“Top Employer at a time of change”

Provident Polska has achieved its 13th consecutive Top Employer certification this year. In an era of perpetual transformation, how do you prevent these high standards from becoming stale? What’s the single most important HR practice you’ve evolved in the last 12 months to maintain this edge in the competitive Polish financial market? What role does employer branding play in your overall HR strategy, and how do you ensure that your internal culture and external reputation align in the eyes of potential candidates?

For us, our 13th certificate is not a reward for the past, but a commitment to the future. The Three Strategic Pillars of Next Gen – Organisation, Technology & Data and Inclusion – form the basis of our HR activities. These pillars guide all the initiatives we undertake. 

In the Organisation pillar, it is crucial for us to focus on people – both full-time employees and customer representatives who work with us in the field.  Over the past year, we have been working hard on ways to keep our employees and develop their skills. We have made it easier for new employees to get started, added more training programmes and provided more support for managers. This means that new employees can quickly learn their roles and stay with us for a long time.

At the same time, we are investing in building a sense of belonging and purpose through shared experiences. Since the pandemic, we have been developing the CARE Programme, which is now an integral part of the Organisation pillar. Initially, it focused on physical safety, then mental safety, and now it covers broadly understood psychosocial safety.

The foundation of CARE is in three areas: a sense of belonging, dialogue and development. In practice, this means initiatives such as the Invisibles Programme. This supports young adults leaving children’s homes.

In the area of dialogue, we run the Employee Forum, the Customer Representatives Forum and regular online conferences called Good Morning Provident. We arrange virtual meetings between our management board and employees, with the option of an anonymous question-and-answer session. Members of the management board regularly call in customer representatives and employees – on anniversaries, in challenging times, or simply to express their gratitude for their dedication.

We promote professional development through initiatives such as the Learning Festival, Ethics Week and LinkedIn Week, as well as providing training for employees and customer representatives. In the latest global opinion survey, we achieved an 85% response rate in Poland, with 75.9% of respondents giving positive responses in the areas of care, inspiration, and pride – a significant increase compared to 2021.

Our goal is not just to be a ‘good employer’. We want to be an organisation that translates this quality into customer experience through high standards of working with people. The Top Employer certification demonstrates that we create a favourable work and career development environment for our employees and is also an investment in better customer service.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive has fundamentally changed recruitment in Poland. Beyond just listing salary ranges in job ads, how has this shift toward openness affected human resource management at Provident?

We were not surprised by the directive. For years, we have been operating on a model based on incorporating diverse talents and transparent communication with candidates. Regardless of gender, we always pay close attention to the skills and experience of candidates, including their background from different companies and areas. Early in the recruitment process, we openly discuss financial conditions – the full package of benefits, including financial and non-financial aspects.

The need to communicate the value of the entire employment offer more consistently has been reinforced by regulatory changes. While salary is important, candidates are increasingly asking about development opportunities, work flexibility, organisational culture and job stability. We respond to these needs in full, while keeping an eye on market developments and adapting our practices accordingly.

Provident Polska has long been a vocal advocate for diversity and a mentor for female leadership. In a sector like finance, which is undergoing rapid digitalisation, what new barriers – or opportunities – do you see for women entering the FinTech side of the business today?

We treat diversity broadly, not limiing it solely to gender. The management board of Provident Polska is well represented by women, who occupy 40% of its positions. At the managerial level, women account for more than half. This is especially true among first-line managers.

We still have to try to get more women into sales and senior management roles. That is why we are developing the Power of Women Programme. In addition, we are also developing an inclusion programme, which will focus on neurodiversity, generational diversity and inclusive leadership, among other aspects.

The process of digitisation within the financial sector presents a plethora of opportunities. Technological skills are no longer the preserve of one gender. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of women entering the fields of IT, data analytics and technology project management. Our task is to create an environment where the only barrier is a lack of ambition, not stereotypes.

The modern head of HR is often described as a strategic value creator for any corporation. How do you ensure that, amidst all the data and automation, the individual employee’s sense of purpose remains the priority?

In our strategy, technology is a tool, not a goal in and of itself. The development of the organisation is supported by the Technology & Data pillar, but people remain its foundation.

Provident works closely with its customers – our customer representatives meet with them directly. This relationship-building is part of our DNA. That is why, even in automation or digitisation processes, the question that is first asked is: how will this solution make people’s work easier and improve the customer experience?

We foster a sense of purpose through business goals, joint integration, and social initiatives such as reducing waste and the Letters to ProviMikołaj project, which provides gifts for children in orphanages. These initiatives offer tangible experiences of community.

CARE also includes wellness support. A You Can Count On Us helpline is available 24/7 for psychological assistance, and we also offer webinars with experts and training sessions conducted by ‘Provident Enthusiasts’. In addition, the global Togetherness conference is dedicated to psychosocial well-being. All these activities translate into a high level of loyalty, as demonstrated by the fact that the average length of employment at Provident Polska is currently almost 11 years and the length of cooperation with customer representatives is over nine years. This confirms the organisation’s stability and is the best proof that the sense of purpose and belonging is real, not just declarative.

With remote and hybrid work arrangements now standard across many sectors, including financial services, what challenges and opportunities has Provident Polska seen in managing hybrid teams – particularly in roles that have traditionally relied on in-person customer engagement?  How do you address evolving expectations in work-life balance, and how do you measure effectiveness of hybrid work?  Current trends suggest that while hybrid work remains a core retention strategy in Poland, there’s a focus on ‘intentional presence’. Are you seeing a correlation between office-based collaboration and the development of junior talent in financial services?

We treat the hybrid model as a permanent feature of our work culture. Satisfaction and engagement surveys show that flexibility is one of the most highly valued aspects of our organisation.

We do not impose mandatory office attendance without a business justification. Instead, we promote ‘intentional presence’, meaning that team meetings, project workshops and mentoring activities take place in person only when they genuinely support collaboration and development.

As financial services become more technology-driven, demand for digital skills is increasing. How is Provident Polska addressing skill gaps through internal development, upskilling, or partnerships, particularly for roles with critical digital or regulatory competencies?

As part of our strategy, we’re focusing on developing digital skills as one of our key areas. Poland is an important hub for IT teams, both European and global, enabling us to develop technological skills locally. Our focus is on internal development and participation in international projects. This means that digital competencies are not a separate training course, but an integral part of everyday business practice.

We operate with great care within the regulatory framework. We treat compliance with regulations as the foundation of customer trust, since we operate in the financial sector and are subject to supervision. Employee training, including ethics and anti-fraud training, is mandatory and regularly updated.

The financial services sector also faces heightened regulatory scrutiny around documentation, training, and competency management. How does Provident Polska integrate regulatory compliance into its HR processes without compromising agility and employee experience?

This is one of the biggest challenges in the financial sector, which is why it is so important to address. The number of formal requirements is growing. Documentation and training are extensive.

If we must choose between offering maximum convenience and ensuring that an employee is fully prepared for a responsible role, we prioritise knowledge and customer safety. At the same time, we are working on improving communication. We simplify the language of training, use more engaging formats and introduce interactive elements.

As part of CARE, we organise Ethics Week, which strengthens awareness of responsibility in everyday work. Our goal is not only to comply with regulations, but also to foster an ethical culture in which employees understand the importance of certain standards.

Regulations are an obligation, but the way they are implemented can be more user-friendly. Our goal is to maintain high standards of compliance without losing employee engagement – and we treat this balancing act as an ongoing process, not a one-time project.