Last week we covered together what, year after year, is confirmed to be the biggest HR event in the country: the Undelucram.ro Top Employers Conference.

Now that the event is over and the team has settled down, we took a seat in front of the keyboard and, browsing through pictures and notes from the conference, we compiled a list of key takeaways from the speakers' speeches.

Even during the conference we sensed that the presentations were extremely well received by the attendees, so make yourself a coffee and give yourself five minutes of reading time, because this article promises to be inspirational material for the rest of the year.

We suggest you to reconstruct the atmosphere of the event together, following the agenda moment by moment and capturing the essence of each speech with a key quote.

And, as the event grouped the speeches of 11 speakers into seven distinct moments, you will be able to read in this article 11 key takeaways essential for your career.

Let's dive in!

Session 1 | Introduction and Perspectives

The conference started by defining the current labor market, placing it in an international context and highlighting the needs of employees in the perspective of the 2025 labor market.

1. Matt PHELAN, Co-Founder The Happiness Index @Pluxee Romania: presenting Employee Happiness

"The difference between engagement and happiness is that engagement is what the brain wants to hear and happiness is what the heart wants to hear, but the important thing is that happy employees are more productive.

If you have engagement without happiness, you have a highly competitive company where people compete intensely with each other.

Our data shows that you, in Romania, do difficult things very well. Relationships are the hardest to build, but in Romania, companies are doing great.

You have a lot of room for growth in the area of personal development (learning opportunities, opportunities to grow in your careers).

Here are some facts:

- 32% of employees in Romania would recommend their current job.

- 20% are passive.

- 48% would not recommend the place where they work".

2. David WHELAN, Director - CEE, Southern Europe & Israel @LinkedIn, delivering the presentation: Navigating as leaders in today's world of work

"We at LinkedIn believe that the success of companies is based on three elements: product, service and people. And companies with the best people win.

Given the accelerating changes in the labor market, I recommend using AI in your professional or personal work. In addition, you should know that:

- 70% of the skills employees will need by 2030 will change as a result of Artificial Intelligence.

- 38% of top executives consider agility a priority when recruiting entry-level people.

- 10% of today's employees are in roles that didn't exist in 2010. In the U.S., the percentage is approaching 20%."

Session 2 | Challenges and Solutions for 2025

Panel: Challenges and Solutions in Top Employer Companies. Benchmarks for 2025

The event provided a joint framework for HR representatives from Undelucram.ro Top Employers companies to share best practices, highlight the challenges expected for 2025 and outline the trends that will define the HR industry this year (see Conference here).

3. Mihai PĂUN, P&C Manager - Operations @ Philip Morris Romania:

"3-4 years ago we made the decision to be among the top companies in terms of salaries. This shows in the results. It was not only a management decision, but also a union decision, given that 70-80% of the factory employees are organized union members.

Opportunities for advancement - in 2017, Philip Morris invested about $1 billion in Romania for reprofiling technology, which meant expanding the organization. This gave people the opportunity to apply for new positions within the company.

Now, a year or two ago, I would have said that we were at our employee headcount limit. Since 2017 we have grown significantly, doubling our organization. It's been an intense period in terms of recruitment, and we're now in a zone of stability. There are some critical positions where we still have work to do in attracting new talent. However, I am optimistic that we can attract from the market exactly what we need for the factory."

4. Nora Alexandra ANGHEL, Head of Talent Acquisition & Communication @MHP - A Porsche Company:

"We want to give employees autonomy. We did a recent survey and it showed that employees highly value flexibility - almost as much as material benefits.

We have a personalized career development program for each colleague. They can access mentoring programs and various training, depending on their interests. There are also opportunities for internal mobility, which encourages entrepreneurship; if someone identifies a good opportunity to build something new, we can join forces and retrain the person in a different direction.

We are in a very competitive environment and I think in 2025 we will focus on stability and organizational culture.

In 2024, we focused on building on an existing program - Love to Lead, a complex program that focused on leaders' self-awareness, blending personal values with the organization's values and applying them to the people they lead."

5. Ionela SULUGIUC, National Human Resources Director @Lidl Romania:

"I would like to start with an important project from last year, that of introducing values. Last year we implemented the values at Lidl Romania, and the key to success was to identify what they mean at every level.

We have 13,000 employees across the country, which gives us a remarkable diversity, and our goal as HR was to reach all the way down to the frontline colleagues. We aim to remain the Top Payer in food retail, and it's essential that we pay fairly, in relation to the work each employee does.

In the area of learning and development, we invest significantly in functional development platforms and leadership skills, because our managers are responsible for employee happiness and leadership is an important aspect that we want to invest in.

When discussing our compensation and benefits package, our goal remains to be a top payer in food retail. It's critical that we pay attention not only to market trends, but also to internal fairness in terms of each colleague's compensation."

6. Laura BUȘU BOBOC, Head of HR – Michelin CBS Bucharest @Michelin România:

"A few years ago we implemented pay grid transparency so that every employee knows his or her role in the organization and his or her positioning on the market median. Fairness and respect for people had long existed in the organization anyway.

By making salaries transparent, some curiosity did arise, but overall the change has been well received, clearly demonstrating fairness in the way people are treated.

Regarding 2025, we know we are in a competitive market and it is important to stay relevant. As for the Michelin service center in Bucharest, the plan is to expand this year, with a growth of around 10%. Our focus is on external employer branding and internal employee development.

The internal promotion rate is around 25-30% per year, and we have three young colleagues on the current board of the service center, identified early on, who are part of the organization's high potential program."

7. Dana STOIAN, HR Manager @Provident Financial Romania:

"We're not a strictly tech business, but we are quite tech-oriented. Six years ago, we implemented the first robots to help us with repetitive tasks, making offers in recruitment or scoring in the credit bureau. Since then, we've started looking towards AI, especially on an individual level. We work to teach employees how to use AI and train them to work more efficiently.

