Find and retain the best, that’s what companies are committed to doingCompanies are finding it increasingly difficult to retain professionals. The pandemic has to a certain extent reduced the asymmetry of the labour market and changed the dynamics of recruiting, leading to the ever growing use of online tools. The time is long gone when candidates had to ask for time off to attend interviews. Today, web tools make it possible to meet recruiters without having to leave home; and nobody should be surprised if the chat takes place by linking in from a coffee shop. But there is more.

Issues that were once taboo, such as home working, have now become acceptable. If up to a couple of years ago, requests for remote working were whispered as an aside at a meeting, today, human resources experts are telling us, the question is raised almost naturally from the word go. And the answer can be taken for granted too: it’s in the affirmative.

Working from home, at least for a few days, enables a person to manage their personal needs better – taking the children to school, paying a bill, including sport in the daily routine: there are not many people who want to turn this down. Home working already exists or will be arriving in nine out of ten large companies (89%): on average people are working three days a week at home and two in the office (source: Smart Working Observatory, Milan Polytechnic 2021).

The labour market has become more liquid and flexible, with the approach increasingly moving towards combining professional results with a person’s wellbeing. The basic issue is retention: in an increasingly global world, the imperative is to keep the best.

Strategies for companies

So what are the strategies that a company can introduce? Many employers mistrust the use of bonuses. A race that can have a significant effect on costs, without moreover ensuring an increase in appeal. Others work on motivational aspects, such as job quality, or on a friendly and inclusive working environment.

A wealth of companies are to be found in the latter group, gambling on training as a lever for retaining the best. The smaller businesses pay for courses and master’s degrees: the more structured are increasingly creating their own academies, in some cases developing internal post-university courses that make it possible to combine study and on-the-job experience and often end up with the participant being taken on by the company. With a dual benefit: the candidates already know the company’s procedures and managers, because the latter have been instructors on the course. In turn, managers will have had the opportunity to assist candidates in their growth and train their co-workers of tomorrow.

An academy for finding and retaining illimity professionals

There’s also illimity in the list of companies that are gambling on training to create retention. The Academy, set up in 2020, has its spearhead in its Masters in Credit Management, a course intended for young professionals wanting to acquire experience in the financial sector and join neprix, the group company specialising in the servicing of corporate distressed credit. Theoretical lessons and practical cases in a synergy that rewards the ability to apply the matters learnt in the lecture room to neprix’s business model

For whom it is intended

The training course combines the know-how of the management of neprix and the illimity Group with the experience of lecturers having an academic and consultancy background, all of which coordinated under the scientific direction of theMIP Milan Polytechnic Graduate School of Business.

The Masters is intended both for young professionals and practicing lawyers in the NPE credit management sector and for new graduates and students about to graduate who are interested in starting off their careers in neprix. Candidates must have been under 30 years of age when the Masters first started (April 2020). The course contents are taught over a two-month period by means of intensive learning (8 hours of lessons a day for a total of 320 hours) and it will be possible to utilise the skills acquired directly in neprix.

“Applications will be closely scrutinised”, explains Laura Grassi, scientific director of the Masters in Credit Management. “The aim is to ensure quality of learning and interaction”.

What do you learn?

Economic and financial principles, legal expertise, vertical business skills: the programme is intense. “You start with a general framework of the markets and financial intermediaries”, Grassi continues, “with a focus on understanding credit and how it is accounted for. But details are also provided on the techniques used to value the potential of a business, starting from how to read and interpret its financial statements”.

The legal framework includes the principles of the Consolidated Law on Banking and the basics of civil and insolvency procedure, with specific focus on judicial credit management, the various forms of expropriation, the legal regulation of business crises and lease agreements.

“At this point the subject goes live with the study of the various asset classes. neprix is an operator that concentrates on secured corporate distressed credit, meaning credit secured on real estate: a deep dive into the real estate world allows the student to acquire the main techniques of real estate due diligence and valuation and enter the organisation with greater know-how”.

A human approach

The Covid-19 has hit companies hard. But behind the numbers and the financial statements there are experiences and stories of people seeking support to deal with the economic situation. And perhaps take off again with greater momentum. The legislator has realised this and, appropriately, no longer talks of “failures” but rather of “crises”, in an attempt to distance the stigma. An awareness of the extent to which empathy counts is also making its way among banks. Many courses are now dedicated to soft skills, there is strong emphasis on customer assistance.

“The decision to train our professionals internally also responds to this request”, Andrea Battisti, CEO of neprix concluded; “the need to transfer the values we try to pursue as a group to young people”. An investment that pays a dividend called loyalty.

Contacts

academy@illimity.com
illimity.com/mastercredito
neprix.com/en/mastercredit