Q&A with Zsuzsanna Ferenczi, Chief Marketing Officer at Tradler

Bringing data-driven personalization to recognition at mass helps employees to be better connected to the value they provide.

MEDIA 7: You have been associated with marketing and business development for 26 years! How has the journey been like?
ZSUZSANNA FERENCZI: Quite exciting! I have been in B2B tech for 20 of these 26 years. When I started to work technology was in its babyhood: we had the first versions of MS word, Excel, Powerpoint. We had the first laptops, later the first mobile phones all the way to today’s highly connected, always online, data-driven, always-changing world. It’s been a tremendous opportunity for me to live through these changes and provide value to large and small enterprises alike in their own transformation journeys as the technology evolution continued.

M7: How does Tradler work towards creating a sustainable work environment in organizations?
ZF: Firstly, we believe feeling like a number at workplaces belongs to the last century and not to our fast pace, rapidly changing modern world. Today globally 85% of employees still feel this way. The way it shows it’s that productivity suffers, quality suffers, absenteeism and attritions are increasing. People are simply not engaged. They don’t really understand how/when they create value and for whom and why it matters.

On the other hand, when organizations create sustainable work environments, people will come to work because they want to and not because they need to. We made it our mission to work with organizations and empower them so that they are able to celebrate the daily contributions of their people in a personalized way at scale. We see that today a large percentage of people are not appreciated at work regularly. They are working hard every day to provide us services we often only notice when they don’t get delivered.

When people are appreciated regularly what they do they feel better connected to work because they understand the value they provide. Our solution enables team managers and leaders to drive higher team engagement while substantially reducing turnover and increasing productivity and quality of service. Companies who are able to systematically improve employee experience stand out as sustainable, financially performing organizations.

Bring value to customers in every step of their journey and solve one of the biggest leadership dilemmas today: employee engagement.

M7: What should executives, line managers and HR professionals be concentrating on to achieve employee engagement and meet their strategic goals?
ZF: Gallup defines employee engagement by 12 powerful questions. The first couple of questions related to whether employers/managers meet basic needs for employees to feel safe: they understand what’s expected of them at work, they have the tools/equipment they need to do their work, they can use their strengths et work.
Then the next level is all about connectedness. Connected to team members, connected to managers, receiving praise regularly – so that employees can feel they belong.

Finally, the last batch of questions relates to the bigger context/their future potential at the companies. If I were an HR professional or a line manager – at a minimum, I would strive to create work environments where people feel they can express themselves freely/in safety – so they can show up as they are, using their strengths every day. This would allow them to be more connected to the workplaces making them feel they belong, they are connected. Creating cultures where recognition is a daily practice, supported by clear communication of what is expected is a good place to start.

M7: What do you see as the most noticeable change right now happening in the workforce, encouraged by the rise of digital technologies?
ZF: I am extremely encouraged by the young/millennial generation. They want to work for organizations where they can make a real impact. They seek alignment between their own/their communities’ values and those they work for. They’d rather move on when this alignment doesn’t exist, where they feel cannot grow and show up authentically as who they are. Current/ “traditional” – sometimes fear-based/sometimes control-driven leadership is no longer acceptable for this generation. I find it extremely encouraging. Is it related to the rise of digital technology? Not only – but to a large extent yes – social media, connectedness with others, driven by the values of larger communities all contributed to this necessity to evolve the leadership models of today.

Continue to be who you are, continue to learn and discover with passion and energy!

M7: What do you believe are the top three marketing challenges in the post-COVID-19 era?
ZF: (1) Connecting with potential clients: It’s tough to bring people new ideas/new solutions, especially in our target market – being huge enterprise customers.
(2) As a start-up with no brand value, it’s really hard to stand out.
(3) Employee engagement has become a hot topic post-COVID-19, which is excellent news for us. But we need to find new platforms and new engagement possibilities with our prospects as traditional marketing channels are transforming fast.

M7: What is your marketing mantra to stand out in an HRTech space?
ZF: Bring value to customers every step of their journey to solving one of the most significant leadership dilemmas today: employee engagement.

M7: Your advice to young women who are considering a career in marketing?
ZF: There are many highly talented young women I am mentoring through several mentoring communities. It’s great to see how they are progressing with their careers, how they grow. They are standing out by their professionalism, their super positive attitude to learning and discovering. I would say – continue to be who you are, continue to learn and discover with passion and energy!