Interview With Zdravka Demeter Bubalo, HR Vice President of MOL Group

Recently, ProPakistani got a chance to sit down for an interview with Zdravka Demeter Bubalo, HR Vice President of MOL Group.

Why is MOL aggressively reaching out to Pakistani students and fresh graduates? How many Pakistani professionals are already working with MOL?

MOL Group aims at securing sufficient talent pipeline to accommodate business needs. Furthermore, MOL Group’s ambition is to support top talents in the industry. Therefore, it is crucial to find the right talents internationally, especially in those countries where MOL Group operates.

Almost 500 Pakistani professionals work with MOL Group.

Recently MOL has launched its campaign for Pakistani students, Could you please describe little bit your program Freshhh and Growww? Are they somehow different compared to other programs for young people?  

MOL Group’s 1 year long graduate recruitment and development program, named Growww, provides graduates with a unique opportunity to start their career in a global company and build work experience through trainings and on-the-job assignments in various Oil & Gas disciplines from the best professionals in an intercultural work environment.

During the strategic program Growww, young professionals have real-life work experiences while participating in the Business Education Program (BEP) to learn how the oil & gas industry and MOL Group operates. Growwwers are supported by senior colleagues, who mentor them during the program. This ensures an excellent career start and development opportunity for young graduates.

MOL Group launched Growww in 2007 and it proved to be a great solution for securing the talent pipeline at MOL Group throughout the years, hiring more than 1500 graduates and retaining 83% of them since the beginning.

Freshhh is an international award-winning online competition for talented students interested in real-life challenges of the oil and gas industry.The most talented students from the TOP 5 teams have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge through team work on variety of tasks in the Live Final, as well as to secure direct entry into MOL Group’s Growww graduate program.

Is MOL planning to expand its operations in Pakistan?  Are Freshhh and Growww Programs part of the expansion strategy?

Freshhh and Growww are going on for 9 years, also in Pakistan where we are interested to bring in top talents to the company.

MOL Group has over 15 years of successful operations in Pakistan and it made 8 discoveries in 3 different blocks, therefore MOL Group is very committed to continue with its successful operations and grow in Pakistan.

Could you please describe the smartphone application? (how does it work, what can people actually manage with application, how many people use this, does it have any results so far? Please explain this in broad way.

To make the Growww program more attractive for Generation Y, MOL Group introduced an innovative online solution, named SpingMe. SpingMe fits better the learning style of the millennial generation, efficiently speeds up their development and puts more stress on the highly needed personal skills including cultural awareness.

SpingMe is not a regular social media tool. While it has the usual functionalists of social media applications the revolutionary aspect of SpingMe is that it enables Growww program participants to own their development agenda. With SpingMe they set their own development goals, they receive custom tasks and to do’s based on their own unique development needs, they experience gamified learning driven by the network of peers and gather constant and real-time feedback how their behavior impacts others and how their behavior changes over time.

Data shows that out of 220 Growwwers of 2014, 193 started to use SpingMe right after the implementation, generating 1285 likes, 385 comments and 50 posts within just the first 3 weeks, devotedly sharing knowledge, boosting the energy and enhancing their network.

How many students have so far registered for Freshhh program and how fresh graduates and professionals do you want to hire from Pakistan through Growww Program? 

Till this point, we have received registrations from almost 500 Pakistani teams, and are still counting.

The TOP 5 teams from Freshhh participants will be invited to the Live Final event held in Budapest in May, 2015. MOL Group management will meet them, and will offer Growww positions for the best participants.

Pakistan has a vast oil and gas industry, whats your message for young graduates and professionals?

Real-life challenges await those young talents who want to kick off their careers and shape the world within the oil and gas industry. Top talents receive the chance to start an international career in an open corporate culture. We actively support talents by developing their capabilities and rewarding great performance to achieve their life-long ambition in their professional lives. As a company we reward talents with a challenger attitude and a passion to change the world for the better.