Ascent Group has signed a strategic agreement with Eurointerim.

In November 2008 Ascent Group signed in Padova a strategic agreement with Eurointerim Spa. Based on this agreement Ascent Group will represent Eurointerim in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and the Republic of Moldova for the whole typology of services offered by Ascent Group. The same agreement stipulates that Ascent Group recognizes Eurointerim as its exclusive partner for personnel leasing services in all the countries in the region.

Big corporates are often seen as distant and less caring than small family-businesses and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). An employee may never even meet the Managing Director of the company let alone to be directly motivated by him. The challenge for a bigger organisation then seems to be in communicating the company vision – “raison d’être”, and values from the top-management to all levels of employees, create trust, inspire and motivate all employees to work for the common goal.

A recent study exploring employee perceptions of organisational trustworthiness across Europe¹ indicates that organisations, big or small, are not doing this job very well…Employee trust in organisations seems to be alarmingly low when only 42% of employees believe that their organisation can be trusted, as the study shows. The study was conducted by training and coaching company Krauthammer on behalf of a specialist team representing seven European universities².

After long delays, on the 10 th of November 2008 was finally published the Law 260/2008 regarding the compulsory insurance of real estate against earthquakes, land slips or floods.

This Law will be aplied within 120 days of publishing it in Official Gazette of Romania, respectively at the 10th of March 2009.

The Law refers not only to obligativity of houses’ insurance by natural persons but it stipulates provisions also for houses which are owned by legal entities.

So, any legal entity, who ownes houses and those are registered at Fiscal Authorities, is obliged to close an insurance contract against earthquakes, land slips or floods. In case of houses which are state ownership or territorial-admministrative ownership this obligativity is incumbent on appointed person or authorities to manage them, under the Law terms. If a house is the object of a financial leasing contract, the conclusion of the insurance contract will be the tenant’s obligation.

The magazine Consulting Review recently launched the new version of the website. Starting with November 2008 you can read most of the articles published in the magazine also on the website, at: www.consultingreview.ro.

Consulting Review was launched at the end of 2007 and in one year has managed to become a referral on the business publication’s market in Romania through the quality of the articles, analysis and opinions published by a wide number of specialists in the consulting fields that are covered by the magazine.

Starting with January 2009 the magazine will be distributed exclusively based on subscription. Details about the way you can subscribe can be found at http://www.consultingreview.ro/abonare.html. Ascent Group invites you to subscribe to Consulting Review in order to benefit in 2009 as well by the advices of the magazine’s consultants.

Cosmin Galu is the managing partner of Ascent Group in Serbia.

Cosmin graduated the Law Faculty within Vasile Goldis University in Arad. His studies also include numerous scholarships and specializations, such as „Political Management” with the „National Democratic Institute” in Washington, USA, „Crisis Management” through the Konrad Adenauer Foundation – Germany, „Conflict Management” with the IRI – International Republican Institute, in the USA.

Since 2002, Cosmin is also a trainer of the National Democratic Institute from USA, for whom he held trainings in Romania and the Republic of Moldova.

If I could ask anybody on Earth, no matter religion or nationality, I think few people could give me a definition of what means to be a good colleague at work.

In fact, there is not a standard definition to explain what means to be a good colleague at work, but we could guide ourselves to some unwritten rules. This comes from the inside of each person and depends on its character, on the honour and respect we generally grant to human beings.

Anyway, in my opinion, attitude towards our colleagues is connected with our communication skills and the importance we grant to interpersonal relationships.

We should have a positive attitude at work, should try to avoid criticism for our colleagues or in case we have something to object we should treat the situation with diplomacy and decency.

Ascent Group Romania has a new financial manager. Liviu Tulcan graduated the Faculty of Mechanics “Traian Vuia” Timişoara and the Faculty of Engineering and Economy within the University Aurel Vlaicu from Arad, with a degree in Finance and Banking.

He’s professional experience includes 10 years of activity in engineering within a Research and Projecting Institute and 10 years of experience in finance and accounting, managing the financial and accounting activity in Romania of some prestigious multinational companies.

The financial and accounting experience of Liviu includes 4 years in accounting management within Contor Zenner, and 6 years of experience in coordination of financial and accounting departments and in controlling for prestigious companies, such as Systronics, Alcoa Romania or Zumtobel Lighting.

