Andrea Bujdosó

Chair of the Board

Shell Hungary Zrt.

The opportunity to work from home distinguishes us in the labour market and makes our employer’s brand attractive. Goals and deadlines should be precisely defined, but flexibility in other areas, such as the choice of place of work, will be rewarded, as it greatly increases the commitment and loyalty of employees to the company.

Flexible solutions at Shell

Industry: Retail

Date:

Employment


Solutions of the macro-sustainability challenges

Improve the inclusive employment of disadvantaged people according to their share of the population, especially that of young people and minorities through the whole value chain

Further targets:

What´s the solution?

At Shell Hungary Zrt. it has been common for years that employees have a work schedule with flexible hours, including the option of the home-office.

Three main factors motivate the offer of working from the home-office:

  1. A customer-oriented approach: we are a sales-marketing organisation that has a national network and the main elements of our customer-oriented corporate culture are visits to gas stations and regular meetings with partners and customers. The efficiency and motivation of employees of the sales department can be significantly improved if we provide them with the option of working from home so they do not have to come back to the office to fulfil their administrative duties.
  2. As a result of our talent management, many of our employees work in a global, regional scope. In their case, the virtual working option is a given, and we also support this through company policy.
  3. The option of the home-office can support employees who are on maternity leave to return to their jobs or to have a better work-life balance. This is why the home-office option is an important factor in increasing the number of female co-workers and managers.

We favour working at home by supplying the proper infrastructure (laptops, mobile phones), and guidelines that clearly define the frameworks and the responsibilities of doing so, and also with a well targeted training program.

A trust-based, output-focused, supportive-of-personal-improvement corporate culture plays an important role in maintaining flexible employment models. Our managerial training program also takes the challenges of leading a virtual team into consideration.

Business connection

The option of the home-office supports employee work-life balance, and also increases loyalty. Besides helping retain employees, this practice is also conducive to us becoming an appealing workplace for present and future generations on the labour market. Furthermore, the home option means that we can operate with smaller and more effective offices at a relatively low cost.

Results

The proportion of hours worked at home differ from position to position, but for most employees we support at least one day’s duties being carried out at home.

The efficiency of the program is reflected in employee commitment and the low turnover rate. Moreover, this practice significantly contributes to building the internal brand of the workplace, and to increasing the number of female leaders. In the latter case, we have achieved great results: 40% of the highest-level managers, 32% of senior management, and 43% of middle management are women.