Interview with Lela Salakaia, P&O and Admin Director, Veon Georgia

Effective Human Resources Management, or HRM, is a vital area of business strategy and key to improving organizational performance. Exploring areas of employee engagement and motivation, organizational development and labor relations is one of the main factors of any company’s success. One of the obvious examples of introducing innovative and effective methods of HRM in Georgia is Veon Georgia (Beeline), the policy of which is fully tailored to the needs of employees and is aimed at their constant development through various trainings and learning platforms.

GEORGIA TODAY spoke with Lela Salakaia, People and Organization Chief Officer of Veon Georgia, who elaborated on the novelties offered by the Beeline team in 2019, the employment policy of the company, its approach to employees and the innovative HR management methods it has introduced.

TELL US ABOUT THE NOVELTIES VEON GEORGIA INTRODUCED IN 2019.

I would like to emphasize the SaVvy Academy, since the learning platform CrossKnowledge is a group wide product, while SaVvy was introduced specifically by our team as a guide and support to each employee during many exciting and adventurous journeys of online learning. Communication with SaVvy is very easy, and it has answers to any question.

What kind of an employer is ‘Veon Georgia’? What does it offer future applicants?

First, the environment and the team. A person who comes here to work does not feel at all uncomfortable, as he or she is met by an employee, a “buddy” on the day of arrival with a box full of gifts that are very useful in the everyday work environment. I would also highlight the competitive salary and very good benefits package, within it probably one of the most important tools for continuous development: both online and offline training and work projects.

Just over a week ago, we ran a survey among new employees about the "welcome kit" - what do they like, what they won’t use or what they would add. We got some really good and constructive feedback, but one of the new employees' comments: “even my grandma doesn’t meet me so warmly when I visit her,” really strengthened our opinion that Onboarding is very important in employee adaptation.

The group calls your function ‘People and Organization.’ What does this mean? How is it different from traditional HRM?

In English, our function is called ‘People and Organization;’ in Georgian it is a little difficult to translate this term. It is different from traditional HRM as we try not to manage HR but to identify and manage the factors that contribute to the full engagement of employees as individuals. As you know, modern trends are no longer just about motivating employees, but about engaging them, which is quite complex. The actively involved employee: 1. talks positively about the company; 2. links his/her future to this company; and 3. is motivated to use additional efforts for the company.

Tell us about the upcoming employee trends for 2020.

Very interesting trends were introduced by Korn Ferry at our recent meeting in our headquarters in Amsterdam. Different age groups’ approaches to work, and their motivators, vary and therefore the efforts of companies will be focused on developing specific approaches to different age groups and researching and creating important components of work for these groups.

What novelties are you planning to introduce next year at Veon Georgia?

We will continue to focus on developing both new training and work projects. We also want to change and improve our existing skills development program. And, most importantly, we will have the results of our 2019 Employee Engagement Survey, which will tell us exactly where we need to strengthen our efforts.

By Ana Dumbadze