Dear Reader,
Hope you are doing well! We would like to share with you the latest news about our events, new members and of course, provide the outlook for upcoming activities.
What you can find in this issue? How was our 1st PEOPLE FORUM, focused on the 3rd country employees, outcome of our OH&S and Wellbeing workshop combined with unique plant visit in Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia, CSR conference and how business can support communities and also how we are a part of joint industry initiative Rule of Law as well as in addressing diversity and inclusion.
Actually, you can see, most of these topics are linked to ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance), which is becoming an important topic for most of you.
May is the month when we will launch the 1st edition of a special format LEADER2LEADER - organized on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of our Chamber and 30 years of trade relations between UK and Slovakia. For more information click here please HERE
Grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy reading BritCham NEWS! |
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Our BritCham community is growing - great news! - and we would like to introduce new members to you. You can learn in detail about the first of them and in the May issue we will continue with an introduction in detail. |
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Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer operates a new shared business services center in Slovakia. It forms part of the firm's integrated global infrastructure, which provides a wide range of non-lawyer support in the ever-growing segment of financial, language and marketing services.
Freshfields is an international law firm with many years of experience in advising the world's leading national and multinational corporations and financial institutions on breakthrough and business-critical challenges. A team of over 2,800 solicitors and other legal professionals provide their services in a number of offices in the UK, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America.
Contact: FRESHFIELDS SERVICE COMPANY, organizačná zložka Jurkovičova Tepláreň, Bottova 1 811 09 Bratislava - mestská časť Staré Mesto tel.: +421 909 255 007 https://www.freshfields.com |
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Law firmMatejka & Friedmannová
Matejka&Friedmannová is a member of the Slovak Bar Association and has been providing its services to legal and natural persons from Slovakia and abroad for more than 15 years. It specializes mainly in commercial law, labor and anti-discrimination law, environmental law, family law and sports law. In addition, it is a leader in digitized provision of legal services for its clients within Slovakia. It carries out the IT development of several smart LegalTech solutions with AI integration and successfully applies them in practice. "In our work, we place special emphasis on professionalism, reliability and ingenuity, which are necessary to solve the specialized legal problems of our clients. It was the emphasis on an individual approach to the needs of members, as well as the ability to open new topics and connect individual stakeholders that inspired us to become a member of the British Chamber of Commerce. I believe that here we will find a community where we will become a beneficial element and which will also support our activities," said Ondrej Matejka, Partner of the Matejka & Freidmannová law firm.
Contact: Matejka Friedmannová s.r.o. Dunajská 48 811 08 Bratislava tel.: +421 2 381 05 493 email: office@matejka.company Web: https://matejka.company/ |
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SPC International has been operating in Piešťany since 2008. A hundred employees have found employment here, taking care of the repair and overhaul of electronic and computer hardware (e.g. ATMs, cash registers, etc.).
SPC International is now part of TVS Supply Chain Services, an $8 billion corporation with over 50,000 employees in over 50 countries around the world. TVS SCS supplies complete device and service lifecycle management to major companies in a variety of different industrial sectors. SPC forms part of the new Technical Repair & Refurbishment division within TVS SCS. SPC provides support for electronic and computer hardware. Its hardware support activities offer solutions to maintenance organizations, manufacturers and end users for hardware repairs, inventory management including sourcing, on site swap out services, and repair vendor management.
Contact: SPC International s.r.o. Obchodná 15 Piešťany 921 01 tel. +421 (0) 33 735 36 23 |
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| 1st PEOPLE FORUM, APRIL 13, FOCUSED ON EMPLOYING WORKERS FROM THIRD COUNTRIES |
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As indicated before, we have launched a new platform called PEOPLE FORUM. We have created it in order to get together our members around a topic which strongly resonates - lack of people. We will focus on talent nurture, attraction, engagement and employer branding.
First topic, we put into the spotlight, was the opportunity to bring 3rd country employees into the Slovak market which suffers same as many others, including UK. (There is currently more than one million vacancies - read more HERE)
Full house, two hours, four speakers and extremely positive feedback to our 1st PEOPLE FORUM meeting which we organized on April 13 in Bratislava.It was great to see that besides our members also HR representatives from big manufacturing companies across Slovakia joined us - this topic simply resonated. We have got detailed information from SARIO - Slovak Agency for Trade and Development - about their new service and how to get qualified, expert 3rd country employees as well as their families into Slovakia within a few days. If you are interested in the details, please let us know.
We are preparing a special issue about this topic and will share it with you in the next edition.
The event was made possible thanks to the kind support of our Patron, Getbid, and our special thanks to Ľubomír Belica, CEO of Getbid.
