Greece’s economic crisis is putting a crimp in recruiting workers, especially in an economy with nearly 24 percent unemployment, according to the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) which is conducted every six months by the Applied Research & Innovation Department of ALBA Graduate Business School.
That showed there will be a decrease in finding skilled people. The main objective of the survey is to explore the perceptions and trends of companies regarding their recruitment processes and methodologies
The survey, done of the second half of 2011, was conductedwith the support of ECDL Hellas. More than 2,600 invitations were sent to Human Resource departments, Recruitment and Selection Managers, CEOs, etc. of companies in Greece.
The main findings of the survey were that:
- 34% of the participating companies are expected to reduce the number of their employees in the next six months, while only 17.9% will proceed with recruiting new employees
- 50.7% of the participating companies did not give any raises during that period, while 54% stated that they would freeze salaries for the next 12 months. Only 9.9% of the companies will give salary increases of more than 3%
- 63.2% of the companies have been affected by the financial crisis, while only 1.4% stated that they have not been affected
- 54.6% of the companies have decreased bonuses, while 41% have reduced employees’ executive training. The same trends are expected for the next six months and education is expected to be negatively affected (50%)
- Although the financial crisis has affected most of the companies, one out of two is still optimistic for the future of the company (48%).
- The industry sectors that are expected to increase their recruiting activities (more than 20%) are manufacturing, services, pharmaceuticals and the construction industry. Education, banking retail and tourism sectors seem to be more pessimistic on recruiting new employees
- The tendency towards recruiting young employees and alumni is still high (32.6%)
- Companies that will employ new personnel will mostly search for sales, customer service employees, accounting/finance executives and IT
- 60% of the companies prefer personal interviews as the main employee selection tool, while 36.3% of the companies employ other tools as well, such as psychometric tests and assessment centers. Job Searching Websites are still the most popular method of finding new employees
- 55.3% of the companies consider a post-graduate degree a crucial prerequisite for the selection of new personnel.
- The majority of the companies believe it is important to have a certificate of PC knowledge, English or other professional skills, while the 50% of the respondents stated that they publish job ads for secretaries, IT and accounting employees, where they specifically require certificate of PC knowledge.
Of the 208 companies that participated in the survey, 51.1% were Greek, whereas 48.9% were multinational. The collection of data for the 1st half of 2012 will take place during December 2011-January 2012. The complete report and results can be downloaded, as well as the analysis concerning the repercussions of the financial crisis here.
(Source: alba.edu.gr)
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