At BALFIN Group, the issue of gender equality is no longer raised as a problem. It has been overcome and is no longer seen as a challenge.
In this Group, women hold key job positions and outnumber men, but this is due to factual reality, and not any artificial or premeditated rule set.
- 60% of BALFIN Group’s employees are women
- 50% of the Group’s Board of Directors are women, including its chairperson
- 40% of the Group’s managerial positions are held by women
In other words, women at BALFIN Group have deserved their place.
However, for sure, if it were not for the special and well-thought-out attention and care to preserve and treat this human wealth stemming from women’s strength, the successful reality of BALFIN might not have been what it is now.
Not long ago, as a signatory party to the Women Empowerment Principles, BALFIN reaffirmed its commitment to take bigger and faster steps to empower women in their workplace and community.
Women Empowerment Principles were created by UN Women and the United Nations Global Compact. They enable companies to evaluate their policies and practices and identify areas for improvement.
Elvin Nosi, Director of Human Resources at BALFIN Group says how this commitment will be concretely fulfilled. “We will try to pay much more attention or communicate some of the realities that we have, such as women’s contribution in our companies, their success cases, commitments or projects they have participated in, giving them an added value. I think that through all these positive experiences that we have, we ensure to better communicate these principles so that women’s contribution gets highlighted and receives the right attention. And why not, may BALFIN Group serve as a good market example of such initiatives for other companies to further embrace the principles of women’s empowerment. The embracement of these principles has come very naturally to BALFIN Group as it applies the highest and most modern standards to the way of treatment and management of employees which are based on the same principles as those of the UN, i.e., women empowerment principles, equal, transparent, and fair treatment of employees. Consideration is one of the core values of BALFIN Group. So is being accountable to all parties we operate with, but first and foremost to our employees.”
At BALFIN, women are numerous and together with their male colleagues, they run one of the largest investment groups in the Western Balkans.
“We are happy to ascertain that gender equality is a reality in BALFIN Group. We ascertain this through some figures and data we have. 60% of the Group’s employees are women. Also, their presence is essential in managerial positions. It turns out that 40% of these managerial positions are held by women. Even at senior management levels, we can refer to BALFIN Group’s Board of Directors, which is chaired by a woman and half of the Board members are women. In fact, we observe women’s contribution in many BALFIN Group’s activities, and they form an integral part of our programs that are mainly related to employees’ training and development,“- Nosi further said.
“I cannot leave without mentioning a cooperation agreement we have signed as a Group, being among the few companies in our market, committed to hiring in our Group companies’ individuals with Down syndrome, and to this day some of them have become part of our staff,” – he continues.
Diversity and innovation seem to be the engine that drives and leads the Group forward. Nosi reveals that they are among the strongest points that BALFIN has.
“We think that diversity should be an inseparable part of our reality in terms of the workforce as a whole because we strongly believe that the more diverse our staff composition is, the greater are the chances for improvement and innovation as a whole. And in fact, innovation is very important to us. It is a value of our Group that we try to constantly cultivate, and I can say without any doubt that thanks to this value, which is a reality in our Group, BALFIN has managed to develop and be today one of the most successful Groups in Albania and beyond in the region”.
BALFIN Group has around 6,000 employees, where about 3,000-3,500 employees are employed in Albania and the rest are abroad, in countries of the region such as Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina. BALFIN is also present in Central European countries such as Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