Watch our SHORT VIDEO with moments from our PEOPLE FORUM. |
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| BUILDING A POSITIVE SAFETY AND HEALTH CULTURE |
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On the occasion of the World Day of Safety and Health at Work (April 28), together with our Patron, Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia and our member Asseco CEIT, a.s. we prepared a unique event combining a workshop and a plant tour in Jaguar Land Rover in Nitra, where the iconic Land Rover Defender and Discovery vehicles are built. On Tuesday, April 18, an exciting day started with warm welcome from JLR representatives - Guillermo Mancholas, Operations Director and Richard Bright, Member of the Board of our Chamber and Senior Plant Quality Manager, both at Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia. It was fascinating to learn how the green field project turned into such success, significantly contributing to the economy as well as local communities and creating more than 4,500 jobs. After introduction into the plant´s history and achievements, 50 participants of our event started to explore state-of-art manufacturing facility during a fantastic plant tour, accompanied by JLR professionals explaining the production process and interesting facts. After the plant tour, there was time for workshop! First we startedwith a webinar dedicated to Noise Analysis and how to reduce the noise of the working environment and thus reduce the impact on the health of employees. The expert webinar was led by Filip Hanker from Asseco CEIT, a.s.On the occasion of the World Day of Safety and Health at Work (April 28), together with our Patron, Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia and our member Asseco CEIT, a.s. we prepared a unique event combining a workshop and a tour of the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Nitra, where the iconic Land Rover Defender and Discovery vehicles are produced.
On Tuesday, April 18, the members of the BritCham Board of Directors, Richard Bright, Senior Plant Quality Manager at Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia, as well as Guillermo Mancholas, plant Director, welcomed those present on behalf of our chamber. This was followed by a tour of the modern production facilities of the plant, which had a great response. Fifty participants also completed a webinar dedicated to Noise Analysis and how to reduce the noise of the working environment and thus reduce the impact on the health of employees. The expert webinar was led by Filip Hanker from Asseco CEIT, a.s.
Martin Cibula, Health and Wellbeing Manager, Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia presented a strategy in the field of health and suitable working conditions created with employees' needs in mind. Because a satisfied employee is also a powerful employee, at Jaguar Land Rover they focus on increasing employee engagement by providing them with space for regeneration and self-care through activities such as massages for employees, programs for prevention (Movember - an activity dedicated to prevention men's health), the possibility of consultations with a psychologist, rehabilitation, ongoing construction of a sports field, etc.
The presentation by Marián Očenáš, Safety and Risk Manager, Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia, was devoted to the way in which the company involves and engages its employees and how they use coaching and pre-work meetings to develop employees' skills in the field of health and safety.
We thank the host, Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia, for the flawless organization of the event, as well as all the participants, presenters and organizers, and we look forward to other similarly attractive events.
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| VOLUNTEERING IS A WAY FOR COMPANIES TO CONNECT WITH THE COMMUNITY AND ENGAGE EMPLOYEES |
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We were at the birth of a meaningful project: THE NEW KDEPOMAHAT.SK PORTAL WILL SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NITRIAN REGION
You can learn more about the event in Televízia Nitrička report, the media partner of the conference. |
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The Nitra volunteering center in cooperation with Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia and our chamber joined forces for the first time to name the barriers and opportunities for the development of corporate volunteering and its contribution to the development of cities and towns in the Nitra region. The topic that can support not only communities, but also employment was discussed at the conference "Corporate volunteering, what to do next?" The path to the employee and communities" more than eighty representatives of the public, private, non-governmental and academic sectors. The novelty, which we directly tested on it, is the online portal www.kdepomahat.sk
THERE ARE PEOPLE… BEHIND EVERYTHING
The idea to hold the conference originated in Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia, which has been closely cooperating with the Nitra volunteering center for a year. We have added our experience from the UK, where an online non-profit platform operates. The result? More than 80 participants, who continued with two workshops after the morning block of presentations and the afternoon panel. The positive energy could be cut and we are already working on processing the findings and suggestions that we will share with you.
However, we will share one conclusion that the participants made here: they agreed that what they experienced on March 16, was that it brought together those who want to DO GOOD WELL. Our chamber will be there and we have already started plans for a continuation - if you want to join, please let us know at info@britcham.sk. |
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THANK YOU to our patrons, Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia and TESCO STORES SR, a. s., for allowing us all to meet in Nitra, ASO VENDING for participating in the panel. We are grateful that Branislav Becík, Chairman of the Nitra self-governing region, and Marek Hattas, Mayor of Nitra, also contributed with their patronage and especially their personal presence. Many thanks to our Honorary President H.E. Nigel Baker, British Ambassador to Slovakia for supporting this idea.
We are grateful to all the special speakers, including 'ours', from the chamber: Richard Bright, member of the BritCham Board and Senior Plant Quality Manager at Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia; Igor Franček, HR Director at Jaguar Land Rover Slovakia; Robert Trgiňa, CEO at ASO VENDING, Michaela Lehotská, Government Affairs & CSR Manager from TESCO STORES SR, and Miroslava Remenárová, Chairman of the BritCham Board of Directors. |
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| WELCOME A NEW BOOK ´SLOVAKIA AND THE UNITED KINGDOM: THE FIRST 30 YEARS´ |
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This year we celebrate not only the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the British Chamber of Commerce, but also the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Slovak Republic and the United Kingdom.
