EKONOMIKA A MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT OF EMPLOYEES´ CORPORATE TRAINING IN THE COMPANY INC.

Helena Šimková, Miriam Šebová, Renáta Horňáková

1. Introduction The company produces and supplies assortment to the Slovak market, brewed by Slovakia‘s concept is to reach the life standard using the most modern equipment and guaran- of the developed Western European countries teed high quality standards for all products. The as soon as possible. This objective can only product portfolio includes traditional Slovak beer be reached by targeted creation of favourable brands Šariš, Smädný mních, Topvar, and Czech conditions for the development of a knowledge- beer brands Velkopopovický kozel, , -based economy. This means strongly supporting Birell and Urquell. Two brands and investing into education, science, research, from this product portfolio are produced in licen- information and communication technologies and ce in Slovak factories in Veľký Šariš and in Topoľ- innovations. In relation to the activities aimed at čany: Veľkopopovický kozel and Gambrinus. enhancement of Slovakia‘s competitiveness, the The Topvar Brewery Inc. employs almost 900 Slovak government adopted the „National Com- people all over Slovakia; more than 350 employe- petitiveness Strategy of Slovakia until 2010“. es work in two above-mentioned factories. Each This basic document has its roots in the goals year, the company significantly supports its and principles of the EU Lisbon Strategy and it be- employees´ training and development.The Šariš came the government‘s official programme for de- Brewery branch is the largest Slovak brewery as veloping a knowledge-based economy in Slovakia. to its production volume. For over 40 years of its The primary goal of the National Lisbon strate- existence, it has produced more than 25 million gy is to develop the talent and the knowledge of hectolitres of beer. Nowadays, the market share the Slovak citizens so as to increase their ability of this branch in Slovakia is about 41 %. to work with new information and use it in every- -day practice. 3. Call for Project Proposals 2. The Company Topvar Brewery Inc. On 19th August 2004, the Slovak Ministry of So- cial Affairs opened a Call for Project Proposals The Topvar Brewery Inc. was established on 1st within the framework of the Sectoral Operational January 2007 after completing the fusion of two Programme Human Resources, Priority 3: „Impro- companies Šariš Brewery Inc. and Topvar Inc. in ved Qualifications and Adaptability of People in Slovakia. The brewery is located in Topoľčany. Employment and of Those Entering the Labour Topvar Brewery Inc. is part of SABMiller Com- Market, Measure“ 3.2: „Development, improve- pany, which is a leading international brewer and ment, and more extensive provision of further one of the world‘s largest soft bottlers. education with the aim of improving the qualifi- SABMiller is listed in and cation and adaptability of people in employment“. and has, either through majority ownership or The call was oriented towards support of further associate relationships, a presence in education in accordance with changing labour over 40 countries across the world. In those market demands for qualification of human resou- countries, where the SABMiller are ac- rces and for their effective management. The aim tive, the company invests a lot of money into the of the call was to improve the human resources development and modernization of the breweries management and the employees´ training in and its brands. enterprises based on an analysis of the actual

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Tab. 1: SWOT Analysis of the Project

Strengths • Existing system of employees´ training Weaknesses • Increased interest in training • Missing concept of key employees´ training • The need of further education • Weak cooperation with external training • Long-term experience in implementing training agencies programmes

Opportunities Threats • Implementation of new managing and working • Big employee fl uctuation based on regional methods into practice differences • Enhancement of employees´ effectiveness throu- • Existing working places under threat gh improvement of their competencies • Loss of key employees • Supporting of human resources from EU funds

