“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” – Richard Branson said.

For any company, a happy employee is the best ambassador.

Balfin Group has understood this and has been implementing a concrete plan for many years now, in order to make employees happy in their companies in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and beyond.

The Tirana-based company has invested many years to ensure that its employees are not only happier but also more professionally skilled through countless pieces of training.

In addition to the numerous staff-retreats that Balfin held for his employees from the companies of the above states, in the tourist areas such as Kolashin, Durrës, Berat, Korçë, or even at Sardinia, Sicily, Florence and Thessaloniki, a total of 5299 hours of training has been arranged for about 3,000 employees only during the last two years.

The largest and most innovative group in the region spends around 1 million euros each year so that its employees advance professionally, socialize and get to know each other better, to strengthen the team spirit and at the same time have fun.

This is done through various activities, ranging from group value campaigns, trainings, retreats, sports, and cultural activities and those to strengthen the team spirit. Balfin Group conducts these activities in accordance with the values it is led by, as part of its corporate culture.

Retreat for Employees

After an intense year of work, challenges, professional workload, and results, every employee deserves to spend a pleasant time in the company of colleagues, so different companies of Balfin organizes retreats in the most interesting tourist places in different countries. These excursions are often thematic, where, besides tourism and relaxation, the vision and objectives of the future are discussed. Also at one of the Group’s recent retreat which was held in the city of Berat, employees had the opportunity to conduct rafting on the canyons of Skrapar and to taste the organic products that Berat offers.

Value Campaigns

Balfin Group has some key corporate values on which it builds its foundations, such as Partnership, Consideration, Innovation, Accountability.

Within the framework of these values, there are dedicated campaigns that have been undertaken for all employees during recent years. The first was that with the focus on the value of “Partnership”. Partnership, one of the basic corporate values of Balfin Group, was symbolically promoted to over 200 videos sent by company employees, gathered in groups through the “Jumping Rope”, which carries the symbolism of the ability to coordinate actions and to execute plans, trust and synergy among colleagues, responsibilities sharing, taking over risk, and successfully achieving goals, challenges, and overcoming difficulties.

The “fresh” and newly launched campaign for employees is that related to the “Accountability” value, which is combined with voluntary initiatives that will be proposed and organized by employees themselves, focusing on helping people in need.

Usually, Balfin Group conceives these campaigns in the form of a competition between teams, where the most original ideas and the highest scores are valued and rewarded with different prices.

Activities to strengthen the team spirit

Creative and challenging games are the ones that boost the spirit of co-operation and competitiveness. Balfin Group companies develop many such activities for this purpose. For example, the last activity held by Neptun, the first edition of Happy Teams, entitled “The Challenge”, was one of these games. All the company’s staff were able to participate in the first phase of this event, during its 4 weeks, organized in teams, who collected points from various games. The top 8 qualified from the first stage teams, challenged each other in the second phase competing in Bow and Arrow games and the famous Beer-pong game. The 4 teams that featured the highest qualities of group work and spirit of competition became winners of 4 surprise prizes. This practice will now continue in the form of a new annual tradition both by Neptun and other Group companies.

Balfin Volley and Culture

Healthy living, doing sports and attending cultural life also affect the quality of the employee’s life. For this reason, it has been regularly organized for 6 years the Balfin Volley Championship, a true volleyball competition, among over 20 Group companies, in professional fields and with professional referees. This tournament annually announces a champion team and shares prizes for the first teams and the best players. For each team, it is obligatory the presence of at least 2 female employees in the field. The Group has also been providing theater tickets for the staff over the years so that they are in touch with cultural life.