The 11th HR Days conference was held in Rovinj, the largest regional meeting of the HR community that gathered more than 600 HR professionals in one place, organized by the MojPosao portal and the Alma Career group.
After the first day filled with lectures, workshops and networking, the second and final day of the HR Days conference followed, the focus of which was the panel "Gen Z - challenges in management, expectations, tips & tricks" as well as the awarding of prizes to the best regional HR practices.
Generation Z is not coming, it's already here
In today's dynamic labor market, the role of Generation Z is becoming increasingly important. Formed in an era of rapid technological revolution and global social change, this generation brings its own unique perspectives, preferences and needs to the workplace.
In the company of Darijo Marčac, TikTok mentor from Crew Media, Maja Vučić, psychology professor and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist, Mateja Terek, People&Communications Manager at Netgen, and Andrija Vrhovnik, People Analytics expert at A1, we learned how to manage the newest generation of workers.
Arrogant, dissatisfied, demanding, open and inclined to resign based on feelings. This is how members of generation Z are often perceived by employers. “I only partially agree with this assessment. Indeed, some of the members of Generation Z 'grow' these qualities, but we can learn a lot from them. For example, about the importance of establishing a balance between private and business life. They don't want to sit needlessly in the office and "type" the card at 5 p.m. Due to their influence, over time, we will probably have to shorten working hours to 6 hours," Maja Vučić pointed out.
We must not generalize, regardless of which group of workers we are talking about, says Dario Marčac, TikTok mentor at Crew Meda, who is also a member of generation Z himself.
"Just like among the older generations, there are also wonderful, hardworking and flexible people among Generation Z, as well as those who are somewhat more challenging to work with. Also, I believe that we will earn respect if we have quality work and professionalism behind us," says Marčac and adds that the youngest participants in the labor market have one, but significant, comparative advantage compared to the older generations, and that is excellent knowledge new technologies.
Younger workers want a democratic business world and the right to vote in it, explains Mateja Terek from Netgen. At the same time, in an effort to prove their worth, they sometimes do not care about decency. "Part of members of Generation Z are somewhat 'weaker' when it comes to possessing soft skills, they are impatient and often have unrealistic expectations. On the other hand, they are diligent and want to be "thrown into the fire" right away. And they really care about well-being as well as the company's social responsibility," he adds.
When we talk about generation Z, we often hear the phrase that it is the generation "arriving" on the labor market, however Andrija Vrhovnik from A1 believes that such thinking has not been valid for some time now.
"Even 25 percent of the employees in A1 are members of generation Z. They have been here for some time and are a very important actor on the labor market. They expect the company to invest in them, they are technologically skilled, impatient, they are looking for mentorship", claims Vrhovnik and says that we can reconcile the differences between generations "only if we put ourselves in the 'shoes' of the other person, trying to see and understand their perspective".
Bruketa&Žinić&Grey won over the audience and the jury
At the conference, awards were given to companies that can boast of the best HR practices in the year behind us. This is a recognition that MojPosao has been awarding since 2010, and since last year, in addition to companies from Croatia, employers from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Slovenia can register their practices.
In the end, according to the decision of our expert jury, the following companies deserved to enter the top 5: NIL d.o.o., ATLANTIC GRUPA, DECODE, Bruketa&Žiniž&Grey and Tisak plus d.o.o.
In order to help the jury in choosing the best ones, every year we add an additional member to the judging panel - the audience, that is, the participants of the conference.
Before the awards ceremony, representatives of the HR departments of the companies that entered the finals gave short ten-minute presentations, which were followed by audience voting. Here are the final results:
First place was won by the company Bruketa&Žinić&Grey with the Biž&Bob project. The second place was won by the company NIL d.o.o. for the project RESET: Why focus on people@culture pays off, while the third position went to ATLANTIC GROUP with the project Day of Values 2022.
HR Days are coming back in the spring
In addition to an interesting panel discussion and the awarding of recognition to the best regional HR practices, we filled the last day of the conference with numerous interesting workshops and lectures by distinguished domestic and foreign lecturers.
This concluded the eleventh edition of the HR Days conference. The next meeting, after several years of socializing in the calm of summer, is scheduled for spring, 8. and May 9!
This year, the conference was supported by partners Algebra and Employer Partner and sponsors LQ, Agilcon and Gecko, Selekcija.hr, Simulus, DeeP Project, Data – Link Unija Smart Accounting, InfoDom, Above Academy, Carlsberg and Somersby.
