8th International Conference on Corporate Responsibility_participants (source: Pontis foundation)
The importance in work, career development, consistency with brand, wages and appreciation - those are the main motivating factors which affects the Slovaks at work.
Managers who think they can motivate employees only with wages, are sadly mistaken. “Take care that your top management appreciate their people. Whatever you do, for employees it is the important and it is the number one factor for everyone,” said the couch and personal manager Tereza Kožuská from AON Hewitt last Thursday during the conference on CSR, organized by the Pontis Foundation and Business Leaders Forum.
According to her, motivation of staff has a great influence not only on financial results, but also on lower turnover, absence, increased productivity, and employees’ satisfaction. “Lately, the people are most affected by the top management behavior towards them. Employees want their superiors to make it clear that they appreciate them. First place went to the top management communication also by direct superiors,” emphasizes Kožuská. The most important thing for the Slovaks is, whether they are important at work and if they have opportunities to develop their career. “Take care that your people like working in your company and they believe in it. Brand and reputation of the employer must be presented in accordance with how it feels inside of the company,” advised Kožuská according to the Best Employers study.
The importance of wages to motivate employees was on the fourth place. “The message from staff is clear. Let me to develop, behave to me politely, keep the brand under which we can stand, give me motivational and financial assessment, which belongs to me and I will be happy,” she said.
Absence of staff abuse has proved to be very important according to the survey, which was conducted by Business Leaders Forum and Focus agency. “The Slovak public expects that the employer should behave caringly, they are honest, they communicate with them and respects their rights, but also that they can appreciate additional work with good wages,” said Beata Hlavčáková from the Pontis Foundation and executive director of Business Leaders Forum. People also appreciate companies which care about working conditions and appropriate safety and health prevention at work for their employees. Equally significant, people also greatly value good social conditions and various, other advantages not only for them but also for their families.
8-th year of International Conference on corporate responsibility was also concerned with the topic of what can be done in order to get more attention for corporate responsibility. “Awareness of the Slovaks about corporate responsible is not high. It is interesting that many of them think spontaneous, that corporate responsibility means faithfulness in business, honesty and no bribery in the company or appropriate working conditions. This also reflects the post-crisis period; when the public was frustrated and the business sector lost the confidence with their unethical and financial decisions in the past,” said B. Hlavčáková.
One of the most important parts of the conference proved the debate with representatives of the media. “The responsibility of the Slovak media is highly dependent on the media and real people, how they are able to capture the latest trends from business management to the values that create the concept of media. This also affects how Slovak media reflect themes about corporate responsibility today,” said the editor of magazine Strategies, Martin Mazag. According to him, corporate responsibility is the topic, which was just now discovered by the media. On the other hand, he thinks that the evolution of values is directly connected with the values shared by society, because the media only reflects reality. “It is important to consider how to adapt the content of the news in order to be interesting for the media” he said. Lukáš Fila, deputy of chief-editor from the daily newspaper SME, also confirmed it. “It is important to try to invent more and more new projects that will be interesting for the readers,” said.
The Ambassadors of Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands along with the Economy Minister, Juraj Miškov, discussed the topic of how governments support responsible business. The conference was also attended by Charity Hanley from the Business in the Community, an organization that is under the patronage of Prince Charles and covers over 850 responsible companies. The topic of climate changes was addressed by Milan Lapin climatologist. “We have to say that every entrepreneur seeks to have the greatest efficiency and maximize profits. Time horizon, which is important for him, is 10 years. However, entrepreneurs should realize that we are all changing the environment for several generations ahead,” he said.
8-th International Conference was held on the last Thursday at the Hotel Austria Trend Slovakia.
