Press Release: eMAG and The Entrepreneurship Academy reveal how companies in Romania manage to adapt and engage with young employees

Companies adapting to young employees who don’t like to learn in the traditional way anymore, see things short-term and need to be entertained represents a challenge in today’s market.

Engagement for the young generation in Romania was the hot topic debated at the second edition of the HR Executive Learning Breakfast organized by Romania-Insider.com and Ideograf. Delia Rotaru (Sofonea), HR Director of retailer eMAG and Cosmin Alexandru, Dean of The Entrepreneurship Academy inspired an audience of over 30 HR directors, general managers and entrepreneurs who gathered at the Maastricht School of Management headquarters in Bucharest on May 16.

Employers need young employees to learn many things that are not taught in schools, such as commitment, proactivity, seriousness, and responsibility, but, above all, they need them to learn how to learn, said Cosmin Alexandru. But for the young generation, the learning process needs to be short termed. "Young people don’t like long-term; they don’t want a 5-year objective path. Long term commitments get them away from us”, said the Dean of The Entrepreneurship Academy. So companies have to adapt their goals, processes, and outcomes with a short – term in mind.

The young generation learns interactively, their attention span is small – as they were educated like that. They also learn well from others, with role modeling from peers. Companies need to help young employees gain clarity and support them in setting goals which link to their real selves, and not to their claimed values, added Cosmin Alexandru.

Romania’s largest retailer eMAG, which has over 4,000 employees and where the average employee age is 27, has managed to keep up with learning who their young talents are while growing in size in a short period of time, by setting up an engaging program for the whole company. Called Future 25, the talent acceleration program called on everyone in the company to apply and show their high potential, says Delia Rotaru, HR Director with eMAG. 25 people were selected into the two-year program of workshops and courses, creative breakfasts and learning evenings with eMAG managers.

​​​​​​“We turned it into an adrenaline – filled process and we filmed everything, we communicated internally and were very transparent. We event sent black cabs to the doors of the winners on the day we announced it. The young generation needs a lot of entertainment”, said Delia Rotaru.

The way we keep the young generation engaged is to attract them with what projects they will do this year, and break down our long-term view into short – term goals for them, she added. “We have 3-month planning with objectives and results and everyone knows what they need to do in three months”, Delia Rotaru added. “You communicate the long-term strategy in small steps.”