Greek companies appear relatively optimistic, while recruitment activity remains stable

The Recruitment Confidence Index for the 2nd half of 2008 was relatively decreased according to the results of the survey which is conducted by the ALBA Applied Research & Innovation Department. The survey is conducted every six months and its main objective is to explore the perceptions and trends of the companies regarding their recruitment processes and methodologies for the next six months.

The 2nd round of the Survey was conducted during May-June 2008, with the support of ECDL Hellas and with the collaboration of the Federation of Greek Enterprises (SEV). More than 1900 invitations were sent to companies based in Greece. In total, 227 companies, 65% Greek and 35% multinational, completed the online questionnaire.

According to the survey results, the RCI for the 2nd half of 2008 is 121.5 for all companies' personnel and 113 for specialized employees. The Index has slightly decreased compared to the previous round (124 and 117 respectively).

The main conclusions for the 2nd half of 2008 are the following:

- Companies at their majority are expected to increase their activities of attracting and recruiting new personnel, however, they appear to be less optimistic on employing new personnel during the next six months, compared to last year

- One out of two companies are expected to increase the number of their employees during the next six months (approx. 52.4%), while one out of three will not make any recruitments (33.5%)

- The majority of participating companies (52.8%) expect that salaries will increase more or less equal to the collective employment agreements (4 to 6%). Yet, a respectable percentage of the participating companies (19.9%) expect salaries to increase by more than 6%

- One out of two companies is expected to select young graduates and junior level employees, while one out of three is expected to employ specialized personnel (53.7% and 34.9% respectively)

- Companies are expected to look for new personnel mostly in the fields of Sales, Customer Service, IT, Marketing, Accounting & Finance. It is worth mentioning that there is a decrease in the trend of recruiting people for all companies' departments except for the IT field, where recruitment activities gradually increase 

- However, companies expect difficulties in finding the right people for vacant positions, for the Sales and IT departments
- Companies at their majority appear optimistic for their future (73.2% of the sample) 

- The methods/tools most commonly used by the companies during the process of attracting and selecting new personnel appear to be the job searching websites, the newspaper ads, the internal curriculum vitae databases of the companies, and the internal search methods. There is also a good percentage of companies though, that prefer to use the word of mouth in order to attract new employees

- Certified advanced IT knowledge is considered a key factor for employee selection for positions in the Accounting and Marketing fields

- The construction industry shows fewer recruitment activities, remaining at the same levels as the previous round, whereas a slight decrease can be observed in the Pharmaceutical industry. Tourist companies continue to be optimistic and to present lower numbers of employee turnover. IT companies also expect a slight increase in the difficulty in finding employees. Regarding the banking sector, it is worth mentioning that compared to the previous round, there is a decrease in the number of new employees, and a slight increase in the employee turnover and the difficulties they expect for recruiting new personnel

- There are no significant differences between the responses of the companies based in Attica and the rest of Greece

10.1% of the respondents are companies from the IT and telecommunications sector, 21.1% are manufacturing companies, 15.9% from the services sector, while 19.8% are commercial companies. Representative companies from the banking sector, construction industry, tourism, logistics and media also participated in the survey (percentages varied from 3 to 7.5%). Concisely, 93% of the companies are private, with the vast majority based in Attica (80.4%). Concerning the size of the companies that participated in the survey, 41% are companies with less than 100 employees, 16.3% are companies with 200-499 employees, 16.7% are companies with more than 1000 employees, while 14.5% are companies with 100 to 199 employees.

The collection of data for the 1st half of 2009 will take place during December 2008 -January 2009.

For more information on the survey please contact Mr. Panagiotis Tarsinos, e-mail: [email protected], tel.:  210 8964531.