Source: own training needs and personal audit. The employe- million SKK, which is 50 % of the entire project es´ training focused on achieving the necessary budget planned for 13 project cycles. labour skills and on helping the employees that The project „Improvement of Employees´ Tra- could lose their jobs because of the company ining in Šariš Brewery, Inc.“ and the application restructuring. form were elaborated by an external agency. It The measure did not support activities aimed included: at increasing the qualification level, however, a) Grant application form for the private sector; it supported general and specific education b) Formal structure; activities necessary for the target group. The c) Project management plan; financial budget (from EU funds and the Slovak d) The logical framework. state budget) for this call was 250 million SKK. The lower budget limit for every project was 1 The application form contained information on million SKK and the upper limit was 20 million the applicant, the company profile, statutory bo- SKK. The managing authority received 72 project dies and project partners. The project described proposals in the framework of this call. the objectives and activities, measurable indica- tors and expected impacts. The total costs were 4. Preparation of the Project Pro- calculated and presented in detail. One of the important project parts was the posal SWOT analysis (Tab. 1), which defined the main During August 2007, the education and trai- strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats ning needs in Šariš Brewery were analysed, in- of the project. cluding individual work positions, required skills, working methods and the results of interviews 5.Targets and Project Implemen- with the company supervisors. This analyse be- came the base document for the internal system tation of employees´ training called „SAŠA“ (Sales Aca- The main project target defined was to improve demy Šariš), which was prepared by the Human the employees´ learning scheme by using an in- Resources Department in cooperation with the tegrated system for training the key employees by mother concern SABMiller. The Šariš Brewery internal and partially external professionals and has been part of this brewing group since 1997. lecturers. The project was prepared in compliance with the The main targets of the project included: requirements defined in the Call for Project Pro- • Training the employees to increase the overall posals, considering the specific features of the in- competitiveness of the firm; ternal training system. The Šaris Brewery applied • Launching regular educational activities/ for a financial contribution in the amount of 4.3 seminars for key employees;

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• Optimisation of human resources manage- The project was implemented in the area with ment in working groups; the highest unemployment rate and with the • Improvement in the quality and quantity of the lowest GDP per capita within the Prešov region. offered educational activities, in particular im- This region is characteristic for its low communi- plementation of new educational procedures cation infrastructure development, low education and technologies; spending and also for low investment activities • Overall increase in the number of employees aimed at new technologies development. participating in further education offered by After acceptance of the project, the first phase the firm. of the project followed consisting of creating a project working and development team. The The specific targets of the project were based implementation of the project, the preparation of on the specific targets of the programme docu- the relevant documentation and the administrati- ment; they also coincided with the eligible project on of each activity represented a highly deman- activities. The target group of the project was the ding task. It was necessary to take care of the project applicant‘s employees. Upon successful flow of information and relevant papers between completion of the project the main aims were to the departments, and therefore employees form develop the working skills of the employees and different departments and working groups beca- optimise the human resource management. me members of the project team. The following The Topvar Brewery Inc, one of the main departments were involved: Human Resources, employers in the country, is located approximately Finance, and Trade and Logistics Department. 10 km from Prešov in the town called Veľký Šariš. According to the Slovak Public procurement Veľký Šariš is a small town with a mixture of coun- law, the applicant has to carry out public procu- tryside and town influence. The town has 4,320 rement or public tenders (VOS - „verejná ob- inhabitants, including 470 ethnic Roma popula- chodná súťaž“ in Slovak) for all goods, works and tion, 270 of which live in a separated settlement services connected with the project. In the first near the brewery and the rest lives spread around phase of the project, the applicant organized pre- the city. At the time of implementing the project, dominantly public tenders and market research the applicant employed 550 people on average, activities in order to select subcontractors for all and besides the brewery in Veľký Šariš it had six the services and material that were essential for trade and logistics centres around Slovakia. the implementation of the project. Three of the trade and logistics centres were In September 2005, the applicant prepared six located in Eastern Slovakia in regions with a high public tenders. Two public tenders (VOS) were unemployment rate, namely: Strážske, Spišská announced in order to provide accommodation, Nová Ves and the last one is still near the brewery catering services and the renting of facilities for in Veľký Šariš. The reason why Topvar Brewery participants and lecturers in the two locations in Inc. applied for government support for the pro- Slovakia. The next VOS were organised for the ject was the urgent need for a swift technological purpose of providing services connected with advancement, an ever increasing demand for outdoor training for the participants of each employees´ professionalism and skills and, of training course cycle. Another VOS was called course, competition pressure. to provide bus transportation for the participants After the analysis of the training needs a sele- and to prepare a multimedia educational pro- ction of participants followed. The participants gramme, and to ensure delivering of the learning were chosen on the basis of criteria set by the material to participants and lectors. Each of the employer. The majority of the participants were VOS was published on the project website and employees of the trade-distribution/logistics de- it comprised precise selection criteria. Based on partments. A group of participants in each cycle the results of VOS, suppliers were selected and created a working team. When selecting the par- the contracts were signed. ticipants the principle of equality of opportunities The project was launched in September 2005 was observed, since the main selection criteria and finished in March 2007. The project consi- was only the result of the analysis - the training sted of 13 courses, each lasting eighteen days. needs identified. During the project duration, 227 employees of

