Coastal Croatia turns to continental Croatia for employment for the 2016 tourist season.
For people from Slavonia, going to the Adriatic coast to work during the summer in the tourism industry is an age-old tradition. While the last seasonal workers returned home in late October, others have already begun looking for place to work next season, reports Glas Slavonije on December 12, 2015.
In previous years, large tourist companies used to come to Slavonia looking for seasonal workers in January and February, but now they have decided to start their head-hunting activities even earlier. “That is good news, because it is a sign that the tourist season will start even earlier and that the unemployed persons will find more jobs”, said Željko Bugarić, head of the Regional Employment Office in Osijek. On Wednesday, he hosted representatives of Sunčani Hvar tourist company which has launched the “Look for a Job – Find a Career” initiative, which is a year-round program of the Human Resources Department, based on the idea of continuous investment in employee education and training.
“Through this campaign, we have so far developed new programs for employee training, in order to establish and expand their network of knowledge and skills according to trends in the hotel business, internet marketing and new technologies in the hotel industry”, explained Blaženka Tomičić, Human Resources Director of Sunčani Hvar. She led a four-member team which this week hold meetings in ten inland cities, including Slavonski Brod, Vinkovci, Vukovar, Virovitica and Osijek.
The number of applicants was huge – in Osijek, almost a hundred and fifty candidates jammed the hall to hear what Sunčani Hvar has to offer: incentive payments, appropriate working hours, accommodation and meals at a hotel which is intended just for seasonal workers. Although the campaign is based on intensive use of online platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Skype and the official company website, personal meetings with the candidates are crucial. “All candidates who want to work for us must come to an interview in person”, Tomičić said.
Since Sunčani Hvar needs more than 600 seasonal workers for the next season, which is nearly a hundred workers more than this year, the first job offers will start arriving this month. The largest number of seasonal employees is expected to begin working in late April. “The ultimate goal and guiding principle of this campaign is to offer all employees the opportunity to train, learn and develop, so that later they are able to turn their experience gained at Sunčani Hvar into a successful long-term career”, Tomičić concluded.
