2011: We hunt for strong and intelligent minds

These people have experience, are competent, professional and their results can be checked out, at least for the key positions. During my career, I’ve often encountered the phenomenon better known as organizational paradox – the bigger the organization gets, more people are hired without a explicit need. One of my comments was that, considering the economical environment, things will have to change. It is not an option to have almost 80% lack of a diagnose and evaluation system in the companies active on the market.
In 2010 we ended up in a completely changed labor market. What’s different? Compared with last years, the companies’ requirements are better set and the available jobs are niche positions. Another aspect to underline is the fact that companies focus more on the quality of services they offer in order to maintain clients and less on getting new ones.


Brief overview: defrosting of the labor market

During the first eight months of 2010, companies assimilated the idea that the economic boom is over and that their growth needs to be rational and well balanced. In the first half of the year the main available positions were the urgent ones such as financial and IT, fields needed no matter the times we are living in.
This was the first sign that companies reevaluated costs, as well as the profile of candidates to be hired. The accent strongly falls on competencies, candidates being closely tested. In addition, a large number of companies hire on a determined period of time, the shift to an undetermined period being done solely after the trial period.  
In 2010 we recruited for middle and top management positions, such as Financial Director and Country Manager, Facility Manager, Property Manager, Collection Manager, Mall Managers. 80% were replacements. At a specialists’ level, approximately 85 per cent of the availabilities were in finances and IT. Once again we underline the need for competences, references form former employers and years spent in a company. For the financial field the openings were diverse, from senior accountants, chief accountants to CFOs. Also consultancy and audit experience jobs had an important percentage. Thus, we can see the tendency for cost efficiency. Regarding financial manager jobs, requirements included good business overview and strategical thinking.  
At an income level, the salaries were mostly stable, without high changes compared to prior years. Employers preferred to let go the inefficient personnel than to lower employees income. When negotiating a wage package, the accent was set more on stability and long term perspectives, than on raises (the employees perspective). Regardless the fact that employers have no pressure to hire on lower positions, for experts and top management things are different: valuable people are still difficult to be attracted.
In IT, the most wanted were experienced programmers, with heavy focus on Java and related technologies. This market continued its development, which is why multinationals decided to grow here, in Romania, at lower costs, without decreasing the quality of products/services.  
Certain similarities exist to the financial area. Some employers took advantage of bankrupt companies in order to attract well prepared and experienced candidates without raising the wage offers.  
Another interesting area in 2010 was the Business Process Outsourcing one. The largest BPOs continued to hire on all levels, offering some sense of stability and balance to the labor market. A characteristic of BPOs is related to the foreign languages an interested candidate must know.  That is why here the offer still surpasses demand. Usually on a top management level, demand is higher than in other fields, due to the special requirements these positions imply.