Author: TheHeadhunter

The successful collaboration between The Headhunter and MECCTI related to hiring stewardesses for the prestigious international flight company Kuwait Airways continues.

In the selection process organized in The Hotel Europe in Sarajevo on April 16th  2017, from around 40 participants from Bosnia and Hercegovina, 14 best ones were selected.

The girls underwent physical and English tests and now 14 of them will move to Kuwait, where they will undergo a 2-month training that will give them the skills needed to become flight attendants.

Around 2 months ago, The Headhunter gave this opportunity to a considerable number of girls from the Bosnia and Hercegovina, which are now at the end of their training and ready to start the flights and give a kick-start to their career.

The Headhunter group, starting from January 1st 2017, does not only have a regional profile, but has now moved its activity to a global level.

Starting from the date mentioned above, The Headhunter has legally registered its branch in the United States of America, marking this way, maybe a unique case for an Albanian enterprise, taking its activity and being physically present in an inspirational country seen as a bright light of making business worldwide.

Now with “The Headhunter Karriera, LLC”, The Headhunter will start its activity in Houston, Texas, as a limited liability company.

After its branch in Athens created not long ago, with its reach as far as USA, one can surely say The Headhunter is making a dream come true, “The American Dream.”

Congratulations for this achievement go to the founder of The Headhunter, Mr. Elton Ilirjani and also to the never-tired and dedicated staff of this company.

With the support of the United States Embassy in Tirana, “Rini Albania” Foundation, part of the The HeadHunter Group, will launch in the coming months the implementation of a training project and awareness on “Creating a culture of complaining relying on Albania Anti-Discrimination law”.

On focus of the project will be the discrimination in the workplace.

For this purpose, “Rini Albania”, in collaboration with important local institutions, will train and sensitize hundreds of potential job seekers and human resource managers of private companies in different cities of Albania.

The HeadHunter Group will make continuous reports regarding the implementation of this very important event.

Invited on TVSH to discuss about life-career balance, The Headhunter recruiter Ergesta Stermasi talked about if there is equality between men and women in Albania when it comes to work hours or salary.

Stermasi said that “In family level, in a simple family, the wife’s income may be higher for the same job in Albania done by the husband” by pointing out that situation in our country is not as discriminant as it may be in other countries.

About the correlation between productivity and work hours, recruitment expert at The Headhunter said that “There’s a reason why work hours have been reduced in some countries, because we are not productive 8 hours a day nonstop, we do not have a good performance. This makes us nervous, makes us not feel well. To have productivity, at least if the Albanian law is respected, everything is ok. But if people work extra hours, it is too much.

Asked if 8 working hours are really effective, Stermasi said:
“In between these 8 hours, there are moments of no working. There are never 8 hours, there are 6 or even less productive hours. But there are also companies who offer services in which there are 8 effective work hours. In the last minutes, the employees maybe have nothing left to give. This would make a mother of two to not be dedicated to her family if she works 8 hours. If we would be paid for extra hours, many employees would stay at work because they need these money, but if they are obligated to work extra hours for no payment, because the administrator or the owner makes them do it, this is another thing. There are companies who make employees work on Saturdays, even if it is for four hours, when it is day off by law”.

According to Stermasi, the secret to having a balance between work and life is by turning passions into work so that working is not a survival tool.

Asked if during job interviews recruiters rely more on CVs or characters, Stermasi said that the candidates often say they want to leave their job because they work from morning to evening, even on Saturdays.
But this often conflicts the employer, who prefer candidates with flexible hours.

For more, you can watch the video below:

Invited on TVSH to discuss about life-career balance, The Headhunter recruiter Ergesta Stermasi talked about if there is equality between men and women in Albania when it comes to work hours or salary.

Stermasi said that “In family level, in a simple family, the wife’s income may be higher for the same job in Albania done by the husband” by pointing out that situation in our country is not as discriminant as it may be in other countries.