E + M 1 / 2008 strana 55 EKONOMIKA A MANAGEMENT the company were re-trained. The courses took the prepared topics. All participants took part in place every month except for the summer months an outdoor training in order to build their team and December when the applicant faces a peak and get to know each other at the beginning of in beer sales. each academic cycle. The first part of the cycle Each of the courses consisted of a series of took place in the High Tatras in the Prešov region. lectures and presentations. The lectures were This location was chosen because of its relaxing, given by internal employees and specialists, natural environment and its the short distance which significantly decreased the expenses for from the brewery in Veľký Šariš which was visi- the training activities. At the same time, this way ted by the participants. The second part of the of organizing the lectures allowed a more intense seminar was organized near the border with the engagement of the internal specialists in the com- in order assess and compare the pany‘s training system. Each course consisted of distinctive Czech beer traditions and market. 23 presentations, two outdoor activities, a visit to To sum up, this part of the seminar offered two the factory and to the market. Out of the 23 topics presentations, a visit to the Slovak and Czech that formed part of the project, 18 topics were ge- beer markets, tests, presentations of the tasks, nerally applicable to all fields of economics. The and finally the evaluation of the whole educatio- topics that concerned exclusively the applicant nal cycle. were not included in the eligible project activi- ties. All the topics were presented in the form of 6. Project Financing presentations with some of them being carried out in the form of interactive presentations. The The managing body considers as eligible costs outdoor teambuilding exercises were performed only those, which are real, correct, current, which as playing team games, role model situations and do not overlap and are full related to the project. experience based learning. These costs must be approved by the managing All the training activities were ensured by the body before the project implementation. project applicant. The teambuilding and the out- The Šariš Brewery reported the following eli- door activities were provided on a subcontracting gible costs: basis by an external partner company. • Personnel costs - reimbursement of the The participants to the courses were divided participants´ wages, subcontracted course into groups during individual activities. Each (outdoor teambuilding), per diem allowance activity was rated and the teams were given po- and accommodation for lecturers; ints. In the end of every cycle the best team was • Costs of equipment and didactic technology announced. After attending all the presentations, (video camera, beamer, camera); the participants took a final exam to test the • Rent of training rooms; knowledge gained throughout this project. Every • Operative and educational media costs; successful participants was awarded a certificate • Subsistence allowance, travelling and accom- of the SASA academy. modation expenses for participants; Modern training methods (topic presentations, • Costs of multimedia training CD design and case studies, video training and team activities production, including 23 presentations. etc.) and didactic techniques were used to run all SASA courses. Each presentation was part of The Šariš Brewery sent seven applications the multimedia training programme shown during for payment to the managing body during the each course. Every participant was given a detai- implementation of the project and one final appli- led study material. cation. The budget drawing table formed part of The Šariš Brewery does not own any suitable the application for payment, i.e. the percentage premises for training activities and hence it was results of the current drawing of costs from the necessary to hire a suitable room as well as ac- total amount of the eligible costs. commodation for the lecturers and participants. The managing body approves these applicati- Every learning cycle was divided into two parts. ons for financial aid and submits them to specific The first part took 5.5 days and during this time payment units which inspect the application for the participants got familiar with the majority of payment. Then the payment units send the entire application for payment to the payment body