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As Mr. Ambassador Nigel Baker said in his speech: “30 years is not a centenary, but it is, I think, long enough to test friendship. And the book we are presenting today has shown us that the UK-SK friendship is something you can count on."
What is the book about? In the book you will find all the important events in our common history: cooperation at the governmental level, royal visits, business relations, cultural and sports connections. It was published in cooperation with the embassy and the Society for Foreign Policy, and if you don't have a printed version yet, you can download it for free HERE. This publication is the first of its kind and is a tribute to the first thirty years of mutual diplomatic relations. It explores the story of Slovak-British relations in modern history and captures a wide range of information: it brings interesting photographs, deals with historical starting points and recalls the milestones of building mutual relations, behind which the author, Pavol Demeš, often stood.
Three selected speakers also spoke about their first experience with the UK. One of them was M. Remenárová, our Chairwoman of the Board. Did you know that her first flight at all was with British Airways to London, where, as an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she flew to preparatory training for negotiators for EU accession? |
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| JOINING TOGETHER FOR RULE OF LAW AND SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT: WE ARE A PART OF INITIATIVE OF EMPLOYERS OF SLOVAKIA |
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We attended the second coordination meeting of employers' representatives on 11 April 2023 to express support for a joint course of action in the coming months to communicate employers' priorities to the relevant democratic parties that will compete for the confidence of citizens in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
We followed up on the initiative that was created on the grounds of the American Chamber of Commerce. We focus on two themes: the Rule of Law initiative and Human Capital: Education/Labor Market/Skills/Digital Transformation.
Our intention is that, as a broad coalition of employers, we are interested in talking about these topics in a professional, cultured and comprehensible manner. We found agreement that both topics are key in improving the quality of the business environment in Slovakia and increasing the competitiveness of the Slovak economy. In the coming days, we will devote ourselves to the preparation of the final documents, then we will have a joint meeting again. If you are interested in participating in the finalization of the documents, please contact Miroslava Remenárová (remenarova@community.sk).
If you have any relevant inputs to the joint document (internal studies, surveys, data, etc.) within the company or organization that you represent in our chamber, we will be grateful for their sharing. |
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| ADVOCACY OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION: INFORMATION HOW YOU CAN JOIN APPEAL |
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We would like to virtually introduce you Ms Martina Bednar who is a lead in the Ide nám o život community (contact details below) and thus to involve more supporters who would be interested to join the Slovak Business Appeal that was prepared by the community and you can FIND IT ATTACHED Please find below a quote from the appeal and also more information on how you can joinor support this initiative. “We, in Slovakia active businesses, would like to ask the government representatives to improve the conditions for LGBTI+ people in Slovakia. Therefore we have created the attached Appeal. We have set ourselves a 30 day period (approx. mid of April) to gather support from other companies which will result in a press conference, where we want to officially hand over this appeal to the government officials and talk in person about our motivation and reasoning of this initiative. Support can be expressed by simple email and attached company logo,which we may use in the document. The participation in the press conference is optional. If your company wishes to support more, then we are also searching for financial support for an Impact Study of non-inclusivity of LGBTI+ people in Slovakia. This study will analyze the financial impact on companies, healthcare, wellbeing, families and GDP of the country. The total costs of such study is estimated at 12K and will be conducted by the Open for Business organization (mentioned also in the Appeal). Each company who supported will be mentioned as sponsor in the study itself."
For more information please contact MartinaBednar, Business Processes Consultant CX Solutions, Global Consulting Delivery, Pride@SAP Austria & Slovakia Lead (ERG), SAP Österreich GmbH, m.bednar@sap.com. |
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The International Knowledge Forum NEWMATEC 2023 is organized by the Association of the Automotive Industry of the Slovak Republic. Our chamber will also have a separate presentation: How to become a winner in the fight for employees in the automotive/production area and how to involve them in ESG goals. |
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We would like to draw your attention to the second day of the conference, May 17, 2023. In the panel discussion 12:15 – 13:40 Business challenges: The world economy is facing unprecedented challenges. Where does this situation turn into a risk and where into an opportunity for the business sector in Slovakia? Representatives of our member companies will speak: - Tomáš Búry, lawyer, Counsel, Allen & Overy Bratislava
- Jarmila Gurská, Country Manager, SHELL Slovakia
- Ondrej Matejka, Partner, Matejka & Friedmannová
- Katarína Pšenáková, Director of Communications, TESCO STORES SR
- Miroslav Talian, Director of the Transaction Consulting Department, KPMG Slovakia
The discussion is moderated by Miroslava Remenárová, Chairwoman of the Board of the British Chamber of Commerce in the Slovak Republic. |
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