One of most important obligations of the employer towards its employees is to pay them. Fulfilling the duties assumed, means for most employers one of the biggest expenses related to their activity. Salaries and their related costs (contributions to health, unemployment, pensions, etc.) usually add up to approximately 60% of total operating costs of a large-scale enterprise.

Every recruitment process, whether handled internally or through a recruitment agency, starts with a good definition of the ideal candidate profile. If we are talking about a middle or top management position, inevitably the ideal profile will contain the following expressions: “leadership abilities”, “vision” and “business understanding”, “thinking out-of-the-box”, “inspiring people”, “reflects the values and the culture of the company”, etc.

The expectations that the new manager has to fulfill are also clearly stated: team development, process optimization, meeting sales targets or other business objectives.

Nicolae Enache is the new Client Relationship Manager of OCRA Romania. Nicolae graduated the Faculty of Marketing within the Artifex University Bucharest, respectively a Master program in Communication and Public Relationship within the National School for Political and Administrative Sciences “David Ogilvy” Bucureşti, Faculty of Communication and Public Relationship. Over the last years, Nicolae also graduated various courses on management and quality assurance, both in Romania and abroad.

His professional experience includes 7 years of activity in various fields of activity such as financial, consulting and project management, in a National Health Insurance Company and in prestigious companies such Louis Berger, Unicredit şi Banc Post. Nicolae has a wide experience in organizing and implementing projects and programs, locally and internationally.

Ascent Group continues its expansion plans, by opening a new office in Serbia, in Belgrade. The launching of Ascent Group’s office in Serbia was realized through the association of Ascent Group and Lobby Consult Serbia, association having as result the establishing of Ascent Group Serbia.

The office of Ascent Group in Belgrade will offer customers all types of services the group Ascent is offering, but at the same time aims to become a catalyst to enhance business relations between Serbia and other countries in the region. Last but not least, the Serbia office aims to provide support to all foreign investors who intend to start a business in Serbia.

When this autumn began I wrote an article about “the news of the autumn”. And I was concluding that article saying that certainly it will not be a monotonous autumn, respectively that we will have many news, many challenges and most likely many opportunities well-matched to autumn’s colours.

Here we are, after just two months and this autumn has proven to be more different on economical level than previous ones. Moreover the crisis we have begun to enter has proven to be extreme and on global level, deeply shaking the entire international financial system and keeping to shake the global economy. Unfortunately this is not only an autumn crisis but a deeper one and with long-lasting effects.

In the Official Gazette 328 /25th of April 2008 was published the Govern Emergency Ordinance no 44/2008 regarding the organisation of economic activities for natural persons, individual and family enterprises which abrogates specifically the Law 300/2004, the enforcement guidelines of applications of Law 300/2004 and also any other contrary legal provisions.

New regulation simplifies the procedure of registering such entities in the Registrar of Commerce as well as the procedure of operating changes in the statutory documents of authorized natural persons, individual and family enterprises.

Thus, the procedure of issuing the working authorizations by the Municipalities was canceled, the Registrar of Commerce of every Court being the only body competent to issue registration certificates, respectively the certificates of registering mentions for such legal entities.

In the new legal provision new terms are included and defined as following:

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, beginning with 2009 the Fiscal Code will suffer several changes:

VAT

The persons that are not registered for VAT purpose (especially the natural persons) and who buy new intra community means of transport will not be obliged to pay VAT in Romania for these acquisitions before the enrolling of the new means of transport, those enrolling in Romania not being possible without this proof.

Until now, VAT was paid till the 25th of the month following the intra community acquisition and the proof of the payment was not requested at the enrolling.

Excices

The legal entities that commercialize, in retail, system energetic power products for which excises should be paid, for example all types of fuels, are obliged to be registered at the Territorial Fiscal Authority.

Due to some changes in the legislation, the minimum gross salary was increased on national level to 540 lei, starting with the 1st of October 2008, accordingly to legal provision no. 1051/10.09.2008. The change will be valid until the 31st of December 2008. Starting with 1st January 2009 the minimum gross salary will increase from 540 Lei to 600 Lei per month.

The amount of 540 Lei is established for 170 hours per week representing 3, 16 lei/hour. In case employees’ salaries are registered below the Romanian minimum gross salary, this is considered to be illegal and is penalized with fees between 1000 – 2000 lei.

In Romania, the minimum gross salary for the period between October and December 2008 will be 540 Lei for unqualified workers, 648 Lei for qualified workers and 1080 Lei for employees who graduated college.

