Investing In Your Employees: Valentyn Peltek Of Jobsora.com On The Benefits of Offering Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Initiatives For Employees
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Without investing in the continuous development of employees’ skills and knowledge, companies risk falling behind in innovation and efficiency, making it challenging to stay competitive in an evolving market.
Investing in team development has become increasingly crucial for forward-thinking companies, who understand that their greatest assets are their people. From implementing innovative training programs and wellness initiatives to cultivating a supportive work environment, these strategic investments play a vital role in enhancing employee satisfaction and retention. As the business landscape evolves, mastering effective methods to support and retain employees is pivotal for achieving long-term success. I had the pleasure of interviewing Valentyn Peltek, CEO at Jobsora.
Valentyn Peltek is a passionate entrepreneur and a CEO at Jobsora.com — a global job search engine that is used by 20M of job seekers monthly. Valentyn’s main fields of interest are labor, jobs, international employment, and HR tech solutions. His mission is global — to help to find jobs for as many people as possible.
Thank you for joining us. To start, could you share a little about yourself, and how you got started?
Thank you for the invitation. I am glad to share my opinion on this vital topic. So, my name is Valentyn Peltek, I am the Founder and CEO at Jobsora.com. Jobsora is a global job search engine that operates in 38+ countries and is used by 20M of job seekers monthly.
Before my business journey with Jobsora, I’ve been working as a CEO and a CTO in IT businesses. Since the topic of work and employment has always been close to me, I decided to go into this business niche. I did not make this choice alone, but together with my business partner Roman Peltek. That’s how we began our journey with Jobsora. We help our users with an extremely important mission: finding a job.
What was your biggest challenge in those early days?
One of the biggest challenges at the beginning, and frankly, throughout the business journey, was finding qualified people. The right people in the team are 80% of any business’s success, and Jobsora.com is no exception.
You need to hire people with more knowledge in a particular area who can add this knowledge to the project and strengthen the team. With such people, the company gets stronger. Finding qualified specialists wasn’t easy; even after seeing them, we invested and continued to invest in their development. This is the new normal.
Was there anything specific that inspired you to prioritize CPD initiatives in your company?
Assembling a qualified team is one important task. The second important task is improving employees’ knowledge and skills. Everyone in the business knows how fast technology evolves and how quickly we need to adapt to new changes. At Jobsora.com, we have been developing a culture of knowledge improvement since the very beginning of the business.
We’ve also all heard about the global mismatch skill gap when the skills taught at universities do not match the market’s demand. Therefore, CPD initiatives are inevitable in business management today.
Can you explain why this is important for the success of a business?
CPD initiatives are essential in business development because they ensure employees continuously develop their skills and knowledge and help keep them updated with industry trends and best practices. In our practice at Jobsora, CPD drives innovation, improves productivity, and fosters long-term business growth.
Of course, as with any idea, you need to be able to filter. For example, courses as part of CPD are essential to provide an overview of the field or industry and increase general knowledge. Regarding specialized expertise, employees should gather it themselves. Courses help at the junior level but not so much for seniors.
Can you please share with us, and briefly explain the first major initiative you started that directly benefited your employees?
At Jobsora, each department has a mentor. The mentor is usually a manager who points out the gaps that need to be worked on, helps to understand the problem or find a solution, and
monitors the employee’s progress. This solution proved very effective for us, as a mentor who guides an employee’s development is close to him by default because they work together from day to day.
We also have an effective initiative, such as allocating a budget for any course that interests our employees. This way, they can independently choose a program to improve their professional skills.
Do you have an example of a situation where you didn’t get the result you were looking for, and tell us what happened as a result?
Yes, we had such an experience. We once attended a recruitment conference, and the story was irrelevant to our demand. So, even within the industry, you must look for relevant options.
What has been the most impactful CPD initiative you’ve seen other companies offer, and how did it inspire or influence your own approach?
In general, each company invests in each employee to increase value to the company. Our practice at Jobsora.com shows that an employee reaches total productivity and starts producing results after six months.
Speaking of other companies’ examples, we are inspired by such incredible companies as Indeed, Talent.com, Adzuna, Jooble, and others. Such competitors do not allow us to stand still and inspire us to improve the product every day.
What challenges might companies face when implementing these initiatives, and how can they overcome them?
Nowadays, the main challenge in CPD initiatives is filtering out valuable materials, courses, and conferences. The market is full of information, but not all is useful. Therefore, qualitative filtering of information materials is obligatory. Otherwise, you risk wasting two precious resources: time and money.
Can you share a story of an employee who significantly benefited, and how it affected their performance or career trajectory?
First, our entire team at Jobsora comprises intelligent, disciplined, and result-oriented people. They understand the value of the three most important resources: time, knowledge, and money. I emphasize this because it is one thing to nominally attend a course, training, or conference. And another thing is to extract a concentration of knowledge from this initiative. When an employee acquires this concentration of expertise, it directly affects their efficiency and improves work performance. We see these results in each company’s departments: product development, design, marketing, sales, and HR.
Luckily, everyone in our team understands the value of time, so everyone is focused on gaining maximum knowledge and insights by visiting one or another CPD initiative.
Could you please list the “Top Three Benefits of Offering Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Initiatives For Employees”? Can you explain what you mean?
1. Without investing in the continuous development of employees’ skills and knowledge, companies risk falling behind in innovation and efficiency, making it challenging to stay competitive in an evolving market.
2. Everyone in the business knows how fast technology is developing and how quickly we need to adapt to new changes. CPD helps companies to adapt to the changing landscape.
3. CPF initiatives are about continuous improvement. First, they foster employer productivity and enhance career progression.
How do you measure the success and ROI of these CPD initiatives?
If we at Jobsora decide to invest in CPD initiatives, we naturally calculate the expected ROI. An example is the use of a new technology that can improve a product’s speed. In such a case, we are always ready to invest in research and training for this technology, and it always pays off.
Looking forward, how do you see the role of CPD evolving in the next 5–10 years?
Since technologies are constantly evolving, especially AI and ML technologies, there are already some changes in the case of CPD initiatives, and there will be even more. For example, when we switched to the remote-first work mode, our training and courses became remote. For instance, technology helps track attendees’ progress, which is also crucial for efficiency. And there is the same story with conferences: many processes are automated with AI and will be improved further thanks to technological advancement.
Employees need to learn constantly to stay competitive in the market. It’s better to get used to continuous improvement now because we see how quickly new technologies, trends, and markets are emerging.
What advice would you give to business leaders who are hesitating to make these changes?
If managers do not invest in people development, companies will not be able to compete in the market. That’s it. So, go and invest in your employees to develop your business.
Can you share any upcoming initiatives or plans you have for further investing in your employees?
We have no seasonality of CPD initiatives at Jobsora. We constantly attend conferences, and niche training. We at Jobsora plan to further develop our product, attract new clients, promote employees, invest in them, and in new projects. CPD initiatives are built into our business processes because we understand the value of constantly improving ourselves.
How can our readers follow your work?
Please visit my LinkedIn profile and Jobsora LinkedIn profile. I also invite you to read my Medium blog, where I analyze the market and share insights. And, of course, visit Jobsora to find the perfect job for yourself!
This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
Investing In Your Employees: Valentyn Peltek On The Benefits of Offering Continuous P was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.