the workplace and companies report it to be rather profitable.

Workers seem to be proving productive, despite working remotely. The prospect is that people working from home will tend to value and appreciate the interaction at their workplace far more in the future, which could help the work environment to become more social and strengthen human connection. Human connection would not only be improved at the workplace, but also in families.

Affecting the family life

Many parents and partners have never had such an opportunity for time to spend with each other. For example, people who would lose a couple of hours daily to travel from and to work can now use the time to have a quality family time before attending to work duties. Although balancing work and taking care of a family has proven to be hard for many families, working from home is an opportunity for parents to strengthen the relationship with their children and be more involved in the daily lives. Another positive impact that needs to be considered is that home offices help many organizations to deliver opportunities for up skilling of their staff and implement e-learning strategies, which can be beneficial for the personal and professional development of home office workers.

There are downsides…

Still, there are also multiple negative sides that are being reported. One of the biggest issues proves to be the lack of technological readiness, as well as lack of dedicated home space, which can be used solely for work. Another similar challenge that seems to be affecting workers’ productivity and success negatively seems to be the limited access to good internet connections that would allow workers to do their job remotely.

…but of course also upsides!

While this can be seen as a problem currently, it might actually positively enforce the development of technologies and home internet
connection delivery. For example, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the need of video connection, many platforms have rapidly been developed and their creators are improving them daily. Moreover such platforms and social media are supporting creativity and innovations, as companies are trying to implement new marketing strategies and be more active, in order to have a unique presence on the internet.

Although the practice of working from home seems to be a double edged sword, it can be beneficial for people to look at the multiple undeniable positive effects and make the best of the current situation. Where there are challenges, there are opportunities

Allgemeines

The coronavirus: The killer of the global economy

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What is the greatest fear in people – infection of COVID-19 or loss of their current job positions? Coronavirus infection is undoubtedly the invisible killer of not only many innocent people in recent months, but also of many business units almost all over the world. The small and even medium-sized businesses are among the first to be attacked. The virus hinders the aspirations of young cadres to develop in many areas, as it is people with no experience are among the first to be fired in Bulgaria.

Departments break down, the communication between people is destroyed, much of what we have achieved so far is unfortunately lost. For many workers, losing a job is a greater fear of being infected with the well-known virus. People have become increasingly frustrated by the situation, precisely because of their internal anxieties about their future professional and financial status.Global economy is facing a crisis for which it was not all prepared so far. Even from the perspective of people from the front line.

Bulgaria in state of emergency

In our country, the state of emergency has a lasting impact on small businesses. Many of them find themselves in a big trouble hiding for their employees – wage cuts, layoffs and unemployment are already increasing. The panic in the country is growing, the residents of the affected areas are in a dilemma whether to worry about elderly relatives or their future financial situation. In both cases, one thing is certain – fear only weakens our abilities and we have to rethink what is happening through a more realistic prism that will lead us to dynamic decisions, positivism and adaptation to the environment.

On the other hand, COVID-19 has become the one and only topic for the Bulgarian journalists. They are glad to see that in this awful situation, at least their themes have an echo from the readers.

Marketers partly use the situation to announce the promotions of home delivery for prevention. Once again, it shows how diverse and creative marketing techniques can be.

Certainly people’s fear is justified and in some sectors the virus will indeed be the killer, but the motivation of the people would be able to help themselves even after the most unexpected falls.

We continue with our recruitment services

We will now reveal how the recruitment agency Balkaninvest handles the coronavirus, you can find such information also on our website where we maintain a constantly updated COVID19-page.

  • With the announcement of a state of emergency, our office continued to work with a minimal team and the rest of the staff continued to work hard from home to prevent coronavirus.
  • Future interviews will be conducted online on the arranged date and time.
  • In this way, we not only protect ourselves and the candidates, but also get used to the visualization that is likely to come in the future.
  • We have online meetings with our colleagues every day to share the information we need and to support each other.
  • The best way to contact us is by email.
motivation and employer branding

Generation Z (Recruiting Generations part 3)

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In Part 2 of Recruiting Generations we focused on Generation Y or the so called Millenials. What is so special about them is that they are optimistic, individual and educated. In Part 3 we will try to give more information about their successors – Generation Z (also called the Zers). The first children that represent this generation are born in 1996 and is still arguable when does this generation end. However the most people agree over the year 2014.

Very internet-minded, but also with a clear attitude: The Generation Z

The birth of Generation Z

Major events like financial crisis and terrorists attacks have left their marks on people born after 1996. Maybe the biggest difference between them and the Millennials is that the Zers are less optimistic about the future compared to their ancestors. The insecurity that they feel is caused by the lack of financial and political stability. Despite that an interesting tendency is observed. Less students than ever work during the summer holiday. Probably a possible explanation to this phenomen is the fact that their parents (Generation X and Y) earn more money compared to previous generations.

Be Social (not only with social media)

Furthermore employers should pay attention to the fact that salary alone is not motivation for Generation Z. It is much more important for them to have a job that makes the world a better place. They like to engage in social activities such as helping solve environmental problems, fighting world hunger, animal rescue and so on (just think of outstanding personalities of this generation like Greta Thunberg). It is of great importance to know that the culture and goals of an organisation make big difference when Generation Z representatives are looking for a job. They will undoubtedly prefer less paid job in a socially aware company rather than a better paid workplace with no social awareness.

Regarding technology Generation Z is the first generation ever that has no memories of a world without internet and social media. Fast access to any kind of information and communication via internet are taken for granted, they are not a luxury for the Zers. More than 70% of children who happen to be a part of this generation have smartphones and computers. That is why they spend the better part of their everyday life in social media, texting peers and following celebrities. Main characteristic of this young people is their tolerance towards difference. This means that they are open-minded and able to work and live along with everyone regardless of their sex, origin or religious beliefs. Prejudice is not common among the Zers mainly because internet communication enables them to meet people from all over the world.

How they use technologies

Representatives of Generation Z are believed to be great entrepreneurs. This belief is based mostly on their high education which makes them complex workers. A great deal of their skills is acquired thanks to the technologies they use since they were toddlers. Old school education is not something they can rely on. For example they do not seem to like teachers who just present them information which is easily accessible on the web.

Good knowledge of technologies and understanding of how they work can really help the Zers run their own business one day in terms of advertising and presentation of a product to the right audience. Their job is not just to work. Employers should make workplaces that make sense and provide excitement, satisfaction and visible results. As an employees the Zers have a lot of requirements, so companies should live up to their expectations if they want to win them. Things like social engagement, open-mindedness and tolerance are of great importance for Generation Z. And finally one thing which this generation is really good at – multitasking. You can really rely on its representatives when it comes to doing several things at once.

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