Starting this Monday the President of Romania, Mr. Traian Basescu, promulgated the Law regarding updates of the first paragraph of article 134 from Law no 53/2003 – Labour Code.

Employees will benefit of 3 additional days of leave (excepting those already stipulated). These days will be: first and second day after the Whitsun (the Whitsun is celebrated on Sunday, 50 days after Easter) and the 15th of August, when is celebrated the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

Few of us truly understand what the importance of working in a team is. How can we be efficient working in a team and why working together? One of the apparently insignificant aspects would be the need to have a strong motivation from each team member in order to wish and determine to involve itself and to work within a team.

A strong motivation for some people would be either a higher wage or a raise. Each of us has different motivations but for co-working in a team there must be a final purpose, a common gain, even though individual motivations are different.

According to the state social insurance law for the year 2008, no. 387/2007, contribution rates will change from the months of December this year. The new rates of contribution are as follows:

Parafiscal taxes in Romania were finally reduced. The last “census”, prepared by the World Bank regarding parafiscalty, put Romania on first place in Europe, with a total of 385 parafiscal laws and 278 parafiscal taxes. The number has reduced to 115 at present, after the exclusion from this segment of charges related to both the public domain, as well as the private. The charges that were reduces include incomes from rents, specifications for tenders, but also charges for PhD’s within public and private universities.

Nevertheless, Romania is still among the countries with an excessive parafiscality, the government announcing other measures for the reduction of these fees.

Jordan Sheppard has recently taken part in the renowned International Language Recruitment Fair, in London. The event is known as the biggest and also the most exciting event of its kind and brought together numerous top companies and over 10 000 multilingual professionals. Jordan Sheppard was present at this event trying to identify talented headhunters for its growing international team. Jordan Sheppard is an elite company in the field of human resources services, mainly executive search, who also operates in Romania, through the office opened in Bucharest in November 2007.

The summer just passed by, and we all prepare to enter in the autumn.

Autumn always inspires me a few words: plenty, wisdom, fulfillment… Still autumn means the beginning of the school, electoral campaigns, but also the main trends in the economy, those who we will give guidance for the upcoming year.

Therefore, let’s go to review what happened in the end of this summer, but also the main trends revealed by the beginning of the autumn.

Good news comes from the Ministry of Economy, who announce a record of the transitional period, namely: “Romania’s economy grew by 8.6% in the first half of 2008, while the advance of the gross domestic product in the second quarter of the year was almost 9%”.

Why “Bermuda Triangle”? Due to the fact the entire recruitment process is based mainly on working with people. And knowing that we, as human nature, are so unpredictable, here is how a sinuous relation has been created among: candidate – recruiter – client. Since I have been working in this area have heard, seen and lived all kind of both pleasant and less pleasant experiences.

Unfortunately, at the present time many of us realize in a small percentage or at all what our roles in this equation are. From my own experience I can tell you that the recruiter has the toughest role. This one is the “lever” between candidate and employer. Depending on its successes or failures this one could be either congratulated or insulted. This one is responsible for everything that is going on during the entire recruitment process as well as afterwards, during follow-up phase. This one is responsible when a client or candidate is unsatisfied by the choice they made.

Starting with September 2008 Reliana Groza became the coordinator of the legal department of Ascent Group in Arad.

Reliana graduated the Law Faculty within the Western University of Timisoara and a Maser program in Civil Law and Civil Procedure within the Law Faculty of “Vasile Goldiş” University from Arad.

Reliana’s professional experience includes 5 years in legal advising, mainly as legal consultant and arbitral assistant, respectively as coordinator of the legal department of the Commerce Chamber form Arad. Reliana’s experience mainly includes information and documentary activities for legal entities, legal consulting for business start-up’s, respectively commercial arbitration for companies having commercial litigations.

In August the Ministry of Labour has launched for public debate the draft of the Government decision which provides the increase of the minimum guaranteed gross wage to 8% from the 1st of October 2008 and 11% from the 1st of January 2009. According to the draft of the resolution, the minimum gross wage guaranteed will be 540 lei per month, between the 1st of October – 31st of December 2008, for a full time working schedule of 170 hours per month, in average, representing a value of 3.176 lei/hour.

Starting with August 2008 the project team of Ascent Group has a new coordinator, Elena Manera.

Elena graduated the National School of Political and Administrative Sciences “David Ogilvy” – The Faculty of Communication and Public Relations, with a degree in Human Resources Management. She is also an Italian language authorized translator by the Ministry of Justice.