“The needs of the employees are changing, and the pandemic has accelerated this change faster than we thought it can be. From my perspective, I would link assertiveness with the changing of needs, but also with the changing of focus from the HR perspective, namely becoming more human than in the past,” Catalina Magui, HR director, Societe Generale Global Solution Centre said during “Belonging at Work Conference” powered by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“This is key for the transformation when it comes not only to the leadership, but also to our people.

The hybrid working model will definitely be the norm. I don’t think that we will have a lot of companies coming back in a hard return to the office. In the BPO industry I think the hybrid model will be the norm.

Assertiveness is the shift of looking to the employees needs and transforming them in the best experience for the employees.

There will be a clear difference between various types of working in the future.

It’s more and more difficult to make that people-to-people connection, to build and maintain connections with newcomers. The manager has a very important role. The skills of a manager will switch from very transactional type of work to more human missions to understand the people and their needs.

Dialogue is very important. Listen to your team and find out what is important for them. Happiness is the brand. This is the story we are creating internally. This is the way we should sell a brand. Why should people join us? Because people are happy here.

Looking to the talent management program, we put more emphasis on what we call soft skills.

HR needs to reinvent daily; we can never say that we are 100 percent prepared for the future. Adaptation, agility and dialogue with our teams will be key to do our jobs well in the future.”

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