"UNIT.City has become our second home." Stories of Forbes, Yasno, Robota.ua executives who develop business in the innovation space during the war

«Here you can meet the founder of Ajax Oleksandr Konotopskyi or leading developers of modern technologies. A journalist can attend a hackathon and learn a lot of new information»

Forbes Ukraine is a publication that writes, shows and talks about business, investments, technologies, entrepreneurship, and leadership. The Ukrainian version of Forbes magazine has been published since May 2020. Borys Davydenko, editor-in-chief of Forbes, told about how the UNIT.City space helps journalists in their work, how much they earn in the media and who Forbes hires.

Organization of the work of the Forbes team

The Forbes team works in the office at will, mostly employees choose to work from the office two or three times a week, says Forbes Editor-in-Chief Borys Davydenko. There was light in the UNIT.City space during the blackouts of 2022-2023, when there were a lot of people, but everyone managed to find a place. The organization of work at Forbes is digital: twice a week, the team meets to discuss ideas or the issue of the next magazine.

It is not always possible to maintain a work-life balance, as it is not about journalistic work, adds Borys Davydenko. «Events are happening all the time, our task is to identify the main ones for business and understand them in detail and do it faster than our competitors,» he says. The schedule from 9:00 to 18:00 is not even mentioned.

Combating employee burnout

4-6 months after the full-scale invasion, team members were tired, and some journalists spoke of apathy and burnout. Stress, overtime work, deterioration of the financial situation due to the fall in the hryvnia exchange rate — all this had a negative effect on the team, says Davydenko. As a countermeasure, Forbes hired more journalists, raised salaries, and strengthened the editorial team. There was an attempt to involve a psychologist in working with employees, but it did not yield results.

Davydenko emphasizes that editors should talk to their journalists: give feedback on their work, shed light on career prospects, and about their emotional state. In his opinion, Forbes has a culture of mutual respect, so there are almost no conflicts in the editorial office.

The team does not tolerate journalistic dishonesty, such as writing jeans or taking bribes, Boris emphasizes. There were no such cases, but the sanction is unequivocal — dismissal. Forbes does not have a KPI system based on the number of likes or views on the material, the main indicator on which the digital editorial office focuses is the number of subscribers. A paywall has been introduced on the site since December 2023.

«Sometimes a person joins the team, but in the process realizes that he doesn’t really like economic and business journalism. Why torture yourself? You can realize yourself in other types of journalism,» adds Davydenko.

The UNIT.City space simplifies the work of journalists

Forbes pays a market «white» salary to employees, provides health insurance, offers work in a well-equipped office in the UNIT.City space, where there is always light and internet, this is an additional advantage.

Currently, there are five unfilled vacancies in the Forbes editorial office: according to Davydenko, there are few good business journalists on the market. One of the sources of attracting employees is the hiring of young specialists, intensive training so that they become editors in 2-3 years. A business journalist should understand his subject and know how business works, not be afraid of working with numbers and eventually have a pool of contacts willing to discuss market news with him.

About young journalists

Forbes always has a lot of interns, says Davydenko. Especially persistent and talented people can become authors or employees of the publication.

According to the editor-in-chief of Forbes, the salary of a business journalist should be competitive not only and not only with regard to salaries in other media, but should be equal to salaries in related fields: communications, consulting, etc. After the crisis of 2008-2009, since the salary of a journalist was generally lower than the income in PR or communications, the industry lost the lion’s share of understanding people.

«The rate for a full-time journalist at Forbes started in 2024 with 27,000 hryvnias. Experienced reporters and special forces received about $1,000. I would like journalists to earn so much that they don’t think about other jobs, and for this, the media business needs to be developed better,» says Boris.

Approaches to media earning in Ukraine

The media in Ukraine has several ways of making money: a grant approach, making money from advertising and subscriptions. Forbes describes Davydenko as an Affordable Luxury model. «We invest a lot of resources to create quality and business-useful content and sell Forbes content or advertising at the highest possible price,» says Boris.

The main sources of income are events, advertising in the magazine, digital subscription. In 2023, Forbes broke even. «Events are now competing with print advertising for first place in terms of revenue,» adds Boris. Forbes will hold 13 events this year.

According to the editor-in-chief of Forbes, it is almost impossible to build a sustainable media that is completely dependent on grants. First, grant-makers have their own tasks, which do not necessarily coincide with the media audience. Secondly, at any moment, international partners may find a more important stronghold and hope of democracy than Ukraine, and they will go to develop the media there.