About the correlation between productivity and work hours, recruitment expert at The Headhunter said that “There’s a reason why work hours have been reduced in some countries, because we are not productive 8 hours a day nonstop, we do not have a good performance. This makes us nervous, makes us not feel well. To have productivity, at least if the Albanian law is respected, everything is ok. But if people work extra hours, it is too much.

Asked if 8 working hours are really effective, Stermasi said:
“In between these 8 hours, there are moments of no working. There are never 8 hours, there are 6 or even less productive hours. But there are also companies who offer services in which there are 8 effective work hours. In the last minutes, the employees maybe have nothing left to give. This would make a mother of two to not be dedicated to her family if she works 8 hours. If we would be paid for extra hours, many employees would stay at work because they need these money, but if they are obligated to work extra hours for no payment, because the administrator or the owner makes them do it, this is another thing. There are companies who make employees work on Saturdays, even if it is for four hours, when it is day off by law”.

According to Stermasi, the secret to having a balance between work and life is by turning passions into work so that working is not a survival tool.

Asked if during job interviews recruiters rely more on CVs or characters, Stermasi said that the candidates often say they want to leave their job because they work from morning to evening, even on Saturdays.
But this often conflicts the employer, who prefer candidates with flexible hours.

For more, you can watch the video below:

The HeadHunter Group arranged on 05/09/2017 a Gala Event in the Palace of Brigades in Tirana (Albania), awarding 10 companies in the frame of the LGBTIQ Equality Index.

The Index is Albania and Eastern Europe’s first-ever ranking system which objectively ranks how well companies protect and uphold the rights and dignity of LGBTIQ job-seekers and employees. 

It rewards those who have put a commitment to workplace diversity into practice. It also represents a great opportunity for companies, consumers and legal authorities to promote best practices in the employment sector. 

In this second year of the initiative, Albanian companies showed a great deal of interest in participating in the ranking and the total of 109 companies from multiple industries voluntarily took part in the research. Following a standardized format and methodology, The HeadHunter shpk staff conducted on-site interviews and verification of policies and practices.

For this year, the awards were as follows:

Acknowledgement Certificates:

Companies: BAT, Club FM, Argjendari Pirro.

Bronze Awards: Plaza Hotel, Tirana Bank, NOA SHPK.

Silver Awards: Neptun shpk, ABKONS.

Gold Awards: British Council Albania, Vodafone Albania.

This event was attended by a large number of ambassadors of the European Union countries, as well as by the Council of Europe, US and UK ambassadors, who gave the prices to the winner companies. 

The Headhunter and UN Women winning companies estimate for inclusion and equality in employment

Awarding Ceremony for LGBTIQ Index Equality in Employment, organized by The Headhunter and UN Women was held yesterday evening in Sarajevo. Dm-drogerie markt and British Council won Gold prices, Center for “Investigative Journalism” prize “Silver” and price “Bronze” was awarded Klix.ba .

The ceremony was attended by representatives of local and foreign organizations, private companies and the international community. The awards were presented by David Saunders , representative of UN Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Britain’s ambassador – Edwards Ferguson , German Ambassador – Christiane Hohmann and CEO of the group The Headhunter – Elton Ilirjani.

“The index is prepared by the private sector to the private sector. It assesses the extent to companies and institutions address discrimination and promote equality in the workplace. As an index for equality in the workplace, UN Women will naturally have partnered with a company human resources to support the implementation of the Index, “said the representative of UN Women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, David Saunders.

