PwC: staff restructuring continued within the private sector

The employment contracts’ termination rate in Romania (both voluntary leaves as well as lay-offs) was 16.4% last year, according to the PwC Saratoga 2014, 0.2% higher than the previous edition. This figure is slightly above the CEE average (14.9%) and the European average (14.3%).

“Although we see a reduction in termination rate for blue-collar workers, there was an increase of this rate for administrative staff, highlighting employers’ pressure on the support departments. Also, taking into account the decrease in external recruiting rate (from 14.1% to 11.9%) we see the continuation of employers’ efforts to optimize the personnel scheme, according to the new corporate mantra “do same with less”, stated Horaţiu Cocheci, Senior Manager, Leader of the Human Resources Consulting Services, PwC Romania.

Looking from a sector perspective, a higher than average rate is noticed in retail (a sector that has traditionally a large employee turnover), as well in the FMCG sector (8% higher than last year), which underlined the massive personnel restructurings that took place in this sector lately. On the other hand, in the pharma and industrial production sector, the employee turnover was below market average.

Another characteristic of the recession and post-recession period is an increase in work absenteeism. Although Romania remains below European average when it comes to work absenteeism, there an increase from 1.5% to 2.4%, especially amidst specialists (from 2% to 2.4%) and blue-collar workers (from 2.6% to 3.1), especially in the FMCG sector.