«Here you feel part of something bigger than just an office. This is a whole ecosystem that inspires new achievements»

Serhii Kovalenko heads Yasno, one of the leading energy companies in Ukraine. As CEO, he manages business development in the complex conditions of the modern market, implements innovations and shapes corporate culture. We spoke with Serhiy about his working days, his views on the energy sector and the peculiarities of working at UNIT.City

A working day of an energetic CEO

Serhii Kovalenko prefers working in the office. He spends almost 95% of his working time there. In his opinion, personal presence helps to resolve issues faster and communicate more effectively with colleagues.

«When you communicate live, you see the gestures of the interlocutor, his emotions. It helps to better understand each other,» explains the CEO.

The Yasno office is located in the UNIT.City innovation park. Serhiy appreciates this place for its atmosphere and opportunities. He likes to photograph sunsets from the office terrace, admiring the play of light on the glass of nearby buildings.

«UNIT.City has its own special vibe. Interesting companies work here, there is an opportunity for networking. Even just going out for coffee, you can meet someone you know from other companies,» Serhiy shares.

However, he does not impose such an approach on the entire team. About half of Yasno’s employees work remotely or in a hybrid model. Serhiy believes that everyone should choose the most convenient work format for themselves.

The Yasno CEO’s working day is not limited to standard hours. Kovalenko can write to a colleague in the evening if there is an urgent question. At the same time, he tries not to disturb employees without an urgent need during non-working hours.

Serhii does not support the rule «do not write to colleagues after 6:00 p.m.», because, in his opinion, if a person works with an intellectual component, he must be in touch and answer urgent questions. Rework happens, but the company tries to compensate for them with vacations or bonuses. Kovalenko also does not believe in a stable schedule from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., since working hours can fall on an employee for various reasons, besides, this schedule is not set up for working with foreign partners. In his opinion, there should be a reasonable balance in everything.

A special feature of working at UNIT.City is the presence of a bomb shelter equipped with everything necessary. During air alerts, Kovalenko and his team can continue working in safe conditions. This is especially important for an energy company that needs to provide uninterrupted customer service.

Space for innovation and comfort

The Yasno office in UNIT.City is not just a workplace, but a real space for creativity and innovation. Serhii Kovalenko highly appreciates the opportunities provided by this environment.

«We have open spaces, meeting rooms, rest areas. This helps to create a diverse working environment for the different needs of the team,» says Serhiy.

CEO Yasno pays special attention to terraces. They have become a favorite place for informal meetings and discussions. Serhiy believes that such spaces promote creative thinking and help find non-standard solutions.

The office has a gym, which is actively used by employees. Although Kovalenko himself admits that he does not have time to use it, he is glad that the team has such an opportunity to maintain health.

Technical equipment is an important element of the workspace. The Yasno office has backup generators installed to ensure uninterrupted operation even during power outages.

Separately, CEO Yasno notes the atmosphere of UNIT.City. Neighborhood with other innovative companies creates a special environment that stimulates development and exchange of ideas.

«Here you feel part of something bigger than just an office. This is a whole ecosystem that inspires new achievements,» Serhiy shares his impressions.

According to Serhii Kovalenko, this organization of the workspace not only increases work efficiency, but also helps attract and retain talented specialists, creating comfortable and stimulating working conditions for them.

Team as the basis of success

Serhiy Kovalenko is convinced that Yasno’s success is based on a strong team and a healthy corporate culture. He pays great attention to the formation of the team and the creation of a favorable working environment.

The company has a system that allows employees to express their complaints and suggestions anonymously or openly. The CEO personally reads these appeals and considers them an important tool for improving work processes. Complaints are usually about work: an employee thinks he should be paid more, for example.

Serhii believes that there is no sexism or ageism in their company, because every employee can openly express himself if he does not like something. In addition, 86% of the company’s employees are women, even among managers, which is a good indicator among other companies.

Yasno actively supports its employees in difficult times. The company has hired professional psychologists, whose services can be used by all employees free of charge. This initiative turned out to be so popular that it was necessary to increase the number of specialists.

«At first I doubted whether it would be necessary. But practice has shown that people really need such support,» Serhiy admits.

Celebrating success is an important part of Yasno’s corporate culture. Kovalenko encourages the team to celebrate achievements, even small ones. He believes it helps maintain morale and motivation.

At the same time, Serhiy is not a supporter of forced corporate companies. He supports initiatives that come from the employees themselves, and is ready to allocate funds for this.

In difficult situations, when employees feel emotional burnout or have difficult family circumstances, so they want to leave the company, then Kovalenko tries to find an individual approach. He may offer a long vacation or a temporary transfer to a less stressful job to give the person a chance to recover.

