Today in the world people of certain professions are leased in the same way goods are. That is something Serbia will face very soon

Unlike the previous interviewees in the research of Magazin Biznis, with whom we mostly talked about employing highly qualified personnel and top managers, the representatives of the German firm “Dekra” in Belgrade have a great experience in temporary employment mediation. This term implies employing workers on the basis of a work contract, but on a temporary basis.

“Dekra AG” is a big joint stock company which has around 15,000 employees and makes a 1.5 million euro profit. The company is divided into four divisions, and one of them also deals in services in the field of HR management and consulting. The Belgrade office was opened in 2005. Each three months “Dekra” organizes international conferences in Stuttgart where the seat of this company is, and the experiences from the latest gathering are transferred by Marko Kusovac, country manager in this company. d.o.o. “Dekra” (limited liability company), as well as Nenad Ljubisavljević, recruitment manager in this company.

The work concept in temporary employment is in practice similar to the current youth organizations, but they do not exist in the European Union in that form our interviewee explains. In the European countries, as he says, there are the so called student services which enable only the full-time students of up to 26 of age to work and thus support themselves during their schooling. All the other categories have to sign a work contract. It is a foregone conclusion that this law will have to be passed in Serbia sooner or later, in the same way that it has been passed in all the states that formerly constituted Yugoslavia, excepting Serbia and Montenegro, he explains. – According to that new law, youth organizations as legal subjects would not exist, but agencies for temporary employment that basically function as any other company would be formed – Kusovac says.

According to him, an employee can sign a few days’, but also a several years’ contract. As the trend in business today is precisely “outsourcing” a growing number of companies legally records as temporary employed people who have worked for them for years. According to the current labor law of the Republic of Serbia, a temporary work contract can be signed for a one-year period. On the expiration of a year the worker should be accepted on a permanent basis, but there is a growing interest with the companies to hire workforce from time to time. There is even a tendency in the European Union to prolong the temporary work status to three years.

– Our task is to react quickly and to find a great number of workers who can perform certain jobs in a short period of time. For the most part these are not professions for a qualified workforce, but it is not a rule. It all depends on the needs of the client. For, in the same way as goods are leased, people of certain professions are leased in the world nowadays. That is something that Serbia will face very soon – the most important person of the Belgrade „Dekra“ explains.

His expectations are that in this way on temporary jobs or certain projects very soon top managers will be engaged as well. In the developed countries companies engage the highly qualified workforce for certain projects or in the case of the increased scope of work. In Serbia this is naturally not the case. We are not accustomed to traveling or change jobs from time to time. But the more we approach the EU, our interviewee considers, the population migrations will become increasingly necessary.

As Nenad Ljubisavljević says, it is interesting that one of the professions in greatest demand on the market is – certified welder. Demands for this very rare vocation have come even from abroad. Basically, he points, there is a need for seasonal jobs in warehouses, production, manual workers for loading and unloading goods, and even for the simple administration work for which additional training is not necessary. To that sort of workers firms pay all the insurance as prescribed by law, and the price for hour depends for the greatest part on the company’s budget and the kind of work and is currently 90 to 130 dinars per hour.

The selection with temporary employment is different. The interview is quite shorter, individual interviews are short because a great number of people are to be talked to. It is important to check the basic biographical data, experience and the person’s interest in work.

– There is a tendency in our country to employ people with lower qualifications temporarily. It is different with experts. Here people still have the need to be on the payroll. It is difficult for one to find somebody even for a remotely complex position to work on the basis of a temporary work contract – Ljubisavljević considers.

As well as the previous interviewees in the research of Magazin Biznis and the representatives of “Dekra” realize that on the current market personnel for services, financial and market positions, as well as for work in the field of sale and administration are in greatest demand. Experience has also shown that women are better and more numerous in finance, while men apply more frequently for commercial work. On the other hand, companies’ requests for engineering positions are extremely rare.

– Objectively, it cannot be expected that in a foreseeable future the professions required for the production will be in demand. That could happen only with the increase of foreign investments – Kusovac says. Considering that 30 to 35 economic activities take place in Belgrade, it is logical that the need for workers in the capital is extremely great. However, more and more often enquiries from other parts of Serbia as well arrive, but finding the highly educated personnel for such areas is by no means easy. According to the estimates of experts, that problem will gain prominence, so the owners of capital in the provinces will have to design benefits packages attractive enough for experts from Belgrade, Niš or Novi Sad to come to smaller places and take over the management.

– Serbia is yet to encounter a problem, but this is given little thought. Already at the moment when we become an associate member, and then a full member of the EU, a real, big brain drain will take place. When Poland entered the European Union, already in the first year, a million engineers left the country. I think that this awaits us as well – Marko Kusovac points out.

And what is his opinion regarding the degree of development of HR in Serbia and the future of this sort of activity?

– Unfortunately, here too there is unfair competition. Such firms lower the price and rating of serious companies. We often get in the situation that companies do not want to work with any of the HR companies because of the previous bad experience – Kusovac says.

This sort of situation, however, has not discouraged “Dekra” which, apart from increasing the number of employees in the Belgrade office, plans to open a few more subsidiaries in the bigger cities of Serbia.

(To be continued)

Ivana Vozarević