Ethikontrol acted as a partner in the V Forum of financial leaders, which was held in “Premier Hotel” Rus” on September 9-10. Organizers VlasConference gathered CEOs, CFOs, and faculty of business schools. The first day of the Forum was devoted to the challenges faced by modern business and ways to overcome them. Among the speakers were:
- Miroslav Holod, vice president of finance, Softserve
- Marina Panina, CFO Omega (Varus supermarket chain)
- Olga Rybachuk, ex-CFO Delta Wilmar and Chumak
- Vitaly Belashev, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board Poznyakizhilbud
- Yana Sitnichenko, CEO, Lantmann Aksa (TM Aha)
- Vitaliy Gaiduchenko, CFO Teva Ukraine
- Elena Baryshnikova, teacher of KMBS and EBS, MBA, ACCA, CIMA, IFA, PhD
- Inna Tishchenko, Director for Economics and Controlling, LNZ Group
Let us warn you right away that we are not planning to cite all the speakers here. We will tell you what you cannot read in textbooks, namely about the practical experience of some speakers, which, perhaps, will become an inspiration for your own business.
Marina Panina described how she increased the loyalty of employees of the finance department without spending a lot of money.
It all started with the fact that management decided to test the level of satisfaction of employees in all departments using a simple eNPS test in Viber: it was proposed to rate on a scale from 0 to 10 how much a person could recommend a job in the company to his friend or relative. According to the points received, the employees were divided into three groups: “critics” rated their place of work with 0–6 points, “passive” ones assessed their place of work by 7–8 points, and “supporters” gave them 9–10 points. If we subtract the number of “critics” from the number of “supporters”, we get the overall level of satisfaction with the company.
At the time of the survey in Q3 2018, the satisfaction rate of employees in the finance department was 25%. If we note that this indicator can be negative, then we have a pretty good result. The target was set at 40% and had to be reached by July 2019, that is, in less than a year.
If we omit the details of the suffering of the head of the service with a staff of 160 people, then we come to how Marina was advised by the book by Igor Mann “Marketing without a budget”, the tools which she successfully used.
After consulting with colleagues, Mrs. Marina announces a competition for the best employee of the financial service in two nominations. The main prize is a tour to Egypt, for silver and bronze medalists — certificates in the SPA and souvenirs. The winner is determined by calculating the points gained during the three months of the competition. Points are awarded for participation in the activities of the department and the company as a whole.
So, the first reason to earn points was the duty, hated by most office workers, to work in a supermarket on holidays. If earlier employees tried to avoid such work, now they have a fair amount of motivation for this. Other activities to earn points included:
- Exhibition of creative works of employees' children
- “Weighted and happy” — points were awarded for each lost kg
- Participation in the Donor Day
- Exhibition of children's photos of employees
- Collective half-marathon race
- Additional points for each book and courses read outside of working hours
After the end of the competition in Q2 2019, the results were staggering: the level of satisfaction with the company rose to 52%. In subsequent periods, the indicator stood at 68%, 59%, and 56%.
Thus, we have a vivid example of how to unite a team without spending all the money in the world, but turning to what lies in everyone's heart — memories of childhood, love for their own children, social activity, and health care.
Miroslav Kholod shared his experience in organizing training for employees of the financial department, namely how to help talented employees go from manager to fin. Directors within the organization. So, it all started with the selection of candidates: the potential and degree of involvement in work processes, motivation for learning, and willingness to do more than were required, and, of course, leadership competencies were assessed.
Among the main components of the program were:
- assessment of the participant by his external and internal colleagues
- masterclasses from external experts
- self-education outside the workflow
- mentor for each “student”
- final project
Financiers from METRO Cash & Carry, McDonald's, Microsoft, and OLX were recruited as external expert innovators. They were simply tapped on LinkedIn, and people were eager to share their skills and experiences.
What were the main tasks of the participants? The team focused on three:
- Building a career map for employees
- Forecasting future cash flows
- Acceleration of the monthly closing process
Therefore, the main achievement of this program was the reduction of the closing period from 10 to 7 working days, and now the company continues to optimize its own processes to achieve a result of 5 working days.
We conclude with a quote from Elena Baryshnikova:
Thanks for the photo VlasConference.