2018 was a good year, a year in which our mature service lines have concluded many transitions projects that were open since the previous years. We have seen attrition stabilized below the market average with some improvements on the more stable processes. Finance remains the more challenging domain where we experience greater lead times to recruit for our transitions and to cover attrition, in particular for positions requiring languages skills on top of technical skills.
We have made solid progress deploying new digital tools to support our operations and also for our internal HR processes.
We have done pilots to test the concept of Flex office. Actually we have been using home-office for years now. The traditional open office configuration is now outdated and we are rethinking the office place in order for our employees to have a better office configuration that allows them to do their job in the best possible conditions.
As a result, our employee engagement continues to growth compare to previous years.
Our employer branding actions started to produce visible results, we received this year Employer of the Year Award from Business Insider and also ranked 16th place in Best Jobs above more stabilized BPOs and SSCs.
So we are starting 2019 with a good vibe.
In the new year we are going to create a new service line covering Logistics services for our European partners. It is a completely new activity for our SSC in Bucharest. So far we have manage to keep up with the headcount increases required. Nevertheless we feel the tension in the talent market in Bucharest for some positions that require a combination of language and technical skills, for example German remains the more difficult to recruit profiles.
Through our leadership academy program, which will be fully deployed in 2019, we will continue to develop our manager’s skills to prepare our future leaders.
In the upcoming year we expect to have challenges, as in every year. Pressure coming from cost inflation, which is higher than the European average, increasing recruitment lead time in some job type and increasing attrition levels in Romania as per ABSL-KPMG annual report are some of our concerns for 2019.
No matter the challenges we will continue to maintain the high level of service quality to support Michelin’s growth ambitions in the current very dynamic automotive market.
To conclude we aim to consolidate Michelin’s the employer brand in Romania beyond industrial jobs in line with our long term vision. We will be reaching 1.000 employees in our Europe Central HQ offering a large spectrum of jobs from Finance to HR and even Cartography.
So we are looking forward to this year, with its good vibes and challenges!
Our ambition is to become a world-class Share Service Center organization providing high quality services to our Michelin customers, suppliers and employees at the level of our premium brand products.
Mauricio MANZANO PODVERSICH
Managing Director Michelin CBS Romania