Victor Culicovschi: ”Taking Care of Employees - the Key to Business Success”

Moreover, that is because in just a few years he has developed successful businesses in various fields and created over 40 jobs.

Recently, the entrepreneur opened one of the most modern Malls in Cantemir district, where he has concentrated the majority of his production units: the bakery, the meat processing company, the mini textile factory.  With a total area of ​​over four thousand square meters, the Mall offers generous space for other entrepreneurs willing to sell local products in comfortable conditions and at a reasonable price. In fact, for Victor Culicovschi, the support of local producers is not a simple slogan, but a credence and a principle leading to successful business.

"We must offer our consumers quality products, grown in Moldova, thus stimulating the national economy and creating conditions for people to remain at home and have decent work. People and the land are the most important resources of the Republic of Moldova and must be capitalised appropriately", says the entrepreneur.

Since he knows how to attract and deal with the company's employees, the latter reward him with their loyalty. There is practically no fluctuation of staff at his enterprises and this happens in the situation when the Republic of Moldova faces severe shortage of labour force. Even during this period of crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the entrepreneur created 15 jobs, including for four persons with disabilities. How did he achieve this performance?   

"Loyalty can’t be bought, it is won by fair attitude towards employees, attractive salaries and decent working conditions", explains Victor Culicovschi.

Consequently, both parties win: the employees and the employer. As an example, the entrepreneur mentions a case that happened recently at his company, when a new employee, in the security service, in fact, a person with disabilities, revealed a theft scheme from the company's cashier's desk.

"I know how difficult it is for a person with disabilities to find a job. By hiring persons with disabilities, we offer them not only a source of existence, but also the possibility to overcome complexes and to perfectly integrate in the community ", says the entrepreneur.

Victor Culicovschi tells us that Cantemir Employment Office also played an important role in hiring the last 15 persons by helping to obtain state subsidies for hiring the unemployed and providing on-the-job training to some of the employees. The International Labour Organization (ILO) also had an important contribution to the employment of the disadvantaged persons by providing every employed person with subsidies during three months.

By dint of the help provided by the ILO, through Cantemir Local Employment Partnership (LEP), the entrepreneur was able to access funds and purchase a modern video surveillance system for the newly established shopping centre.

Victor Culicovschi is one of the 20 entrepreneurs in Cantemir district receiving assistance from Cantemir Local Employment Partnership (LEP). It was launched earlier this year by the ILO with the financial support of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) from the funds of the Austrian Development Cooperation in order to solve problems of the local labour market, generate jobs and launch new businesses. The implementation of Cantemir LEP provides for the participation of about 15 public and private partners at the national and local levels, including civil society organizations, financial, educational and training institutions, employment service and associations of producers, enterprises and investors.

“In the framework of the Cantemir LEP, Victor Culicovschi benefited from mentorship to develop a businessplan for the expansion and operationalization of his business. With the help of this business plan, the employer also applied to state subsidy programs, and had the opportunity to access the preferential loans offered by the Savings and Loan Association (SLA) for the implementation of the business plan. Subsidizing is a necessary help for the entrepreneurs willing to develop their business and maintain or create jobs, especially in this period of crisis caused by COVID-19", says Angela Danalachi, the head of Cantemir Employment Department.

In addition to these benefits, for each created job, the ILO offered the employer a subsidy amounting to 30% of the average salary in the economy, i. e. over 2400 lei per month, for three months. To get that, the employer had to comply with several conditions: to issue an employment contract for an indefinite period for each employee, to hire unemployed persons registered by Cantemir Employment Department and to pay a decent salary.

Thanks to the success and received support, now Victor Culicovschi wants to expand his business, diversify the range of products, increase the production capacity and even transform the company into an environmentally friendly one. As a start, he plans to install solar panels and use solar energy instead of the traditional one. Moreover, his plans do not stop here: he dreams to launch a business in the fisheries area, build a processing cannery and an organic farm for animal husbandry, which would allow him to get the most out of the harvest of his 100 hectares of land.  All this would allow him to create even more jobs and launch new quality services and goods. The entrepreneur prefers not to talk a lot about his plans, but then to realize them, because, according to him, there is a big market in Moldova, and our consumers deserve the best stuffs.