Galenika at HR.Weekend: Transformation Starts with People

Galenika took part in HR.Weekend, a program dedicated to contemporary practices and trends in human resources, held as part of the Weekend.19 festival in Rovinj from September 24 to 27. Jelena Parojčić, Executive Director of Corporate Communications and Human Resources at Galenika, participated as a panelist in the discussion “When HR Meets Transformation: Who Changes Whom?”

The panel addressed questions that accompany almost every business transformation – from uncertainty and resistance to change, through the role of management and HR in shaping and implementing change, to how much change an organization and its people can realistically embrace and implement at the same time.

Speaking about the role of HR in the transformation process, Jelena emphasized that change gains its true meaning only when it becomes part of the organization’s everyday operations.

“For me, transformation is successful only when a business decision becomes the organization’s new everyday reality. This is where I see HR’s key role – working together with the business to shape change, understand what it means for the organization and its people, identify what is needed to make it feasible, and help ensure its successful implementation through concrete solutions. When HR understands the business and the business understands its people, transformation stops being just a plan and becomes the way the organization operates.”

The discussion also highlighted the importance of aligning business objectives with the organization’s actual capabilities, the competencies required, ways of working, and the impact that change has on people. In this process, HR plays an important role as a strategic partner – from designing change together with the business to developing concrete solutions that enable transformation to become embedded in everyday operations.

At the end of the panel, Jelena summed up the importance of HR for successful transformation by answering the question, “Transformation without HR is…”:

“Transformation without HR is like soup without seasoning – it may be cooked, but it’s tasteless, and in the end, no one wants to eat it.”

This message rounded off one of the panel’s key themes: business transformation does not happen through strategies, processes, and structures alone, but above all through the people who turn change into practice every day.