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(PB). The PB is expected to check the entire Thirteen programme cycles took place throu- application at its respective level, which means ghout the project and 227 employees were to evaluate the applications, having in mind retrained. After the implementation of these 13 the budget limit as per individual priorities and cycles, 144 men and 84 women were retrained. measures. PB should inform the payment unit The estimated rate of retrained workers was 82 % of this fact after the approval of the complete of women and 18 % of men. The actual rate upon applications. Those are subsequently entitled to completion of the project was 58:42. During the transfer the financial funds to the accounts of the entire period, 41 % of all the employees of the final beneficiary. Šariš Brewery were retrained (which is 24 % of all Supporting documentation in two copies for- the employees employed in Pivovary Topvar.) med part of all the applications. Every document The project contributed to a considerable sta- had to be stamped by the applicant and signed bilization and support of the economically active by an authorized person of the applicant. Salary people living in the respective region and created cheques, lists of participants, attendance sheets, better conditions for life and work. The project summary payroll sheets, summary travel sheets also helped to stop the outflow of economically for applicants and lecturers, bills and their an- active inhabitants from the region to larger ag- nexes, account coding bank statements, order glomerations (Bratislava, Prague, EU) and this is sheets, contracts, various tables, lists, declara- also a way how the project supported a sustaina- tions in word of honour, photos from particular ble development of the region. The project with cycles etc. were included into supporting docu- all its activities and impacts noticeably supported mentation. the competitiveness of this developing region The administration of the whole project was in- and contributed to a balanced development both adequately extensive and difficult to handle, and at the regional and national levels. it represented a substantial part of project as for In spite of the decreasing Slovak brewing mar- the time aspect. The preparation of all the docu- ket Šariš Brewery achieved an increasing market ments related to one application for payment and share mainly because of its acquisition of Topvar, to one monitoring report took several days. Inc. The increasing market share was reached via innovations and investments into the company 7. Project Benefits for Topvar brand. The total drop in the Slovak beer market represented 4 %, but the rte of sales decreased by Brewery, Inc. only 3 % during the same period in Topvar Brewe- The decreasing beer consumption in Slovakia ry. Throughout the duration of the project, the and the subsequent markets decrease force the labour productivity of the company increased by applicant to continually improve its sale techni- 23 %, which was nearly double in comparison with ques and its ability to keep up and increase its the estimated rate (12%) prior to the project start. market share. The project fully complied with the global ob- The following main measurable indicators were jectives and priorities of the programme and of given for the purpose of evaluating the implemen- the Call, since the project noticeably contributed tation of the project: to a more extensive providing of further training • The number of employees trained; for employees and improved their qualification, • The number of trainings cycles performed; adaptability and competitiveness on the labour • The number of new-created training products; market. • The number of women involved in the training The others benefits of the project are the fol- programmes; lowing: • Changes in the rate of employees participa- • One work place was created as a result of the ting in further training programmes; implementation of the project; • An increase in market productivity and compe- • The number of women work places kept is titiveness of the company, 84 (the number of women participating in the • The number of newly created programmes of project) further training to be carried out after the end • The rate between men´s and women´s of the project. salaries is 50:50. (There is no possibility to

