DEVELOPING POTENTIAL

People are important and without them the success of a company is impossible. Everyone in the field of business says that in one way or another, particularly during corporate events when managers face the employees for the usual speeches and addresses.

But knowing basic rules for how a company should operate and their successful application in practice are two entirely different things. To identify and keep the talents a company needs is a hard task without an unambiguous answer. People are complex beings, everyone has their own psychological characteristics and needs, talents and competences, potential to develop horizontally or vertically, and competence ceiling. When gathered together, people form complex interpersonal configurations where conflicts arise, relationships form, informal leaders appear.

When to this are added pragmatic questions like salary management, the HR management in a company become something that not a manager who is worth their salt can afford to underestimate. Large organisations usually have special HR departments, but for middle and small companies it is harder to devote resources for hiring in-house specialists in this field.

Outsourcing of HR management has unquestionable benefits. The outhouse consultant is removed from the company's shared atmosphere and can have a more sober view on how to solve a conflict, to identify a problem, to stimulate and improve work fitness, to build a team, to redeploy a talent. To stay relevant on a highly competitive market, they have to be always informed of the latest novelties in their field, including the legal frame, and to keep their services in top shape. This makes the good outhouse consultant in the field of human resources an indispensable partner.

"We can be of benefit to companies that want to focus on their main business and outsource support activities to outhouse providers," says Lilyana Panayotova, consultant and co-founder of the Bulgarian consultant company Green Path (Sofia, 23 Sitnyakovo Blvd, floor 6, office 600, www.greenpath.bg). "Companies that want to keep their wages confidential. Companies that do not want to manage and build internal knowledge in a field which is not directly connected to the business field they operate in."

In the past five years, the digital transformation we are experiencing currently started to appear as well in the field of human resources management. Modern managers are increasingly interested in instruments and applications for build up of data bases about measuring diversity, skills gap, labour utilisation, retention rate and others.

Specialised softwares offer solutions for more effective wage management and process optimisation for easier exchange of information between employees, planning and analysis of the workforce to help decision making, development of strategies for management of human resources, creation of company culture for continuous and effective training and development, and fast and reliable selection of the right staff.

But digital transformation doesn't mean that the machines will replace people and that the value of the human resources will decrease. On the contrary. The human is the only one who is able to think creatively and to develop, when the right conditions are provided.

"We are experiencing unprecedented changes driven by technological innovations, shifting demographics and accelerating globalisation," says Natalia Blagoeva, a trusted adviser in Change Management and Culture and Leadership Fitness Transformation coach (www.eudaimonia.solutions). "To be future-fit, organisations need to redesign how people work together, lead, learn and take decisions. They need to redistribute work between technology and talent and retrain people for tasks that machines cannot do like creativity, systems thinking and intuitive decision making," explains she. "That, in its essence, means to unleash what makes us truly human. Today's reality calls for profoundly new ways of leading, organisational learning and collaboration that make the most of collective intelligence. Also necessitates cultures capable of speed and agility in which diversity and opposing concepts can co-exist," adds Natalia Blagoeva.

Changes also concern employees. Their attitude towards the work process and labour is evolving. An increasing number of people now put work satisfaction before payment, prioritise their free time and their families and don't think that their entire professional life should be spend in the same organisation. At the same time they are aware that because of automatisation and outsourcing of whole industries and processes, their knowledge and skills can become quickly outdated and that they need to acquire new knowledge and skills throughout their whole professional life. It can be very frustrating for a professional to manage in such complex environment. That is why consultation with a company with experience in human resources management can be crucial for the success of a professional.

"Day by day, we meet with people who don't know how to continue their career development. There are also people who have worked for one and the same industry for the past 15-20 years – they are willing to make a career change but face great uncertainty how to do it," says Doroteya Filipova, a Managing Partner at a boutique HR consultancy firm – PSF (Sofia, 79 Tsar Asen St, floor 2, ap. 4, www.psf.bg). " We also often meet people who are not satisfied with their current job. In these cases, we act as career advisors. We help them with specific career advice and by drawing up an action plan. We know the market, the trends and we utilize an extensive network which has been nurtured through the last 15 years."

The good consultant is aware that in such cases ready solutions don't work and is able to offer adapted, individualised and effective approach.

"We are not a typical HR consultancy firm, as we work differently, we work smart," adds Adelina Popova, a Managing Partner at PSF. " We don't have a huge CV database that needs to be constantly updated, archived and encrypted. Based on our practical experience that we have gained in the past 17 years, we know that the information of today is totally outdated within a period of 4-6 months. We work with 'people,' people who we know, and we have been in touch with. We are aware of their professional and personal development. Working with people who are facing a career change, it's our responsibility to offer them various opportunities and new career perspectives."

The complex symbiosis of the modern global economy created a world in which investors travel freely and open companies where they find the best conditions. But entering a new, unknown market is always a risk, as every country has its own peculiarities, law, investment and business climate, human resources and potential.

Foreign companies that step into Bulgaria need help in the face of consultants who are fluent in local legislation, administration and business environment. For more than 12 years Alias Group (Sofia, 14 Georgi Benkovski St, phone: +359 2 983 20 71, www.aliasgroupbulgaria.it) offers expert help to Italian companies in the country, both beginners and already established ones. "Alias Group takes care for all issues that new companies experience. We offer care not only in the initial phase, but also in their future development and management," says CEO Francesco Frattini. "Our services include accounting and accounting documents, the option for companies to have trustees, and competent and expert referee in the field who is ready to answer all questions regarding their business and its management. We also offer address registration, opening of current accounts, wage processing, tax returns, acquisition and transfer of businesses and many more," adds Francesco Frattini.

All this shows that successful development of a company and a professional in the modern world is not the result of luck. It is the result of a lot of work, careful planning and the sound choice of a consultant who is able and knows how to help.