BestJobs Survey: Employers expect employees to quickly learn new skills and be willing to take on new tasks. Wages remain at a level similar to the period before the pandemic

Three out of five Romanian employers (58.2%) expect that in this difficult period, generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, employees will quickly develop new skills, such as digital ones, according to a survey conducted by the recruitment platform BestJobs, and another almost 51% rely on the availability of employees to take over other responsibilities than those in the job description.

Compared to the previous Covid-19 period, for 44.5% of companies, now, the flexibility of those in the team on taking over the responsibilities is especially important, while 36% of employers expect them to be more adaptable to the changes in  the company. In fact, 40% of the companies responding to the BestJobs survey say that they keep the team intact in the next period, while 27% talk about activity restriction and layoffs of up to a maximum of 10% of staff.

Regarding the evolution of the number of employees since March, since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, and until now, almost two thirds of the surveyed companies (64%) say that they have kept the same number of employees or even increased the team. (18%) amid the growth of certain activities in the company.

Regarding the evolution of the number of employees since March, since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, and until now, almost two thirds of the surveyed companies (64%) say that they have kept the same number of employees or even increased the team. (18%) amid the growth of certain activities in the company.

Among the candidates for new positions, the main skills and competencies that companies are looking for and that they place more emphasis on are adapting to the current context of the labor market and the company (64.54%), ease of integrating faster in the team , in the context of limiting social interaction (53%), flexibility in terms of location, from the company or at home (31%), but also entrepreneurial skills (28%) or new skills (21%).

Job interviews are also conducted mainly online (70%), and in this context Romanian employers note that the interest of candidates has increased, being registered with up to 48% more job applications, compared to January-March.

Wages remain at a level similar to the period before the pandemic

In the most complicated period since the financial crisis of 2009, 57% of companies say that the salary level has been maintained, compared to the period before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, more than half of the companies say that they will not add new extra-salary benefits during this period, while 12% of the respondents offer employees new benefits, such as coaching sessions for personal and professional development.

The survey was conducted between October 1-22, 2020, on a sample of 220 small, medium and large companies in Romania.