Decent Work and Economic Growth

The questionnaire on the most desirable Serbian employer published by Poslovi.infostud.com last year was filled out by over 11,000 respondents. For the second time in a row, NIS placed first.

Furthermore, NIS was awarded the Employer Partner certificate by the consulting firm HR Excel. This certificate is granted to companies that demonstrate excellence in various HR processes and tools throughout the entire employment cycle, including candidate attraction, selection, onboarding, training and development, talent and performance management, benefits, corporate culture and employee engagement management.

In 2022, NIS focused on its HR management priorities, aiming to maintain its status as one of the most attractive employers in Serbia and enhance employee satisfaction. The company continued monitoring trends in the labour market and adapting to the expectation of employees and the needs of the business. In the challenging environment NIS focused on retaining its position as one of Serbia’s top employers, attracting and developing young professionals, employee motivation and training, and the promotion of the culture of respect in the company.

Our long-term goal is a further increase employee engagement and improve our HR practices to create best work experience for our employees To achieve this in 2022 we kept investing in developing employee engagement (we invested in developing employee engagement through a detailed action plan..) by implementing a detailed action plan based on the latest engagement assessment and the company’s strategic goals (objectives). Among other efforts, NIS has started the Engagement Academy with the goal of developing a new generation of leaders.

The company’s HR strategy, new corporate values, NIS employer value proposition, focus on diversity and inclusion, the employer brand development strategy (branding strategy) and training and development strategy were reflected in a wide range of projects and initiatives that focus on improving the employee experience and the compensation and benefit system.

In response to modern trends and employee expectations the company introduced new work formats. Workers can now work from home, gradually come back to work after a parental leave, collect and later use overtime hours, and work in the company’s offices in their town even if their workplace is located in a different town. We also extended the number of categories that qualify for working from home to include most sensitive groups of employees, so that now there is 12 categories.

Regarding professional development, our employees received training from leading international providers, such as Apave Mare, Yokogawa, COTRUGLI Business School, Tomsk University, Siemens, and Petroskills, as well as the best Serbian educational institutions and organizations like The Institute for Nuclear Sciences Vinča, Tehpro, Institute for Prevention, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Belgrade, Faculty of Technology Novi Sad, Faculty of Electronics Niš, Project Management Serbia, GI Group, Omega Consulting, HR Centre and many others. These trainings covered both, professional and personal competencies as well as leadership skills.

In 2022, in collaboration with external providers, we organized 3.407 trainings with 9.961 participants, including 4.407 employees. The total training hours amounted to 95.879 and the total cost to 234,3 million dinars. There were 1.565 in-house trainings were organised attended by 6.571 participants, of which 4.284 employees. The total training hours amounted to 8.065.

NIS successfully completed the sixth season of the NIS Calling program, which targets talented students and graduates, involving 50 participants. The NIS Energy program for employment of new graduates and master students completed its second season. All twenty participants were employed.

Another program for young candidates was launched last year as part of the Energy of Knowledge program. It offers six-month paid internships to graduates of vocational schools.partnered with NIS. The first season started in July 2022. 17 people participated, 11 were employed by NIS after completing their internship.

Under the Young Energy 2.0 (YEE) initiative, young employees of NIS had the opportunity to become certified energy scouts. The project was implemented under the auspices of the European Climate Initiative, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety of Germany, and aims to enable young professionals from Serbia (aims to enhance competencies of young professionals from Serbia..), Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Macedonia to improve their competencies in the field of energy efficiency and resource optimization.

Thanks to the support of the German-Serbian Chamber of Commerce the initial phase of YEE 2.0 in Serbia was completed in early 2022. Participants underwent theoretical and practical training to identify and utilize opportunities for energy and resource saving. Together with trainers form MACS Energy&Water, Siemens, Jugo-Impex and CPI International Consulting participants analysed climate change, applicable regulatory framework in the EU and Serbia, and also learned how to evaluate the impact of climate change. The program covered a range of topic, including occupational health and safety, potential savings from general-purpose technologies, processes, facilities, and buildings, efficiency of abiotic and biotic raw materials, and the implementation of paperless workflow.