Negative results for the Recruitment Confidence Index of the Greek labor market (2nd half of 2012)

According to the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) which is conducted every 6 months by the Applied Research & Innovation Department of ALBA Graduate Business School at American College of Greece, there will be a decrease and stagnancy in the recruiting processes in the Greek labor market for the next 6 months. The Index is appeared to be less than 100 (currently 75.3) similar for the last 3 years.

The main objective of the survey is to explore the perceptions and trends of companies regarding their recruitment processes and methodologies over the next 6 months. The 2^nd round (2^nd half) of 2012 was conducted in June-August 2012 with the support of Peoplecert Group and Kariera.gr More than 2,600 invitations were sent to HR departments, Recruitment and Selection Managers, CEOs, etc. of companies in Greece.

The main findings of the survey can be summarized as follows:

1. 49.3% of the companies are expected to reduce the number of their employees the next 6 months, while 49% of the respondents have already decreased their workforce the last 6 months. Only 9.2% will proceed with recruiting new employees
2. 66.4% of the companies have been affected either a lot or dramatically by the current financial crisis, while only 0.7% state that they have not been affected at all.
3. Although the financial crisis has affected most of the companies, one out of two is still optimistic for the future of the company (48.3%)
4. 49.7% will reduce employees' executive training.  
5. The only two industry sectors that are expected to increase their recruiting activities (more than 20%) are the manufacturing and the pharmaceuticals sector. Education, Media, and Logistics sectors will show zero activities for recruiting the next 6 months.
6. The tendency towards recruiting young employees and alumni is higher than the rest (29.4%).
7. Companies that will employee new personnel will mostly search for Sales, customer service employees, production and Accounting/Finance executives.
8. 49.7% of the companies prefer personal interviews as the main employee selection tool, while 34.3% of the companies employ other tools as well, such as psychometric tests and skill test (PC, language tests). Job Searching Websites is still the most popular method of finding new employees
9. 58.6% of the companies consider a postgraduate degree as a crucial prerequisite for the selection of new personnel. 
10. The majority of the companies believe that it is important to have a certificate of PC knowledge, English or other professional skills, while the 30% of the respondents stated that they publish job ads for secretaries, IT and accounting employees, where they specifically ask for PC knowledge certificate.

The collection of data for the 1^st half of 2013 will take place during December-January 2013. You may download the complete report with the results of the survey, as well as the analysis concerning the repercussions of the financial crisis (special theme) here

For more information on the survey contact Ms. Zoe Kourounakou, e-mail: [email protected], tel.: 210 8964531.