Modern Business Service Sector in Wroclaw: Employment and New Generations

What is the current situation of the Business Service Sector in Wroclaw and Poland in relation to employment? It seems that some negative notions about what it means to work in corporations have been circulating in some media outlets; hence, herein we take a look to the reality of the Business Service Sector in Wroclaw, its actuality, and challenges for the immediate future.

The real deal, corporations in Poland

In Poland, it cannot be missed that 200 thousand individuals are hired in “Operations” — BSS (Business Shared Service); BPO (Business Process Outsourcing); ITO (Information Technology Outsourcing); R&D (Research and Development). The latter means a considerable, and growing, work force that has engage in collaboration with corporations.

It is important to notice that the areas of work offered are those for professional and trained employees; hence we are talking about the existence of employers that are “quality-searchers”. This can be seen, as corporations in Poland hire mainly in the area of Information Technology, 33 percent; secondly in Accounting and Financial services, 22 percent; and lastly in two areas: Customer Service and Banking, Insurance and Financial Services with 15 percent each.

The rapid and stable growth of the business service sector displays an increase of 30 thousand new employees in Poland between 2013 and 2015. This superb increase is accompanied by its parallel at the labor conditions offered; meaning the Job positions’ average salaries are higher than the country’s average, surpassing State institutions’ payrolls and small and medium business sector.

The ‘Business-Service’ Meeting Place

The motto of the city of Wroclaw is ‘The Meeting Place’; what is more, we can state that the capital of Lower Silesia Province and the region itself has also become in the past few years a ‘Business-Service’ meeting place.

Together with Krakow and Warsaw, Wroclaw is the fastest developing and attractive location for modern business services centers in Poland. Indeed, the highest increase in employment are registered in Wroclaw and Krakow.

Wroclaw’s labour market has achieved in the past years to be one of the most developed and well balanced in Poland. Within the last decade, foreign investments as well as development of local enterprises have positively influenced the unemployment rate in Wroclaw’s agglomeration, which at the moment is slightly above 5%.

Just within the past few months, companies such as Luxoft, Qiagen and Becton Dickinson have opened new businesses in Wroclaw; joining the group of over 50 companies operating in the capital of Lower Silesia in the fields of BPO, SSC and R&D. Altogether, they provide work placements for over 18,500 people.

Moreover, according to the Association of Business Services Leaders in Poland (ABSL) data, from January 2012 to May 2013, the modern business service sector has created over 5 500 new jobs in Wroclaw.

Renowned international players have decided to open their centers in Wrocław: Capgemini, Credit Suisse, Dolby, Ernst&Young, Google, Nokia Solutions and Networks, Opera Software, Qatar Airways, Tieto, among many others.

Furthermore, some of the biggest employers of foreign origin in Lower Silesia are the LG Group, IBM, HP Global Services, Volvo, Alstom, Whirlpool, WABCO, UBS and BNY Mellon. For example, in October 2013, Amazon announced its new investments, with an offer of over 2.000 job places to be created by the end of 2014, and another 2.000 by the end of 2015.

Challenges & the Search for Purpose

With the promising situation depicted in the previous sections, one could imagine that the media discourse about the Business Service sector in Poland would be mostly flattering comments. However, stereotypical notions float around the sector, mainly, ideas about difficult working conditions; becoming just a badge number in a huge corporation; constant pressure and hard deadlines; or the summoned fear to be replaced because your position has hundreds waiting for it.

The foregoing coupled with the generation change, meaning the distinctive and powerful entrance in the labor market of the Millennials or Y Generation, raises several challenges for the Business Service sector in the way communication is achieved with the new generations of prospective employees and the general public.

The Y generation is depicted as individuals of 30 years and younger, born between 1984 and 1996, who were brought up in a world of Internet and social media, with the possibility to engage in a global pop-culture.

Millennials in Poland — and in the rest of the world — are broadly characterized as being quite aware of their uniqueness; relying on self-realization; valuing greatly cooperative schemes; expecting a rapid promotion in their job position; having little loyalty for their employers; and being reluctant to top-down hierarchies.

One of the main challenges in the relations between employers and the Y generation is the lack of loyalty of the latter towards their employers. The 2016 Deliotte Millennial Survey “Winning over the next generation of leaders” found that the loyalty of Millennials depends on the perspective for development, flexible work conditions, and the feeling that the work they do has a purpose. Introducing in this way the new 4P’s: People, Planet, Profit and Purpose.

Moreover, when in search for a job, Millennials take their values into account and expect their prospective work place shares those values as well. They do care about self-accomplishment and success, but also about teamwork and cooperative schemes; at the aforementioned research, 80% of the respondents admitted they want to contribute to the company’s success and positively influence the world around them.

Overall, Millennials expect more from their employers than simply transparent work conditions and appropriate salary. Purpose and values are key for them. In this sense, corporations will some how have to adapt their mechanics, language and ways of communication to their workers.

The latter can be achieved with work environments where top-down hierarchies are minimized and cooperation and teamwork are enhanced; with a new language in which values, like care for the environment or social awareness, are communicated and practiced inside and outside the office quarters by the brand; and most of all, mechanisms for making employees believe and achieve their purpose and have a sense that they are making a difference.

In our times, it seems crucial to find a balance between: a) the modernization and high employment rates foreign investment brings about in Wroclaw and Poland; b) the corporate goals of the Business Service sector; and c) the necessity to achieve work environments and language suitable for generating loyalty and engagement in the new generations.

Katarzyna Pastuszka, Senior PR Manager & Dorian Zapata Rioja, PR Manager