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calculate this data, since it is not possible to impacts and evaluation of the project goals. All filter out employees as per gender from the the project goals were met. The realization of the personnel database. The applicant abides by project contributed to the development of the the principle of gender balance and employe- company, increase awareness of its trade mark, es are payed only according to their working and to improving its effective management and position.) stabilisation of its market position. The realised • The number of disadvantaged people invol- programme offered wider applicable knowledge ved in the programme was approximately and skills. The applicant appreciates the con- 35 (again, it is impossible to calculate the tribution of the project to the human resources accurate number, as the personnel database development and plans to continue with similar cannot filter out the employees according to activities. their disability. We calculated the approximate number based on the birth dates of the project References: participants.) [1] BALÁŽ, V. Prechod na poznatkovú ekonomiku. Priority ľudských a finančných zdrojov a hodnote- The increase in the number of PC and Internet nie výskumu a vývoja v SR. Bratislava: Prognostic- users can be considered as an indirect impact ký ústav SAV, 2004. ISSN 0862-9137. of the project. Sales representatives did not use [2] Európska komisia 2003: Ako funguje Európ- PCs prior to the project. Since all the information ska únia. Brusel: Generálne riaditeľstvo pre tlač related to the project, e. g. invitations, planned a publikácie. programme, instructions were distributed by [3] FIGEĽ, J. Slovensko na ceste do Európskej e-mail only, they started to use PCs and their únie. 1. vyd. Bratislava: Grafis, 2004. ISBN 80- newly created e-mail accounts. 89180-01-9. [4] VILAMOVÁ, Š. Jak získat finanční zdroje 8. Conclusion Europské unie. 1. vyd. Praha: Grada Publishing, 2004. ISBN 80-247-0828-0. The projects supported by the EU should ad- dress and stress the needs of the new modern civil society and the knowledge economy. The Ing. Helena Šimková, CSc. objectives and the tasks of the projects prepared Technical University of Košice have to reflect the society‘s needs as well as to Faculty of Economics meet the government‘s targets presented in its Department of Management and Marketing operational programmes. The uniqueness and B. Němcovej 32, 040 01 Košice the success of the project in the acceptation pro- [email protected] cess depend on the quality of its elaboration and on the vitality of the applied organisation. A suc- Ing. Miriam Šebová cessful drawing of financial sources depends on Technical University of Košice cooperation with the managing authority and is Faculty of Economics strongly influenced by the human factor on the Department of Management and Marketing one side of the beneficiary and of the managing B. Němcovej 32, 040 01 Košice authority on the other. [email protected] Our experience shows that the most important phase on the project applicant‘s side is the prepa- Ing. Renáta Horňáková ration of the project proposal and the first phase The Topvar Brewery, inc. of its implementation. The identification of the Krušovská 2092 right and measurable objectives plays a crucial 955 14 Topolčany role in the effective use of public resources and it will ensure benefits for the applicants, too. The results of evaluation confirmed an effective Doručeno redakci: 19. 8. 2007 use of the financial resources within the project Recenzováno: 15. 9. 2007 carried out by Šariš Brewery. The same result Schváleno k publikováni: 14. 1. 2008 confirmed the ex-post analysis of the project

strana 58 1 / 2008 E + M EKONOMIKA A MANAGEMENT ABSTRACT

IMPROVEMENT OF EMPLOYEES´ CORPORATE TRAINING IN THE COMPANY TOPVAR BREWERY INC.

Helena Šimková, Miriam Šebová, Renáta Horňáková

Slovakia‘s accession to the European Union offers new possibilities for financing various areas of economy. The European Social Fund, one of the EU structural funds, is aimed at decreasing the differences between the member countries. It supports, among others, the development of human resources. This paper analyses the rules of the EU support based on a case study - human resources de- velopment project in the Šariš Brewery. The company prepared the project in the framework of improving the employees´ training and received financial support form the ESF for its implemen- tation. The EU resources are the public resources and in this sense it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of their use. One of the main conditions of the rational and effective using of the EU funds is transparency. This paper presents the proposals for a successful project implementation both on the side of the applicant and of the managing. For the applicant it is important to manage the preparation of the project and the first part of the implementation process. The managing au- thority has to prepare transparent rules, publish all relevant information and manage the evaluation of projects at several ministries. The projects supported by the EU should address and stress the needs of the new modern civil society and the knowledge economy. The objectives and the tasks of the projects prepared have to reflect the society‘s needs as well as to meet the government‘s targets presented in its opera- tional programmes. The uniqueness and the success of the project in the acceptation process depend on the quality of its elaboration and on the vitality of the applied organisation. A successful drawing of financial sources depends on cooperation with the managing authority and is strongly influenced by the human factor on the one side of the beneficiary and of the managing authority on the other.

Key Words: European Union, structural funds, European Social Fund, human resources

JEL Classification: M53, M54, M12

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