Madalina Panait, HR Manager, Connect44 Romania
- Tell us a few words about your company, services provided and type of roles you accommodate.
Connect44 Romania offers a wide range of engineering solutions for mobile and fixed networks, as well as IT Support and Service Desk services for telecom operators in Europe. Connect44’s mobile network engineering solutions help wireless telecommunications providers and equipment manufacturers design, implement and optimize their networks. Also, the company’s engineers design, operate, and optimize the related network systems and services for operators in Europe. The complex IT support and service desk services cover five different areas of expertise: from storage and backup, LAN / WAN, operation on Unix / Linux / Windows systems, to virtualization, monitoring, and support in foreign languages.
Due to the nature of our services, our roles are mostly technical from telco to IT positions, but also a few support roles like HR, facility, finance, and marketing.
- What makes your company a great place to work for?
Connect44 Romania was established in 2017, as Connect44 Network Services. Since its inception, the rapid expansion of the company has led to a change of headquarters due to the growth of the team. At the moment, Connect44 has in Romania four important offices: two in Bucharest and two in Timișoara. The fast expansion and numerous opportunities that come with a lot of challenges make our company a great place to work.
- Give us more details about the company’s culture and working vibe/atmosphere.
In Connect44 Romania we always put a high focus on work-life balance and flexibility. This was before the pandemic and we want to keep it as a strong pillar of our company’s culture.
- Do you ensure career paths to your employees?
Due to the nature of our complex projects and different services, it is a challenge to have a standardized career path process and to offer equal chances to everyone. However, we try as much as possible to customize the career path for each project request in accordance also with our employees needs.
- What trainings do you offer?
Most of our employees requested technical trainings, which are going to be delivered in the second part of the year. But we also offer specific trainings based on project needs and also soft skills trainings.
- You know how dynamic our industry is – so what is your strategy to keep your employees engaged, motivated and boost their creativity so they can innovate?
Because we are in a dynamic industry, our focus is to keep a flexible working atmosphere that is the secret for us. In addition, before the pandemic, we used to sparkle creativity with lots of fun events at the office, but also organizing large parties during summer and Christmas. For the moment, we put on hold those events and we shifted to online activities such as contests and activations. But we look forward to coming back to work and organize again nice events in the office and selected locations.
- We are all unique, so how do you succeed to answer to different needs that your employees might have?
For us, our colleagues are very important and we always try to keep up with their demands. We constantly do surveys and we ask their opinion, this is how we find out their needs and get their feedback so we can align our activities with their demands.
- Tell us more about your diversity and inclusion strategy.
Connect44 is part of a large group of companies with over 20 of experience. In the Connect44 group, but also in Romania, we offer equal chances to everyone, because we want to make Connect44 the company everyone loves working for. We hire and develop the best-qualified employees that are passionate about their job and are eager to grow with Connect44 and we aim to make everyone at Connect44 important and valued.
- Our industry is well known for the employee’s benefits. Tell us more about the ones that you are offering (maybe something rare or unique).
We always try to expand the benefits offered to our team members, but one special benefit consists in the 5 days extra days between Christmas and New Year. These free days are added to the standard 21 vacation days offered by employers according to Romanian legislation. Our employees also receive meal vouchers, private healthcare subscription, Bookster, special discounts from Benefit platform, trainings and company activities. Moreover, at the office, they have a special relaxation area with play stations, foosball table, and darts board, with great coffee for those energy boosts.
- What did your employees appreciated in your offices and how do you think the working (from the office) environment will change post pandemic? What are the new top features?
Before the pandemic started, employees appreciate the modern office space and fun relaxation area, plus all the parties and office events we offered them. We will not give up organizing those events; we just look for the right time so that it’s safe for everyone to attend those events. Moreover, starting with the 1st of September, we will be flexible and we’ll have a hybrid work policy: 10 days at the office and 10 with work from home.
- Some of the employees appreciate WFH and also the flexibility it comes when choosing their location and program. Besides that, it’s a huge opportunity for companies to access new talent pools. Did your company consider working from anywhere? This includes anywhere in Romania or also abroad?
We encourage our people to work from anywhere they choose to in the country, but we also try to encourage opportunities to work in other countries, as long as we are able to combine the Romanian law with the law from those countries.
- Do you intend to have specific benefits for the ones that choose one way of working or another?
A specific benefit will be the hybrid working model that will be implemented starting with the 1st of September. This new work from home policy will allow our colleagues to work 10 days a month from home and the rest of the days from the office. This way we encourage flexibility and adaptability to their demands and we keep a good work-life balance.
- Is there a channel/web page where people can learn more about your company and career opportunities?
We constantly post our job opportunities on our social media channels and the company’s website. So, if anyone wants to stay updated on our job opportunities, follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn, but also our job board on the company’s website.