Our activities in the South region
CSR projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Parallel to the World Bank project, Alma Careers’ local Kolektiv implemented MarketMakers a youth employment project in Bosnia and Herzegovina financed by the government of Switzerland, through which they managed to create or improve over 4,600 employment opportunities for young people with the BPO sector accounting for 48% of the total. The project also focused on improving non-formal education opportunities, resulting in 3,272 young individuals participating in supported educational initiatives, with a focus on increasing the employability of women and people with disabilities. The project's impact is evident in the number of businesses that adopted new growth-oriented practices, with 2,483 enterprises implementing these practices and 638 reporting revenue growth. The private sector also demonstrated significant interest, investing approximately 19.8 million CHF in targeted sectors. Project activities ceased at the end of May 2023.
Most attractive employer survey
Furthermore, Kolektiv conducted the Most attractive employer survey and the winners for 2023 will be announced on the award ceremony in March 2024. In cooperation with Sarajevo Open Center and UNFPA , the survey included questions about employers who provide equal opportunities for all its employees and have family friendly policies in the companies. “The Most Inclusive Employer” and "The Employer with the best family friendly policy" will also be awarded on the ceremony in March 2024. These awards will be given in cooperation with the Sarajevo Open Center institution promoting human rights and the position of women and sexual minorities and UNFPA - United Nation Population Fund. All in all, over 15,000 people participated last year in the survey, nominating over 500 companies. This year the survey will be closed on December 26th. Photos from last year's ceremony are included in attachment.*
CSR project in Croatia
1. In cooperation with Udruga Zamisli (Association for people with disabilities), we decided to research the market (both employers and employees) and get an overall result of the current state of the labor market for people with disabilities.
The position of people with disabilities on the labor market: They have been looking for a job for more than two years, and discrimination follows them at every step. Can we create a better society for them and us – survey
The research was carried out in cooperation with the “Zamisli” Association for people with disabilities, employees, and organizations. A total of 183 respondents with disabilities, over 250 respondents without disabilities and more than 40 organizations participated in the research.
Participants: people with disabilities (employed, unemployed, self-employed), colleagues of the people with disabilities, employer who employ or don’t employ people with disabilities.
Key findings:
- Searching for a suitable job is a difficult and tiring job, and if you are also a disabled person, that process is much more difficult and time-consuming. While most respondents of the general population find a job within half a year, only 30% of people with disabilities can boast of the same success.
- Almost half of people with disabilities (44%) feel discriminated in some way in most job vacancies, while 27% of them feel discriminated in only some vacancies. Only every fifth person with a disability generally does not feel discriminated against, and only every tenth (10%) did not feel discriminated against during employment competitions.
- The percentage of those who feel discriminated against once they get a job is high - 45%. Colleagues, superiors as well as the management of the company are cited as a source of discrimination against people with disabilities.
- Most of the surveyed companies (69%) do not employ people with disabilities.
- Almost half of the companies (42%) do not have any measures related to the implementation of the diversity policy in the workplace, but such issues are solved "along the way". On the other hand, in the following 42% of organizations, there is no thought at all about employing a person with a disability.
- Only 16% of companies have a developed system in which people with disabilities have a place as workers, users of the company's goods and services, and as business partners. Source
2. International Women’s day
According to the MojaPlaća (Paylab) service, women still have a 16% lower salary than men. The average salary of men in the past year was 1,100 euros net, while the salary of women was 923 euros. When looking at salary by position, when comparing women and men in the same workplace, the difference is significantly smaller, although it still exists and amounts to -8%.
3. International pay gap day – Equal work deserves equal pay, but women are working 'for free' from today until the end of the year
According to the MojaPlaća (Paylab) service, women on average still have a 17% lower salary than men. The average salary of men in 2023 was 1,246 euros net, while the average salary of women was 1,037 euros. Looking at the median, women are paid 12% less, which means that we have significantly more men with extremely high salaries that 'raise' the overall average salary of men. If you were to calculate the Equal Pay Day in Croatia based on this data, it would be the end of October!
4. In cooperation with the Humana Nova Association, an association that employs people with disabilities, we organized the production of our Alma Career hoodie shirts. In Croatia, the law dictates that for a certain number of employees in a company, you must also have a certain number of disabled persons employed. If you don't have one, you must pay a certain amount into the state budget monthly. Since we do not employ disabled people, and we do pay, we can legally pay that money to a certain Association and buy their services. In this case, we agreed with the Humana Nova Association, we will pay them a certain amount, and they will sew us a certain number of hoodies for that exact amount. Also, in our company, we organized the collection of used clothes, which we then donated to the association to use for their further needs.
5. We follow our annual calendar of CSR activities that we have created, and we support different days (Day of Persons with Disabilities, Earth Day etc.). Also, this year we started MojPosao “flea markets”. We have organized two flea markets where people can exchange their things and thus re-use things that they may not need, but others do. Also, even this year we supported the "Mathematics Evening". Evenings that take place in kindergartens, schools, and colleges, and encourage young people to pursue mathematical and STEM professions.