We are regulated by the BNR, and procedures guide us, but the human component remains essential. We have people who started almost 20 years ago in the call center who are now on the board.

80% of our managers are people who grew up in the company. They know the culture and the people, and we train them to become leaders. When I started, I told myself I would stay for one year, but now I've been here for six years.

In Provident, we are 2,000 colleagues, of which about 1,800 are spread nationwide. Twice a year, we organize country tours, visiting cities and talking directly with employees. We consider these meetings to be time well spent, which benefits us significantly by breaking down communication barriers."

8. Estera ANGHELESCU, Recruiting & Employer Branding Director @Kaufland Romania and Moldova, presenting: Inclusion makes the difference

A moment dedicated to accessibility in the workplace, the presentation given by the Kaufland representative highlighted both the social and organizational benefits of working with people with disabilities. 

"We have, on average, 10-15 new stores that we open annually in Romania. Every time we open, we hire around 100 new colleagues and the turnover rate, which is specific to the retail sector, is around 30%.

Currently, 500 jobs in our team are filled by people with disabilities, integrated in more than 180 stores, two logistic warehouses and our headquarters. We contact around 60 disabled candidates every month and have conducted over 1,500 interviews with them.

In a labor market marked by a constant shortage of staff, especially in certain industries, many employers neglect this target group, even though people with disabilities want to be active and are extremely loyal. In 2019, with the launch of the Access in Kaufland program, we decided to change this reality and demonstrate that people with disabilities can be successfully integrated.

The reality is worrying: of the 850,000 people with disabilities in Romania, 54% have the right to work and only 11% are employed, a percentage well below the European Union average of around 47.8%.

On a business level, by employing almost 500 colleagues with disabilities and working with sheltered units, we have managed to reduce the compulsory tax to the state from €4.2 million to €1.1 million, saving around €3.1 million annually."

9/10 Bogdan BADEA - CEO of eJobs and Costin TUDOR - CEO of Undelucram.ro will lead a discussion on the topic: Perspectives on Recruitment and Perception for 2025.

The highlight of the event was when Costin Tudor, CEO of Undelucram.ro, and Bogdan Badea, CEO of eJobs, jointly presented an in-depth analysis of the labor market, setting new standards not only for the job market but also for the collaboration between two long-standing competitors. (watch the moment here)

Bogdan Badea (eJobs):

"There is a lot of uncertainty – this has been the case for the last 5 years and it will continue. If you think that AI will take over in 2025, that’s true, but progress will work in our favor. Be the change you’re waiting for."

Costin Tudor (Undelucram.ro):

"Last year, we recorded 33 million visits – a 21% increase – and the number of reviews grew by 17%. We grew organically, and metaphorically, users clicked once more because they looked at each employer multiple times."

Bogdan Badea (eJobs):

"The most jobs are found in retail, services, the food industry, and call center/BPO, with the majority of applications coming from these sectors, as well as from IT & Telecom. Young people aged 18 to 24 are among the most active."

Costin Tudor (Undelucram.ro):

"The top 10 reviewed sectors in 2024 include IT&C, retail, banking, financial institutions, and insurance. For transparency, feedback is provided anonymously, thus avoiding any repercussions."

Bogdan Badea (eJobs):

"Bucharest, Cluj, and Timiș stand out with average salaries of around 5,000 lei, although salary growth has slowed. In the end, 34% of Romanians are dissatisfied with their jobs, 47% are looking for new opportunities, and 40% would apply for something better if the opportunity arises."

Costin Tudor (Undelucram.ro): 

"Salary packages and benefits have by far been the most reviewed aspects, whether positively or negatively. So, let's talk about salaries. The truth is, we could do much better when it comes to salary transparency, and together, we will push the market towards transparency.

Because Undelucram.ro and eJobs conduct complementary studies that tell us the same thing: people want money and desire transparent discussions."

11. Mădălina POPA, Regional Cloud Solutions Leader @Microsoft will deliver the presentation: HR in the Age of Agentic AI: Preparing for a Workforce Transformed.

The final presentation of the conference returned to the central theme of the event, "Challenges and Solutions for 2025," highlighting the impact of AI on HR activities.

"For me, using AI means, on a personal level, saving time, which helps me become more creative by freeing me from unnecessary tasks – I can't be creative when my schedule is full from eight in the morning until eight at night. As a business value, AI contributes to revenue growth, cost management, and improving employee experience.

For example, you'll be able to motivate Gen Z candidates more easily by offering them AI tools that make their tasks more efficient.

About 66% of company leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills. The same study shows that 71% of those who would hire someone prefer that the person have AI skills, rather than experience in the specific field.

Additionally, around 80% of HR professionals believe that AI will significantly influence the job market, but only 30% of them feel prepared to take on a job that requires AI skills or manage its implementation within their companies. A small percentage, considering how much AI is being used today and how much it will be used in the future."

These were the 11 key takeaways to carry in mind throughout the year.

The Top Employers Undelucram.ro Conference 2025 was, without a doubt, a moment of inspiration and idea exchange for all participants. Through the speeches and debates of the 11 speakers, we explored essential themes for the future of work: from the role of AI and automation to the importance of inclusion, transparency, and professional development.

We learned that the success of organizations is not only measured by numbers but also by how they value and support their people. Whether we’re talking about leadership, employee happiness, flexibility, or growth opportunities, the message was clear: the future of work is about people, collaboration, and adapting to change.

So, whether you're an employee, employer, or leader, these 11 key takeaways provide a useful roadmap for navigating a constantly transforming job market. Let’s turn them into tangible actions and continue to build a more transparent, inclusive, and empathetic work environment together.