«First of all, high-level managers and directors do not have the right to fly like a cuckoo. We monitor this story, conduct surveys of employees about their condition, we have free psychologists within the company, we organize something like corporate parties, for example, swimming on the white flag, we celebrate the company’s achievements together, — says Kovalenko.

This attention to the needs of the team helps Yasno maintain high productivity and maintain a positive atmosphere even in difficult times. You can come to the office even with children or animals. During shelling, it helps employees feel at ease, because the child is nearby and the bomb shelter is equipped. The company has a rule that employees should always go to the vault during an alarm.

«We’d better wait a month or two than lose a valuable employee forever,» believes Serhii.

There are situations when employees come to work with complex emotions, cannot cope with aggression, because there is a war in the country, and emotions can run wild. Sometimes Sergey allows a person to express himself, if he does not go personal.

However, more often he notices apathy or increased and unhealthy productivity in employees than aggression, and with this, in his opinion, only sports and a sense of involvement in some great cause will help.

The company will not fire you for showing emotions at work, but Serhiy stressed that he can fire an employee for lying, when, for example, the employee saw that the project had problems and could fail, but did not say it in time, but then added «I told you «.

«This is a dishonest attitude towards colleagues, so for me it is a lie,» Serhiy said.

You can also be fired from the company for lack of initiative, if the position requires it. However, in general, the company tolerates mistakes, the main thing is to report them and not hide anything.

Technologies at the service of energy

Serhii Kovalenko understands the importance of technological innovations for the development of the energy sector. Under his leadership, Yasno actively implements modern solutions to improve customer service and optimize internal processes.

Serhiy strives for clients to be able to resolve any issue through the website or mobile application without the need to contact the call center.

«Utility is such a story that the client doesn’t have to notice us if he doesn’t want to. We have to be seamless for him,» concludes CEO Yasno.

The company is developing its own development team, which creates key products: a website, a client’s personal account, a mobile application and chatbots for various platforms. Serhiy emphasizes the importance of in-house development for critical systems.

Yasno is experimenting with the use of artificial intelligence in working with clients. However, Serhiy admits that so far the results do not meet expectations.

At the same time, Serhii sees the prospects of using AI for internal processes. For example, to optimize work with customers who have debts. However, in live communication, he prefers people, because people have empathy, so he hopes that this will not change.

Yasno is also implementing new billing, a key system for the energy company. This will make it possible to offer customers more flexible tariff plans and improve the quality of service.

«We want to offer business customers long-term contracts with a fixed price, as it works in Europe. This will help them better plan their expenses,» Serhii explains.

Energy of the future through the eyes of Serhiy Kovalenko

Serhii Kovalenko closely follows trends in the energy market of Ukraine and the world. His view of the future of the industry combines cautious optimism with a realistic assessment of the challenges.

CEO Yasno explains that any energy forecasts are based on two key factors: consumption and generation capacity. Both of these aspects are now difficult to predict due to war and climate change.

Despite the difficulties, Serhiy believes that the electricity deficit in the winter of 2024-2025 will be smaller than last year. However, he urges to prepare for possible disruptions. Everything will depend on the temperature in winter and on the number of shellings and the speed of recovery after them. In autumn, if there is no intense shelling, according to Serhii, there will be no problems with electricity.

Serhiy also draws attention to the importance of balancing the energy system and the development of renewable energy sources. He believes that Ukraine has great potential in this area, which needs to be developed taking into account modern technologies and market needs.

«The shortage of people is the greatest in the 33 years of independent Ukraine. The worst situation for employers»

robota.ua is the largest job and employee search site in Ukraine. The company has been helping Ukrainians to build a career for 24 years. Valery Reshetniak, general director of robota.ua, spoke about the peculiarities of working at UNIT.City, corporate culture and trends in the labor market.

CEO working day

Valery Reshetnyak, CEO of robota.ua, practices a flexible approach to organizing the working day. His schedule depends on current tasks and external meetings. «Sometimes I work in the office two days a week, other days I work from home. Sometimes I spend all five days in the office,» Valery says.

Reshetnyak appreciates the advantages of working in the UNIT.City office. «It is more convenient for me to work in the office. Nothing interrupts here, there is stable light, fresh air, air conditioners are constantly working,» he explains.

CEO robota.ua easily adapts to different working conditions. «I can calmly work for 8 hours in the corner of the coffee shop near the house,» Valery notes. He developed this ability from the days of working in retail. «I managed a network of 200 Allo stores. It was completely remote work,» recalls the CEO.

