In difficult times, EVA invests in people

03.04.2025

Inna Pecherytsia, HR Director at EVA

How severely is EVA experiencing a labor shortage? What strategies does the company use to attract and retain specialists?

— EVA faces all the challenges of Ukraine's labor market, but the company does not have an acute shortage of personnel. The management team remains almost unchanged. Overall staffing levels are consistent with previous years, and new job openings mainly arise due to network expansion and the launch of new projects and directions.

In 2024 alone, the company created about 700 jobs. Hiring for new stores has indeed become more challenging. However, working with contractors that provide temporary staff and utilizing our mobile support teams, formed based on store opening teams, helps improve the situation.

It is also difficult to attract highly qualified specialists in analytics and IT, particularly in fields that are less developed in the job market, such as developers and data science experts. However, first, we do not require a large number of such specialists. Second, we have ways to attract them, such as offering exciting projects and unique experiences that can only be gained in a market-leading team. Many of the company’s operational solutions are developed in-house.

Overall, our strategy is to balance internal talent development with external hiring. For instance, over 90% of our supervisors and about 70% of our store managers have built their careers within EVA. A clear indicator of the effectiveness of internal development is the fact that over 1,000 employees received career promotions in 2024 alone.

EVA is traditionally perceived as a female-oriented company, but like any retailer, it likely has roles where male labor is almost indispensable. How does the company address this issue given the current conditions and risks?

— Historically, men make up a small percentage of EVA’s workforce—around 20%. However, they perform several critically important functions: operating loading equipment and freight transport, as well as handling goods reception and unloading. Today, some of these physically demanding tasks, such as receiving goods in stores, are increasingly assigned to women.

Additionally, EVA actively implements initiatives to train women as forklift operators and truck drivers. However, practice shows that this is quite a challenging task, not so much due to the physical demands of the job, but rather due to psychological barriers. Learning to handle large vehicles is one thing; being prepared to solve potential road issues is another. To partially address this, the company has created mobile "Assistance Teams" that quickly respond to any difficulties. Nonetheless, the main strategic challenge is the structure of the labor market itself, where women traditionally have not been trained for such work. Despite some successful cases within EVA and across Ukraine, large-scale changes in this area are unlikely to happen quickly.

What training programs does EVA offer, and how do they help address business challenges?

— I can broadly divide them into three main areas.

The first area focuses on developing expert competencies for employees who work directly with customers in retail. Our network positions itself as a beauty and personal care expert, so we are increasing the number of professional consultants in the beauty segment. Additionally, many EVA stores offer a skin testing service using specialized devices for more accurate product recommendations. Finding a ready-made specialist for a skin tester position on the job market is almost impossible, so we train them in-house.

The second area is building an internal talent pipeline. Well-known in the retail industry, our store manager and supervisor schools help the company develop its leadership team through career advancement and the growth of high-potential employees.

The third area is managerial competency development. Two major programs stand out here—"Cat Management" and Evolution.

"Cat Management" was introduced during the pandemic in response to managers' need for effective remote team management skills. Given that EVA still operates in a hybrid work format, the program remains relevant.

The Evolution training platform focuses on developing general management skills and soft skills for leaders at all levels—from top management to those directly managing teams in stores and warehouses. The program includes training sessions, workshops, tests, specialized literature, video content, and access to professional resources. Its content is regularly updated. Evolution is designed to address real workplace challenges and situational cases. We don’t train managers in a vacuum—the entire process is centered around solving current business problems, allowing participants to develop practical skills that they can immediately apply in their teams.

Does EVA have programs for hiring and integrating veterans? What support initiatives does the company offer?

— Veteran integration is a very promising direction. Currently, 397 EVA employees are serving in Ukraine’s Defense Forces, including 25 women. We already have experience hiring former military personnel. Although these are still isolated cases, the company is open to employing veterans even without dedicated programs.

However, recognizing the long-term potential, we are already working on specific retraining and adaptation programs. For example, we are developing training for veterans who, for various reasons, cannot return to their previous professions. We are also preparing to expand our inclusive employment opportunities.

Additionally, EVA runs a comprehensive psychological support initiative called "We Are Together." This project evolved from separate initiatives launched at the start of the full-scale invasion and includes key areas such as mental health support, assistance for female employees, leadership and team training, inclusive interaction development, and veteran workplace adaptation.

The project offers webinars, training sessions, workshops, and weekly group online meetings with psychologists—"Coffee with Evafamily"—on mental health and team support topics. There is also a mutual support group for women overcoming traumatic experiences called "Circle of Trust," individual psychologist consultations, and access to self-help guides, mental health resources, and materials on inclusivity, stress management, and working with colleagues and customers who have experienced complex events.

By the end of 2024, we will have achieved significant results:

• Over 40 online "Coffee with Evafamily" sessions were held.

• 1,155 employees, excluding store teams, participated in training through webinars and workshops.

• Corporate psychologists conducted 120 consultations, with an additional 68 provided by external specialists.

How Have Global Trends in Digitalization and AI Adoption Transformed HR Processes and Approaches at EVA? What Modern Solutions and Practices Does the Company Use?

— We utilize modern technologies that optimize recruitment, onboarding, and employee adaptation processes.

In recruitment, we have developed our own automated candidate search system based on data scraping. An HR specialist simply sets the search parameters—candidate profile, search geography, and sources to monitor—and the system generates a list of potential candidates. This significantly saves time, allowing HR teams to focus on in-depth analysis and high-quality communication with applicants.

Automation is particularly convenient for retail staff recruitment, where job openings are standardized, and candidates primarily respond to posted vacancies. An HR specialist can post a job on key platforms with a single click, and resumes are automatically collected in an internal database for further processing.

EVA's hiring process is also highly automated. Once a candidate completes all selection stages, the HR specialist initiates standard onboarding processes—workplace setup, access pass creation, access rights configuration, and adaptation planning. The system automatically sends corresponding requests to relevant departments (IT, security, technical services), ensuring speed, accuracy, and eliminating the risk of information loss.

For onboarding new retail employees, we use a Telegram bot called "Nadiya Botivna." It provides newcomers with essential knowledge about job specifics in a simple and accessible format, easing the mentorship burden on experienced store staff. "Nadiya Botivna" handles most typical questions, allowing mentors to focus on more specialized aspects of the job.

Our future plans include creating a fully automated communication chain with candidates. We also aim to integrate all candidate-related processes—from search to security clearance and hiring—into a single system with automatic status monitoring. Additionally, we plan to connect the system to Power BI for comprehensive analytics on internal HR processes, labor market trends, and insights into EVA’s strengths and weaknesses as an employer.

Measuring automation efficiency in figures is challenging due to significant labor market shifts. However, we are already experiencing the benefits: less routine work, more time for analysis, and better-quality interactions with candidates. Modern technologies greatly simplify the demanding work of HR professionals.