With an unemployment rate standing at less than 2 percent in Romania’s largest cities, entrepreneurs are facing major challenges in recruiting the right employees. While large companies can provide a generous benefit package and comfortable offices, what startups are bringing to the table are flexible work schemes, fast-paced environments and hopes that some of the initial employees will become rich if they stick around long enough for the company to go big, says Business-Review.eu.
The labour market in Bucharest has overheated, with the unemployment rate having dropped to 1.29 percent as of November 2019, according to data from the Labour Ministry. The Romanian capital generates 25 percent of the country’s annual GDP and hosts the headquarters of some of the largest entrepreneurial companies and multinationals.
For founders looking to grow their startups, there is little room for mistakes as a string of recruitment errors could jeopardize the future of their firm. “For startups, competing with large employers in attracting talents is definitely challenging. Large companies generally have the recruiting power, employee benefits, employer branding strategies and employee motivation initiatives to make themselves very attractive for skilled workers. But what startups lack in terms of size and value proposition they make up through flexibility and a way of working that is better adapted to the new generations of employees that larger companies simply cannot match,” Dan Puica, the CEO of jobs portal BestJobs, told BR.
Vitacom Electronics has around 100 employees and carries out yearly surveys to gauge employee satisfaction and to design its promotion strategy. Aviva Vita, the Romanian company’s PR & Marketing manager, says that the flexible work schedules and the various internal events designed to consolidate teams are things that motivate the staff. Furthermore, the firm is also providing other perks, such as private medical packages and private pension schemes. The company has been able to maintain a stable headcount in the past year. “We also try each year to keep the level of pay in line with the evolution in the areas in which we operate, through various studies, so periodically we upgrade the benefits package for all employees,” the manager told.BR
