Negative results for the Recruitment Confidence Index of the Greek labor market (2nd half of 2011)

According to the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) which is conducted every 6 months by the Applied Research & Innovation Department of ALBA Graduate Business School, 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 81.4) but it is stable comparing to the previous six months results.

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 2011 was conducted in May-June 2011 with the support of ECDL Hellas. 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:

• 34% of the participating companies are expected to reduce the number of their employees in the next 6 months, while only 17.9% will proceed with recruiting new employees
• 50.7% of the participating companies did not proceed with any salary increases during the last 6 months, while 54% stated that they will freeze salaries for the next 12 months. Only the 9.9% of the companies will give salary increases of more than 3%.
• 63.2% of the companies have been affected either a lot or dramatically by the current financial crisis, while only 1.4% state that they have not been affected at all.
• 54.6% of the companies have decreased bonuses, while 41% have reduced employees' 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 (50%).  
• Although the financial crisis has affected most of the companies, one out of two is still optimistic for the future of the company (48%).
• The industry sectors that are expected to increase their recruiting activities (more than 20%) is manufacturing, services, pharmaceuticals and the construction industry. Education, banking retail and tourism sectors seem to be more pessimistic on recruiting new employees.
• The tendency towards recruiting young employees and alumni is still high (32.6%).
• Companies that will employee new personnel will mostly search for Sales, customer service employees, Accounting/Finance executives and IT.
• 60% of the companies prefer personal interviews as the main employee selection tool, while 36.3% 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.
• 55.3% 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 the 50% 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 208 companies that participated in the survey, 51.1% were Greek, whereas 48.9% were multinational.

The collection of data for the 1st half of 2012 will take place during December 2011-January 2012.

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

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