Valery does not require his employees to be constantly present in the office. «We have employees who are comfortable working at home and those who prefer to work in the office. That’s why I don’t strictly ask people to be in the office full-time,» he explains. This approach makes it possible to create optimal conditions for the productive work of each team member.

Reshetniak emphasizes the importance of face-to-face meetings for effective team work: «That’s why people periodically come to the office just to meet and work together.» This helps maintain team spirit and effective communication between employees.

Corporate values ​​of robota.ua

Robota.ua has an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect. The company has clearly defined values ​​that apply to all employees, including management.

«These are the rules by which everyone in the company works, including me. Our values ​​are group values, because we are part of an international group of companies,» emphasizes Valery Reshetnyak.

The company pays great attention to the emotional state of employees. For this purpose, the position of HR business partner — psychologist was introduced. This specialist monitors the mood in the team and helps managers solve personnel issues. Every month, 15-20 people from a staff of more than 200 employees use its services.

Valery emphasizes the importance of honesty and initiative. He encourages open communication and does not tolerate hiding problems.

The company is categorically against any form of discrimination. «Ageism, sexism, gender discrimination are unacceptable,» Reshetniak emphasizes. Robota.ua values ​​honesty and openness. Valery explains: «If a person meets the prescribed values, he is a member of the team. If not, she will have to leave.»

There was a case at robota.ua when we had to work with a person (team leader, project manager) who behaved inappropriately and said the wrong things. For example, sometimes you could hear sexist expressions from her: «Here I want girls. And it’s better guys!»

Several times she was told: «You shouldn’t do that, it’s unacceptable and some kind of 19th century.» robota.ua is an IT company. This is not a warehouse where you need to have the physiological abilities to carry 40 kg.

As for age restrictions, robota.ua does not have them. According to the CEO, this criterion is not decisive during hiring.

Valery on how to prevent burnout: «I’m generally an advocate for meetings and meetings in the company to be as short as possible, with as few people as possible, and to have them as few as possible.»

Valery is familiar with examples in other companies where people sit on couches until 11:00 p.m. and no longer remember what they started talking about in the morning. The manager believes that this has a very negative effect on the ability to work effectively and leads to burnout.

«We try to resolve all issues during working hours, and 99% of work communication takes place in Slack. Only sometimes there are cases when I can write a private message in the messenger. And this is rather an exception,» Valery emphasizes.

Sometimes, to prevent burnout, you have to «kick» people out on vacation.

«There were cases when a person had 10 days of vacation for 5 years of work. Then we insist that the person go on vacation. Otherwise, a person’s efficiency decreases. And her life turns into a groundhog’s day,» says the CEO of robota.ua.

Working conditions in UNIT.City: office, shared locations, food, sports, security

The Kyiv office of robota.ua is located in the UNIT.City innovation park. Unique conditions for work and business development have been created here. Valery Reshetniak highly appreciates the advantages of this location.

There is a fitness center on the territory. And Valery says that employees use it.

In addition, the modern interior and exterior of UNIT.City helps to cover another need of the robota.ua team. The marketing team regularly conducts photo shoots and filming on the territory of the technology park. You don’t need to go anywhere, you can use available stylish locations for filming.

This helps employees stay in touch with target audiences — job seekers and employers who watch content on the company’s social networks and talk about the cool things robota.ua is doing.

Valery notes that some points in the food sector could be improved.

«It is possible to have something like the „Belly House“ so that people can have a greater choice of where to dine and not for all the money in the world,» he emphasizes. The buffet of the restaurant and cafe, which is on the territory, is not always enough to satisfy all needs.

Valery Reshetnyak separately notes the high level of security in UNIT.City. There is a modern bomb shelter here, equipped with everything necessary for a comfortable stay during air raids.

When the full-scale invasion began, the robota.ua team kept sleeping bags, a supply of food, and working showers in the office. The company was preparing for people to come with their families. And there were even such isolated cases.

«I really like that it’s available to us. And if it is needed again, space for several dozen people is provided,» Valery emphasizes.

robota.ua is a developed IT company

«We are an all-in-one product IT company,» Valery emphasizes.

Robota.ua actually has all IT divisions: frontend, backend, testers, product analysts, product managers, architects, devops and so on. There is also a large sales team.

«In total, there are approximately 200 people in the IT and sales teams,» adds the CEO.

The Sales department is really big — 120 specialists. This is the number of people who can really commercialize the largest job board in Ukraine.

