One more year, APERTURA magazine recognizes the companies that work best on their human resources policy in this 2021 edition of the Ranking of Best Employers.

Divided into three categories (from 50 to 200, from 200 to 1,000 and more than 1,000 employees), more than 200 companies applied to participate in the survey that analyzes points such as career development, remuneration, environment and work environment , schedules and working conditions and training. Questions are also asked of each company's oldest and newest employee . In addition, companies vote for their colleagues, and the employer brand plays a fundamental role in positioning themselves.

In the category of 200 to 1,000 employees, Google took first place, castling Natura compared to last year. One of the surprises this year was Ualá, which came in third, thanks to its strong growth policy and employer brand led directly by its founder, Pierpaolo Barbieri. Coca-Cola and P&G complete the top 5.

Keeping the benefits they had before the pandemic was always part of the plan. So it was that they reinvented the way to offer some of them, such as food, a point highly valued by the collaborators. Before the pandemic, collaborators had the dining room in the offices as a benefit, but, to accompany the context, they adapted and chose to implement a digital platform where they can choose their lunches month by month and receive them at home.

They also launched new benefits appropriate to the particular situation of their team, such as loans to collaborators who have relatives in countries declared "in national emergency" by the UN. In addition, other initiatives were implemented, such as school reimbursements at the beginning of the year, a proposal to buy supplies and books for those with school-age children, and reimbursements for connectivity.

"As for the collaborators, in general terms, we know that the flexibility to work in person or remotely is something that will be maintained and that in general they value a lot. A paradigm shift was really proposed that has allowed us to broaden our perspective regarding work face-to-face and the possibilities and opportunities offered by remote work", Marcelo mentions among the challenges that will come from now on.

employer challenge

One of the big jumps this year was made by the fintech Ualá, which ranked third in its category (last year it was 13th). In an area such as technology, competing for talent is a challenge and positioning yourself as an employer is a joint effort between Human Resources and Marketing. And on the way to achieve it, the one who took the place of ambassador was Pierpaolo Barbieri himself, founder of the firm, who from his own networks constantly spreads the vision of Ualá's work : "The role of each person in Ualá is Starting with me, hiring, promoting and retaining employees who are better than one. Whoever does not share this philosophy of excellence has no place in our organization , because our goal is to have the best team. Only then can it be achieved," says Barbieri.

For the company, it was necessary to overcome the first moments as a new brand in order to establish itself as an employer in such a competitive segment . "There are companies that have a good commercial brand, but they did not spread their value proposition to the employee very well. We decided to develop both brands at the same time. And that the same be shown outside and inside ", says Diego Solveira, Resources Manager Humans.

Capturing the attention of the new generations implies, according to Solveira, understanding what they are looking for in order to show them how they can achieve it in their company. "That way you have more attraction and retention. We can't afford for people to leave because we have to grow a lot, so if we have a high turnover percentage, it's a lot more work."

His employer brand began to work with messages that directly showed what was being done in internal communication. And although organic growth is now very strong, Barbieri's role was fundamental. In fact, Solveira explains that every time the founder appeared in the media, the application email box showed a new peak of CVs received.

"In this sector, people choose where to work. There is full employment and high average salaries, so that is not a problem. You have people who can pay more than you, but out there the type of work they are offered is a job that does not end up closing. While younger companies have that possibility, especially product companies. In our development team everyone has a voice and a vote in what they develop , so you generate a greater ownership, "says the manager about the differential that allows them to attract talent.

Likewise, competitive salaries are a basic point. Employees receive 10 percent of their net salary in dollars, plus a performance bonus also in hard currency, in addition to quarterly salary adjustments tied to the CPI. "If you have a good compensation package and a good range of complements (a good career plan, training, benefits, a good culture), with the whole you fight the one who comes from the United States with the check in dollars with which you cannot go on Thursday afternoon to have a beer after work", summarizes Solveira.

The new forms of work brought about by the pandemic already reign in Ualá and allow them to diversify the origin of their collaborators more and more. Today they have more than 1,000 employees of 14 nationalities, of diverse origins and experiences , of which 83 percent are in Argentina, in 16 provinces and 42 cities.

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And 80 percent of their staff went into full quarantine, with which they had to work hard to integrate the 80 monthly income they came to have. "At one point there were 600 people who had never seen the office. We developed an onboarding process that includes up to 6 people as part of the welcome team that ranges from Human Resources , who is in charge of admission logistics, your leader who receives you , an onboarding buddy and a process that is structured for at least the first 90 days," explains Solveira.

ease the day to day

The pandemic compressed everyone's schedules, and turned many routines upside down, which is why Coca-Cola thought of the Make my days easier initiative, "which seeks to decompress the weekly routine. In this sense, we incorporated Focus Fridays to encourage associates not to have meetings on Friday afternoons and Meeting hours, with the suggestion of not having meetings during lunch hours, before 8 am and after 6 pm", details Ana Trucco, HR Business Manager of Coca-Cola for the Southern Cone.

"Added to this, in 2020 and 2021 we made an extraordinary payment so that associates can adapt their new workspace at home with the delivery of an ergonomic chair and monitors, keyboard kit, mouse and notebook support, cellular device and line to all the staff by reinforcing telephone assistance through the Employee Assistance Program", explains Trucco.

And he adds: "We digitalized the delivery of beverage vouchers, medical reimbursements and medical prescriptions. We adapted our offer of activities to an online version with Zumba, yoga and functional classes, support for parents, emotion management, effective communications, of time and energy and more".

In line with the internships that the company has always had, "this year we promoted the Fresh Minds program, a new proposal that seeks to promote the development of university students by giving them the opportunity to join the company to participate in key business projects. During this experience , we invite you to bring new perspectives, develop new ambassadors and help our associates who will be leading them to increase their leadership skills", describes Trucco.

Foster the leadership of the future

Tania Osorio has held the position of HR director of P&G Argentina (fifth in the ranking) for two years. She, to take over, moved from Chile and managed to settle in December 2019, just before the mandatory quarantine arrived. Perhaps, that is why she understands well the importance that family benefits had in these months, and it is the first thing that she highlights.

"We extended parental leave to 8 paid weeks for all parents and for biological mothers to 14 paid weeks. This is something that they are very grateful to us for, the fathers are happy because now they can be part of raising their children. We make sure that they can take those two full months and we can cover the position, because we want them to leave calmly," says Osorio.

The next point that stands out is the Leadership School, which began in 2020. "We accompany managers, over a period of six months, through individual coaching so that they can enhance the development of the talents they are in charge of. It is our way of reinforcing with them what we want as employers," says Osorio.

This year the experience is being repeated, both personally and in groups, because the school was effective in detecting what tools are necessary to develop for projects and teams.

Regarding the return to the offices, the debate was opened to the teams and they were asked to count how much they need to do it, at what times, and thus it was concluded that each unit should design its schedule taking into account its particularities. “It is something that we strongly encourage. For example, on Fridays we have the office closed, because we want people to focus, and if they need to meet, they can do it in a one-on-one meeting, or they can have time to check emails. "explains the director.

"We work hard so that people learn to disconnect. One measure we take is to send an alert at 5:45 p.m. so that they can already think about closing the working day, so that they can go and reunite with their families, because we saw that this cost them. Anyway, we send messages so that they cut off the day and join the yoga class," Osorio details.

The original version of this note was published in number 334 of Apertura magazine.