The integrated energy services company Ignitis Group, which gives priority to renewable energy, has been recognised as company having particularly high standards in the management of personnel practices, which has been awarded the most prestigious “Top Employer” certificate for the third year in a row. Ignitis Group particularly appreciates it as it is the first Lithuanian-owned company to receive this award. According to Živilė Skibarkienė, a member of the Board of Ignitis Group, the Head of Group Organisational Development, it is important and inspiring to exceed the overall average of employers evaluated this year, to be especially highly rated in the areas of work organisation and employee education. She is echoed by Renata Augustaitienė, Head of People and Culture of Ignitis Group.
“Last year could be marked as a year of returning to offices, re-examination of values, searches for meaning and discoveries. In Ignitis Group, we also experienced the challenges and opportunities of returning to offices, at the middle of the year we renewed the strategy of the Group, refined the vision with a clear aspiration for deep meaning, developed and moved forward together in the organisation, guided by a clear understanding of what we are doing together, based on clear values and aspirations”, says Živilė Skibarkienė, the Head of Ignitis Group Organisational Development.
According to Ž. Skibarkienė, seeking international certification as a Lithuanian capital company was not a coincidence. Some of our employees are working in Latvia, Poland, Finland, and the last couple of years showcased that in order to develop large-scale national renewable energy projects of the Baltic See Region we need to attract competences which we lack in Lithuania, which has led to the need to invest in employer image. For energy professionals, for whom countries compete on a global scale, we can show that working in Lithuania is as good or even better than in other countries. And to show not only through attractive employer image campaigns, which is also important, but even more important, to prove, by your willingness to evaluate and go through the certification procedure, that what we say is based on real everyday practices.
Progress is made every year, the assessment improves
“Every year, Ignitis Group is rated better and better, this year we made progress in all areas, and we achieved the biggest jump in the areas of work organisation, employee training, diversity and inclusion, and sustainability”, points out Ž. Skibarkienė.
Renata Augustaitienė, the Head of People and Culture of Ignitis Group, explains each of the criteria in detail and points out that the field of work organisation is about digitalisation: we have installed systems that allow employees to know their working conditions, receive changes, information on remuneration, leave, hybrid work, overtime, etc. in just a few clicks. We started to expand this practice to foreign branches. We have digitised documents, their signature and storage. We have created a procedure for organising remote/hybrid work which is clear, described, clear processes, the majority of employees have the opportunity to work in a hybrid way, we provide the opportunity to work from abroad.
Looking at the education part, the Group’s employee education strategy is connected to the business strategy. The developed model for planning future competences allows us to prepare for tomorrow’s challenges by strategically and purposefully working today. We have refined strategic competences and prepared a plan for their development; we clearly know the positions that are critically important for the implementation of the strategy, we plan shifts for them, and openly communicate about it.
“It is important for us that the number of employees seeking internal careers is growing, the number of colleagues seeking internal careers has increased from 2 to 32 per cent in four years”, points out Ž. Skibarkienė, the Head of Ignitis Group Organisational Development.
Speaking about the areas of diversity and inclusion, sustainability, the Head of the Group’s Organizational Development says that the aspiration to improve the gender balance indicator in top-level positions has not been unnoticed.
“We are appreciated for the fact that we have included the goal of diversity in our strategic goals, i.e. gender balance in management, IT and engineering positions, we have active volunteering groups in the areas of employee diversity and well-being. The welfare mentor programme is well-known and works well not only within the Group, but is also proudly copied by other Lithuanian companies,” emphasised Ž. Skibarkienė.
“It was a long road to be recognised as the “Top Employer”, however, we have determined to follow through so we can find out if the result of our every-day efforts is heading in the right direction, and we also wanted to compare against not just the leaders of the market in our country, but the global leaders as well. We did it not just for the recognition, but also to receive feedback and learn where we can improve.”
An integrated assessment
“In order to evaluate ourselves, as an employer, we have chosen “Top Employer” because it covers such parts of employee life in an organisation from strategy to remuneration and operational management, from employee well-being to sustainability. The road towards the award was long with in-depth audit, surveys, examinations, structuring of information, presentation of evidence of our activities.
It is important that the “Top Employer” certificate is not a one-time assessment but an ongoing commitment that Ignitis Group will continue to pay extraordinary attention to the well-being of employees. The international recognition has clearly shown where the Group is strong and also where it needs to improve. Therefore, in order to keep this title of the best employer, we will have to constantly move forward, as this progress will be monitored by the certifying organisation on an annual basis”, commented the representatives of Ignitis Group.
Top Employers Institute is an international authority that evaluates human resource management practices. More than 1.8 thousand best employers in 123 countries around the world were recognised under this programme. Certificates are awarded to organisations following an independent assessment of various areas of human resources, comprising 20 criteria, including talent management strategy, work environment, talent attraction, education, people’s well-being, diversity and inclusion and other criteria.
Ignitis Groups employs around 4.3 thousand employees in the Baltic States, Poland and Finland.