ABB: Teaching our employees to embrace diversity

Victoria Chorbadzhyyska, Human Resources Manager at ABB Bulgaria Ltd.

Ms. Chorbadzhijska has over 12 years of experience in Human Resources and has been with the company since 2015. She graduated in Process Engineering in Germany under a partnership program of CMU – Sofia and the University of Magdeburg. She says that she has always had a passion for psychology, which complemented her engineering education and that is how she discovered her profession. What inspires her is the quest for continuous improvement, development and learning.

Ms. Chorbajyska, why is it important for every company to seek diversity in its team and strive to have no prejudice based on ethnic or other grounds?

This is the only way we can give all employees an equal chance to share, learn, develop, contribute to better results, but most of all to a positive and constructive company culture/environment.

Otherwise we are wasting opportunities and potential, without which success will not be fulfilling and satisfying for all.

At ABB, we have a shared commitment, part of our culture, that aims for diversity and inclusion. We strive to communicate and remind all of our employees of the importance of this commitment and encourage them to be ethical in their behavior at every moment of their work and relationships with colleagues, customers and partners.

What are employers most often afraid of that stops them from being more “open” to differences between cultures and people?

I suppose it could be from potential internal conflicts, but even that seems unreasonable to me. I believe that in today’s world of global connectivity and communication, we are all open and tolerant of difference, even curious to learn more about those different from us – nationality, ethnicity, generations, religion, etc. We, as a company, view differences in people and their cultures as an opportunity and tolerate that everyone has the freedom to express their individuality and differences, within our code of ethics of course. This leads to enrichment and growth in our shared culture. We learn respect for those who are different from us, but also acceptance, which we all need, as people and as employees of any company.

Should seeking diversity in the team become a top business priority for more Bulgarian companies and what are the benefits?

Probably yes, but this is an individual business decision for each organization according to the goals, priorities, needs, stage of development, maturity of the business.

The main advantage when the demand for diversity becomes a top business priority is the creation of an environment of trust, respect, acceptance, security. And this is the environment in which employees would give the most of themselves to the company they work for, would have a high level of commitment. They would reciprocate with loyalty and creativity in their work, with care for each other – this would mirror diversity as part of the business strategy.

How does your company approach diversity in teams – what difficulties do you face and how much of your team is of a different ethnicity, for example?

Diversity, acceptance and inclusion are part of the company’s global priorities, so every employee is aware of what ABB believes in as an organisation. Working at our company means our employees share our priorities, values and goals. To share them, but even more, to be proud of them.

Senior management has a key role to play by providing sufficient information, as well as line managers who show by personal example what our ways of working, communicating and collaborating are.

We also have formal training on overcoming unconscious biases, whereby we go into more detail and self-reflection to help colleagues reach a better level of awareness and henceforth improve their skills in this area.

We don’t have statistics on the percentage of employees of different ethnicities – that’s not data we collect, precisely because to us, all of our employees are simply OUR employees, regardless of the various categories of differentiation.

Do you encounter difficulties in recruitment?

Of course, like any large company – it’s one of the biggest challenges given the job market and the economic development of the country.

On the other hand, however, looking for valuable staff and conducting interviews with different people oriented to various professional fields also gives us up-to-date feedback on what the market demands, what the current attitudes of candidates are.

As a large company, we have clearly stated values and culture, as well as a vision of what profile we are looking for specific positions. But I would say that at the same time we are also flexible, because some of the most basic things we look for in a suitable candidate are precisely values, personality and culture. Of course, knowledge and skills are an integral part of all this, but we follow the principle that they are learned, enriched and developed. And we are able to offer all of this so that our employees feel cared for in terms of the working environment and are given the opportunity to develop and grow.

Do you think you and other companies should advocate for having more diversity in companies?

Not only do I think, but we advocate – Diversity and Inclusion are part of who we are as an organization. We strive for a culture where diversity is not only welcomed but celebrated as a success. This is one of the reasons why we support the work of the First Steps for Professional Development project, run by the Social Alternative Trust.

We strongly believe that every single person is equally important to the team and to our company. We are now in a period of campaigning where we are focusing on the four values that are fundamental to ABB. With it, we aim to encourage our employees to show appreciation for their colleagues and show gratitude for their caring, curiosity, courage and cooperation with each other. The success of this campaign is because of this continuity – no matter who we team up with, no matter who we share our successes with, even sometimes our failures, we learn to appreciate our colleagues. It is important that each employee feels equal to the others, feels valued and knows that they also contribute with their work to the overall success of not only the team but the company. When people have a common goal that they are aware of, accept and strive for, they begin to act together themselves. In such cases, diversity enriches – not only the employees themselves, but also the team as a whole.