By the way, the company has a separate AI team. And there are quite a lot of artificial intelligence use cases.

For example, you can create a job description using ChatGPT. If you are looking for a barista in Kyiv, you can search the system with two words: barista, Kyiv. And then the user will see the job creation interface and the proposed description. The relevance of the description is approximately 90%. And you don’t even need to log into ChatGPT.

If you are a job seeker, this is also where artificial intelligence comes into play. In the job selection process, it starts recommending the positions that best match the requests. Instead, AI shows the most relevant resumes to recruiters.

«We romantically call these two projects (for searchers and recruiters) Adam and Eve,» says the CEO.

Changes in the labor market in Ukraine during the war: there is a catastrophic shortage of people

Reshetnyak notes the paradoxical situation in the labor market of Ukraine. Despite the decrease in population due to the war, the number of vacancies is increasing. This is explained by the rapid adaptation of business and the phenomenon of Ukrainian «resilience» — developed stress resistance.

When the full-scale invasion began, there was a sharp drop in vacancies in Ukraine. 15 times — if we talk about March 2022. And then for 1.5 years, an increase was recorded every month.

«Since the end of last year, we have had more vacancies than before the full-scale invasion,» Valeriy notes.

And here it is necessary to take into account the fact that the population of Ukraine has decreased by at least 10 million people. And also — a million in the ranks of the Defense Forces.

There were 25 reviews per month for a full-scale job vacancy. Now it’s 10.

And employers are ready to pay for it. «That’s why we have the best financial indicators,» the manager emphasizes.

When the company raises prices for employers, the extra money is reinvested in marketing to attract more new users to the platform. In particular, in advertising campaigns to attract «blue-collar workers» — people of working specialties.

And what about Aitishka?

Meanwhile, a completely different situation is developing in the IT sector. Valery Reshetnyak notes global trends that strongly affect us: an increase in the supply of specialists from Asian countries and a change in demand for certain specialties.

«The demand for the number of Haitians globally is not increasing. Artificial intelligence specialists are needed, but not in such a quantity,» he explains.

In addition, as Valery emphasizes, the global competition for the jobs of Haitians is intensifying.

«All the universities of the world started to graduate software engineers. India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China are millions of new programmers. And they are ready to work for less money,» says the CEO.

Secondly, the great technological revolution, when large companies made their sites, online stores, digitized their processes, moved to the Cloud, has ended. Now the main focus has shifted to artificial intelligence. But this area requires less dev resources. Plus, artificial intelligence is gradually dragging the functionality of non-Jun developers.

The CEO of robota.ua predicts an increase in competition in the labor market of IT specialists, which may lead to a correction of salaries, especially for entry- and middle-level specialists.

When Haitians started leaving, they faced the fact that, for example, in Poland or Romania, the salary for the same job in the same international company may be lower than in Ukraine.

That is why the salary of an Aitian and a non-Aitian in Ukraine will be gradually equalized. In the US, a good sales manager earns $100,000 a year, and a good developer earns from $50,000 a year. «That is, sales earns more than an IT worker,» Valery emphasizes.

Work to win

«Last year, we launched a separate defense.robota.ua website with vacancies for the Defense Forces. We already have more than 600 units there,» says the top manager.

ZSU, NSU, State Border Service, 93 OMBr, «Azov», «Rubizh», «Chartiya» and many others. Each of these structures has dozens of vacancies. In total, more than 4,000 vacancies and approximately 50,000 reviews during the project’s existence.

One of the main trends in the current Ukrainian labor market is military and veterans in the focus of employers. Currently, there are over a million veterans in the base of the Ministry of Veterans. After the end of the war, this figure may reach 3-4 million, which is more than 10% of the country’s population. For our part, we are trying to «bring together» companies that are ready to hire veterans, and veterans themselves. The employer can mark in the vacancy that he prefers a veteran/veteran, and veterans find such vacancies using the appropriate filter.

Within public events organized by robota.ua, we encourage companies to share their own cases of reintegration of veterans. We are not limited only to product business efforts, but also invest in media events, popularize the hiring of veterans among Ukrainian companies.

On the website, we award businesses created by veterans with the «Company created by a veteran» badge. It is primarily received by companies verified by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine. And what is important, we give each of them a bonus — UAH 30,000 for robota.ua services. Now there are about 40 such companies. They are usually small businesses and these funds are enough for them to completely cover their needs.

«For a small business, such an amount is overwhelming,» Valery emphasizes. As of now, the bonus fund for veteran businesses from robota.ua is over UAH 1 million.