Saunders added: “I have no doubt that next year will see new companies will join the index, and, more importantly, I believe we will see improvement steps by companies to promote real equality and to protect rights and dignity of LGBTIQ candidates and employees. “

“The Headhunter Though the group has successfully implemented the Index for several consecutive years in the region, it is the first time we are doing this in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are very pleased with the support of partners from the international community who have realized the importance of this issue as well as domestic and foreign companies that have agreed to participate this year. It means a lot to us when the United Nations, the European Union delegation he or German, British, Japanese and representatives of other embassies publicly support us. Our goal is to double the number of participating companies next year and see positive developments in the internal practices of companies that will work next year, “ said CEO of the group The Headhunter, Elton Ilirjani. The LGBTIQ Equality Index is a project group The Headhunter, implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina to the UN Women office. The purpose of the implementation of the Index is to raise awareness about discrimination LGBTIQ community has in the workplace, and increase equality, diversity and other positive practices regarding candidates and employees

Published: 11:35 (GMT + 1), 13 December 2017

In one of the activities organized by UNDP in Belgrade, Serbia, the founder of The Headhunter, Elton ilirjani, introduced today the unique initiative ever taken from a private enterprise in Western Balkans, the one of the index of equality in the work place for LGBTI, which will be held this year for the second year in a row in Albania, with over 100 businesses surveyed, and with the most loyal of them which will be awarded again by The Headhunter.

During his speech, Ilirjani declared: “People of LGBTI community should not be victimized, they should have the courage to pursue a career and move forward”.

According to Ilirjani, these people are people just like anybody else and should compete with the same values and professional achievements.

According to Ilirjani, the solution of the people mentioned above is “Hiring people of LGBTI community, as this is the only salvation towards financial liberty and to avoid prejudices in family and society“. 

It has recently been discussed about an Albanian government project to change the work schedule of public administration.

It is discussed that the new timetable will be extended until 17.30, with a full lunch break hour for employees.

To talk about this topic, the founder of The Headhunter, Elton Ilirjani, was invited yesterday on Albanian public television on the “Good Morning Albania” show.

Asked about this project, Ilirjani expressed his full agreement:

” I think this is one of the most successful reforms the country’s prime minister will do, while I am not politically oriented, I am among the people who have never voted for any party. But the Prime Minister has thought well. I think it’s a solution and a right one. “

“Because our hard-working administrate,” Ilirjani continued, ironically, “takes a break even for one, two or three hours, and sometimes we cannot even find them in their offices. So socially I do not think it will have any major impact because they (employees) will find the opportunity to leave. The main thing I see here is that one hour of lunch break should be legitimized, because until now it has not been legitimized.

“I think it’s the right choice,” Ilirjani reemphasized his conviction. – All this venture, all this launch that the prime minister is making public-private partnerships make sense, because the private business closes at 17.30. We open at 09.00 and close at 17.30. It would be a good thing for the public-private cooperation to work, not to go at 17.00 or 15.49 and find no one in the administration. We may need documentation, at the last moments we may need changes to NIPT. There are foreign investors who are surprised that people leave at 15.00. “

Asked whether this would mean that the administration employees should never eat undisturbed, Ilirjani replied:

“There are many reasons for this. He (Prime Minister) is a visionary person when it comes to employment, as far as I know him, I don’t know about the rest. Regarding business in Albania, it would be of great help to have an administration that finishes work at 5.30 pm; how the state chooses to regulate this, whether or not the employees are satisfied who I believe are not as busy as people working in private business, that’s another job. I see that candidates ask me to get them jobs in the administration because they are not used in private businesses where the boss is demanding, where the schedule becomes super schedule, where you work Saturdays and Sundays and does nobody knows and sometimes get paid less than the administration. The gentlemen in the administration should understand that we are walking with the pace of time, we are an emancipated business and we want an emancipated administration “.

Asked if it would be up to him, how he would arrange the work schedule, Ilirjan said:

“I would do my best for Albania. I understand the concerns, but this is a right decision, also seen from the region I work, compared to 7 countries in the region where I am a leader. It gives the administration tempo, which should not be drowsy. The Albanian state should be made at the same rate with which the Albanian private business is made. This schedule will imply more, will make them more responsible (employees). I know that in Macedonia there is an hour and a half or two hours break per day to go feed their babies. This is not an extension of the timetable, this is a change in the timetable”  – concluded CEO of the largest employing company in the region his intervention at RTSH.   

Click the link below to watch the full show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfk-0xM5HlM&feature=youtu.be