Recruitment activity and Salaries continue to be affected by the financial crisis for the 2nd half of 2009

You may download the complete report with the results of the survey, as well as the analysis concerning the effects of the financial crisis here

One out of four companies is expected to reduce its number of employees during the second half of 2009. Stagnancy in all recruiting processes, salary increase from 3 to 6% and fear for the impact of the financial crisis are some of the findings of the Recruitment Confidence Index survey (Δείκτης τάσεων Αγοράς Εργασίας) for the 2^nd half of 2009. The survey is conducted by the Applied Research & Innovation Department of ALBA Graduate Business School. Its main objective is to explore the perceptions and trends regarding recruitment and selection processes over the next 6 months.  The 2^nd round (half) of 2009 was carried out in the time period May-June 2009 with the support of ECDL Hellas, while the Special Theme of the survey titled ‘The Financial Crisis and its Repercussions’ is sponsored by Accor Services. More than 2,400 invitations were sent to HR departments, Recruitment and Selection Managers and CEOs in Greece.

The main findings of the survey are:

• Most of the companies will reduce all recruitment activities, while the demand for their products and services is expected to decline.
• Half of the companies will maintain their number of employees, while 25.3% will downsize. 
• Most of the companies will offer salary increase from 3 to 6%.
• Despite the negative expectations, companies continue to be rather optimistic for the future of their company (67.7%).
• Recruitment activities will be stagnant, especially in the sectors of Tourism, Construction and Manufacturing, while Pharmaceutical and Logistics/Transport companies remain optimistic.
• 30.1% of the companies have been substantially affected by the current financial crisis, while only 4.4% remains intact. However, 37.6% of the companies expect that the crisis will not really affect them in the next six months.
• 44.3% of the companies will cut down in bonus payouts and 34.6% will freeze salaries, while 1 out of 4 companies will invest less in executive education.
• Recruitment activity will mostly take place in the Sales, Customer Service, IT, Marketing, Finance and Accounting positions.
• Job search websites remain the most popular advertising tool for job vacancies. CV databases and word of mouth also remain high in the companies’ preferences. Comparing to last year’s results, the use of newspaper ads show a significant decrease.
• 60.6% of the companies prefer personal interviews as an evaluation and selection method, while 31.4% use other tools such as psychometric tests or assessment centres.
• Recruiters seek competencies such as Communication skills, Teamwork, Customer Service, Motivational skills, Decision Making, Innovation and Leadership skills.
• Most of the companies require basic or advances level of certification of IT knowledge and use, for specific job positions.

From the 226 participating companies, 37.6% have less than 100 employees, whereas 16.4% have more than 1000 employees.

The collection of data for the 1^st half of 2010 will take place during December 2009 -January 2010.

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