Optimistic signs from the Greek labor market

The results of the first round of the RCI survey have just been announced. The main objective of the survey is to explore the perceptions and the trends of the companies regarding their recruitment processes and methodologies for the next six months.

The main conclusions from the first round are the following:

• Companies are expected to increase their activities of attracting and recruiting new personnel
• The majority of participating companies consider that salaries increase will be more or less equal to the collective employment agreements. Yet, a respectable percentage of the participants (28%), expects salaries to be increased more than 6%.
• The percentage of the companies that are expected to select young graduates / junior level employees, as well as mid-level personnel is very high.
• The companies, at their majority, appear optimistic for their future and their financial results.
• The methods/tools most commonly used by the companies during the process of attracting and selecting new personnel appear to be the curriculum vitae database of the company, as well as the job searching web sites. There is a good percentage of companies though that prefer the word of mouth technique in order to find employees. 
• Recruitment Managers prefer candidates with certified advanced knowledge of IT and give emphasis on the Communications and Decision Making skills of the potential employees.

More than 1500 invitations were sent to companies (e-mail and fax). In total, 180 companies, 56% Greek and 44% multinational, completed the online questionnaire. The 10% of the respondents are companies from the telecommunication and transportation sector, the 19% are manufacturing companies, the 42% provide services, while the 22% of the companies are commercial. Concisely, the 96% of the companies were private, with the vast majority based in Attica. Concerning the size of the companies that participated in the survey, the 22% were large companies (200-499 employees), followed by a 20% percentage of companies with a number of personnel between 25-99, and a percentage of 18% of companies with more than 1000 employees.

The survey will be conducted every six months and results will be published in the Greek media. The collection of data for the 2nd round of the survey (2nd semester) will take place during the period May-June 2007. (You may download the complete report with the results of the survey here).

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