Rijeka Gateway wins Grand Prix at Adriatic HR Awards
Rijeka Gateway has won the Grand Prix at the Adriatic HR Awards, the top award for the best corporate project in the field of human resources. The Adriatic HR Awards recognise the best HR projects and initiatives from Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and are presented as part of HR.Weekend.
The “People Who Move the Terminal” project earned Rijeka Gateway the highest recognition among all projects submitted from Croatia. The project focused on building an entirely new team that last year launched the most technologically advanced terminal in the region.
A total of 58 submitted projects were evaluated by a regional expert jury of ten members against three key criteria: strategy, execution, and results. In addition to the winners in individual categories, a Grand Prix is awarded for each country to the project achieving the highest overall score across all categories.
The Grand Prix was accepted on behalf of Rijeka Gateway by Dunja Kordić, Recruitment Specialist, who was one of the key people involved in recruiting the new team.
“Reaching the final was already a major achievement for us, given the exceptionally strong competition. Of course, we hoped for a good result, but we genuinely did not expect to win, let alone receive the Grand Prix. That makes this a wonderful surprise and an even greater recognition for us. We are extremely grateful and proud, as this award belongs to the entire HR team, to all recruitment leaders and to all our colleagues who contributed to the recruitment process and to preparing our people for the opening of the terminal and the start of operations. Our task was not simply to recruit a large number of people in a short period of time. It was about finding people with potential, developing the knowledge and competencies they needed, and building together a team ready to operate a completely new terminal. This award is confirmation that we did a good job, but it also gives us great encouragement for everything that lies ahead.”
The Rijeka Gateway terminal began operations in September 2025, following an intensive period of recruitment and training. In the initial phase, more than 300 people needed to be recruited, while the skills required for a number of specialised operational roles were not available on the local labour market at the scale required.
During 2025, between 1,300 and 1,500 interviews were conducted, between 2,500 and 3,000 CVs were reviewed, and a total of 130,000 training hours were completed. The process included cooperation with schools and universities, targeted recruitment campaigns, and innovative selection methods, including practical assessments of prospective crane operators using simulators.
By the end of 2025, Rijeka Gateway employed approximately 380 people, around 330 of whom had joined the company during that year. Today, Rijeka Gateway employs 422 people.