“The high-tech industry has undergone many changes in recent years, and 2021 was indeed a record year. From the point of view of the State Treasury, we are looking at a medium- and long-term perspective. impacts the industry, but at this stage we do not think there is any reason for further aggressive government involvement, said Sapir Ifergan, Communications Coordinator at the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance, speaking to a panel at Google and Calcalist Startup Week.
Ronit Blayer, Playtika’s vice president of science, also participated in the panel discussion; Hanit Marinov, vice president of marketing at Google; and Adi Gozes, Partner at Entrée Capital.
Startup Week panelists (from left to right) Ronit Blayer, Playtika’s vice president of science; Sapir Ifergan, Communications Coordinator in the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance, Hanit Marinov, Vice President of Marketing at Google; and Adi Gozes, Partner at Entrée Capital
“We believe that there is some correction here, especially after 2021, and I stress that for us it does not change our long-term plans,” Ifergan continued. the amount of qualitative human capital flowing into the industry. Here, too, we are sure that with all the digital trends that are not changing and will not change – you just need to remove barriers to train a high-quality workforce. We don’t think this is any particular cause for concern. “
Are you not afraid that in 2022 there will be a decline in revenues from the high-tech sector?
Sapir Ifergan: “The economy is in a tide and a correction is occurring, this is a natural business cycle and no change in government policy is required.”
In 2022, everything changed, especially when it comes to recruiting talent. How do you see the change?
Adi Gozes: “2021 was an extreme year. The capital flowing into startups in 2021 was two and a half times greater than in 2020 – which means that a lot of money was invested in startups at all stages, and this led to a situation where entrepreneurs could choose a partner with whom they wanted to work. Talents could choose the companies they went to. But today the market is more balanced because there was no balance before. Good people are still in demand. We see employees now finding themselves after layoffs – and their LinkedIn is flooded with offers. ”
There is concern that in difficult times the issue of diversity will become a secondary issue, companies will be geared towards survival. Will the diversity issue suffer?
Gozes: “I don’t see a contradiction in that, diversity doesn’t come at the expense of survival. I think the issue of diversity is deeply entrenched and it starts with education. economically complex. “
Google is more diversity aware and other multinationals are more diversity aware as it is a policy dictated by the organization in advance. How are you working on this problem?
Hanit Marinov: “Diversity is an important issue for the health of the company. This is something that has been proven also in the ability to understand the market, in the ability to create solutions. Besides, diversity is also important to the economy. Google is committed to the continuous development of the startup country. Last February, Google announced a $ 25 million grant that aims to expand the high-tech market by emphasizing diversity. The way we are going to do this is based on three main points – from the moment the student chooses science, then at the junior stage, leaving the university in industries and their ability to integrate into the technology industry – the third issue concerns the training of employees in non-technology solutions. university. These solutions are designed to reach a diverse population and allow a diverse population to enter the tech industry through these gateways. ‘
Diversity is based on three sectors and populations: Arabs, ultra-Orthodox and women. There is no significant change there, is there a way to do more?
Marinov: “We believe that collaboration with non-profit organizations in these three sectors is necessary and each sector has gaps that need to be filled in order to discover talent in the sectors. The combination of the public sector and non-profit organizations can make a difference. Hopefully, we can test models that will be easy for the government to adopt and implement on a large scale. “
How do you deal with the issue of diversity?
Ronit Blayer: “The two years before 2022 were two years of prosperity, an opportunity for the organization to develop an appropriate recruitment and retention strategy. This is what Playtika has been doing for two years – building recruitment tools from a wide market, today we have academies and we recruit juniors we developed tools designed only to identify potential we give employees six weeks of training, learn professions, research the organization, and then complete several months of internships in the workplace and they gain work experience – and only then are they put into work The issue of market change is tactical A healthy looking long term organization must have a long term retention strategy The great resignation we witnessed was that employees did not feel developed, did not make sense and they didn’t feel like they belonged, Playtika is working on it. We are currently training employees, for example through campuses, to get kills that they don’t currently have. “
Does it all work even in times of recession and crisis?
Blayer: “You finally have to look at the long run. Market fluctuations happen all the time. The situation can be reversed. And if a company is consistently pursuing its strategy in an unstable manner, it will not be its stability. Overall, there must be an appropriate strategy in terms of employee training, workforce diversity and investment in employee development ”.
