If you’re in the real estate industry, you’ve probably heard of Bonard. Since 2007, it has been providing independent data, research and advice in the area of real estate investments. Investors, banks, funds, asset managers, developers and operators can benefit from tailor-made services to support their investment decisions.
With accurate, transparent and systematic mapping, experts at Bonard make it easier to make decisions about investment opportunities located in sectors such as student housing, co-housing, serviced apartments, build-to-let, senior housing and more.
At Bonard, they will help you identify the highest potential markets based on demand and supply, attractive and achievable rent and internal rate of return. It will also advise you on how to improve occupancy rates and tenant satisfaction based on independent customer surveys.
However, the company is not only dedicated to real estate, but also to international education and global mobility of students. It also cooperates with global institutions, associations, universities or language schools.
HR at Bonard
Although Bonard offers its services on all continents except Africa, the core of the company consists of two branches in Slovakia. The company has a broad organizational structure, which consists of around a hundred employees with different types of employment and with different forms of attendance. Some work in hybrid mode, others fully remote. Abroad, the company only has representatives in Kyiv and China.
The HR agenda is taken care of by HR manager Magdalena Bryndzova, whose main mission is now to set up the right processes and automate as many activities as possible within the HR agenda.
„When I joined, most of the communication and agenda took place via e-mail, sharing excels or sharing files. The only gadget here was a system for electronic signatures of documents,“ Bryndzova describes the initial situation.
And it was necessary to find a replacement for this solution. As the manager knew that it would be good to digitize other processes and remotely manage, for example, attendance in addition to signatures, she decided to look for an HRIS.
Sloneek on stage
What played a role in choosing an HR system? Sloneek was won over by Bonard primarily due to the system’s complexity and simplicity. They liked the offer of individual modules that cover the entire journey of an employee from his recruitment to his departure, so that all employee and hiring agendas can be managed from one place.
“What we liked about Sloneek is that it’s still being worked on and it’s a system that’s constantly evolving and has new features. And, of course, a good feeling about customer communication also played its role, because that is also very necessary. I don’t want to wait 14 days for an answer or advice,“ adds Magdalena Bryndzova.
„We are pleased that Bonard’s customers are satisfied with the customer support. When choosing any tools, the support options are sometimes underestimated and then users are unpleasantly surprised. But through customer support, we get much-needed feedback, thanks to which we can constantly improve the system,“ comments Milan Rataj, founder of Sloneek.
System implementation
The actual implementation of the system then allegedly took 14 days. The situation was partly complicated by the transfer of employee data from the existing system to the new one. So in the end the HR manager had to enter them into the system manually.
“While the whole process went very quickly, the data transfer was a bit cumbersome. In the end, I had to fill in the information manually, which certainly caused a few errors,“ Bryndzova describes the introduction of the system. However, she boasts that she has always had willing support at hand, whether in the form of a customer manager, in the form of a chatbot or a knowledge base.
Therefore, Sloneek primarily began to serve as an overview of employees, the team and the organizational structure. And also as a company wiki. As a further step, the company wants to start using the attendance system.
Electronic signatures and more
How satisfied are they after a year at Bonard? Even though Sloneek brought a lot of changes to the company, which not only the management but also the employees had to get used to, according to the HR manager, the first benefit can already be seen.
„In addition to the system that will allow us to electronically sign documents, we have acquired other useful functions. I can easily export data for accounting, I and the employees receive reminders, so I don’t have to carry everything in my head,“ lists Magdalena Bryndzova.
Employees praise the user-friendly interface and functionality of the application as well as its playful style. „When we manage to implement attendance, I think we will be even more satisfied. I will have less work and employees will have an overview of their holidays directly on their mobile phones,“ she concludes.
