Optimism in the Labor Trends for 2014

According to the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) which is conducted annually, by the Applied Research & Innovation Department of ALBA Graduate Business School at American College of Greece, there will be a slight increase in the recruiting activities in the Greek labor market in 2014, since there is a great increase to the index compared to previous 6 months. The Index is more than 100 for the first time after 5.5 years (currently 109.81) and it is close to the levels of 2008.

The main objective of the survey is to explore the perceptions and trends of companies regarding their recruitment processes and methodologies until the end of the year. The RCI 2014 was conducted in February-May 2014 with the support of Kariera.gr. More than 2,000 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. Only 14% of the companies are expected to reduce the number of their employees until the end of 2014, while 28.9% of the respondents decreased their workforce the last 6 months. However, 41.5% will proceed with recruiting new employees
2. 57.8% of the companies have been affected either a lot or dramatically by the current financial crisis, while only 2.2% state that they have not been affected at all.
3. Although the financial crisis has affected most of the companies, companies feel optimistic for their future
4. 25% will reduce employees' executive training.  
5. The industry sector that is expected to increase their recruiting activities (60%) is the services sector. Construction, Tourism and Pharmaceuticals also expect increase in recruiting.
6. Recruiting young employees and alumni is higher than the rest (49.6%).
7. Companies that will employee new personnel will mostly search for Sales, customer service employees, marketing and IT executives.
8. 63% of the companies prefer personal interviews as the main employee selection tool, while 26.7% of the companies employ other tools as well, such as psychometric tests and skill test (PC, language tests) 16.7% respectively. Job Searching Websites is still the most popular method of finding new employees. Social Media though, as a recruiting tool, have increased substantially the last two years.
9. Since 2009, one out of two companies decreased salaries up to 5%, 38% of the companies decreased salaries 5-20%, while the 14% decreased them more than 20%.
10. 72.7% of companies recruit employees with new salaries (20% less than 2008)
11. 55.3% of companies would like to bring back salaries in same levels as before the financial crisis. They don’t know when. Only 10%intends to do so in the next two years.
12. Companies have managed to decrease operational costs and increase profit levels, by decreasing the salaries, however, employees’ loyalty and efficiency have been negatively influenced.
13. One out of two companies tried to balance the decrease in salaries with other benefits and practices such as: company celebrations and rewarding events, group benefits such as private health insurance, training programs, e-ticket gifts, positive psychology courses and community activities (charities, volunteerism etc)

For more information on the survey please visit:  www.alba.edu.gr/rci , or contact Ms. Zoe Kourounakou, e-mail: [email protected] , tel.: 210 8964531.