The crisis continues to affect the Recruitment Confidence Index

According to the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) survey, which is conducted every 6 months by the Applied Research & Innovation Department of ALBA Graduate Business School, recruiting processes in the Greek labor market will decrease in the next 6 months. The Index is negative (less than 100), currently 80.1, but remains stable compared to the previous semester.

The main objective of this survey is to explore the perceptions and trends of companies regarding their recruitment processes and methodologies over the next 6 months. The 1^st round (1^st half) of 2011 was conducted in December - January 2011 with the support of ECDL Hellas while the special event was sponsored by Continental tyres. The survey was sent to more than 2,600 HR departments, Recruitment and Selection Managers, CEOs, etc. of companies in Greece.

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

• 33.5% of the participating companies are expected to reduce their personnel in the next 6 months (the percentage is reduced compared to the previous round of the survey), while only 13.2% will proceed with recruiting new employees
• 43.4% of the companies did not proceed with any salary increases during the last 6 months, while 52% stated that they will freeze salaries for the next 12 months. Only 8% of the companies will give salary increases of more than 3%.
• 52.4% of the companies have been affected either a lot or dramatically by the current financial crisis, while only 1.8% state that they have not been affected at all.
• 56.8% of the companies have decreased bonuses, while 36.7% have reduced employee executive training during the last six months. The same trends are expected for the next six months and education is expected to be negatively affected (36%).  
• Although the financial crisis has affected most of the companies, one out of two is still optimistic for the future of the company (53.5%).
• The only industry that is expected to increase recruiting activities is construction, in particular, renewable energy companies, IT sectors and Telecommunication, as well as the services sector. The  Retail and Education sectors seem to be more pessimistic regarding recruitment, while  banking and logistics show a decrease. The manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors, on the other hand, will slightly increase their recruitment processes.
• The tendency towards recruiting young employees and alumni is still high during this round of the survey (36.7%).
• Companies that will employee new personnel will mostly search for Sales, Accounting/Finance executives, IT and customer service employees.
• 50.2% of the companies prefer personal interviews as the main employee selection tool, while 31% of the companies employ other tools as well, such as psychometric tests and assessment centres. Job Searching Websites is still the most popular method of finding new employees.
• 61% of the companies consider a postgraduate degree as a crucial prerequisite for the selection of new personnel. 
• The majority of the companies believe that it is important to have a certificate of PC knowledge, English or other professional skills, while 40% of the respondents stated that they publish job ads for secretaries, IT and accounting employees, where they specifically require certificate of PC knowledge.

From the 224 companies that participated in the survey, 51.1% were Greek, whereas 48.9% were multinational.

The collection of data for the 2nd half of 2011 will take place during May-June 2011.   

Download the complete report here

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.