Randstad: The “most attractive” Greek employers for 2022

Papastratos has emerged, for the second consecutive year, as the most attractive employer for 2022, according to the latest Employer Brand survey conducted for the fifth time by Randstad in Greece. The top three include ION, which rose from third to second place, and LAMPSA Hotels, which is for the first time in the top ten most attractive employers in Greece, occupying the third position.

The most attractive employers for 2021, emerged on the basis of criteria such as attractive wages and benefits, a pleasant working environment, career development opportunities provided to employees, long-term job security and work-life balance.

The Randstad Employer Brand (REBR) Survey is the most comprehensive and independent employer image survey with more than 163,000 participants in 31 countries worldwide, evaluating a total of 5,900 companies. It is the most detailed such research in the world, which studies the attractiveness of the largest companies in terms of staff, as perceived by the general public, as well as the criteria of preference of potential candidates for a new employer.

For Greece, the survey is conducted for the fifth consecutive year, evaluating a sample of the 150 largest companies in terms of personnel numbers. This year ‘s survey involved 3,547 people, including Greek students, employed persons and the unemployed, aged 18 to 65, while the interviews were conducted online in January 2022. As part of the survey, points are made regarding the criteria for selecting an employer, reasons for staying and changing work environment, the industries that record the best performance and the evaluation of employers.

The importance of employer branding

Employer branding is emerging as an extremely important factor in the performance of companies to attract and retain significant human resources, while recognizing the levels of commitment of their employees. After all, the more consistent companies are in fulfilling their promises, the more the confidence of human resources increases.

By cultivating a strong image as an employer, Greek companies highlight those values ​​that can inspire their human resources to be satisfied and dedicated. This is the result of the implementation of a strategy that satisfies a network of factors, while achieving a reliable and responsible corporate image to the personnel and the public, as well as a strong connection of employees’ personal values ​​with the corporate culture.

In 2022, attractive salary and benefits remain the most important factor for choosing an employer in Greece, with the highest percentage being recorded among women, aged 55-64, and employees with a higher level of education. However, despite the importance of wages and benefits in business attractiveness, current employers receive a moderate to low rating on these factors. This is especially true among workers aged 35-54, who are less satisfied with pay and benefits.

Second and third among criteria for choosing an employer appear the pleasant working environment and the possibility of career development, factors that remain important for employees in Greece, but not for employers, who are ranked low by employees regarding these criteria.

Looking for a new employer: 1 in 5 employees is willing to change work environment

The labor market shows significant mobility in 2022, with 13% of employees in Greece changing employer in the last half of 2021 (compared to 9% in the previous year), with employees aged 18-34 (17%) and employees with a higher level of education (13%) recording the most frequent change in work environment.

As in the previous year, 22% of employees stated that they intend to change employer in the first 6 months of 2022, with women (24%) and those aged 18-34 (26%) having the highest mobility intention.

Office workers show a declining trend of job change intention (18% compared to 20% in 2021), while technical and manual workers are showing the opposite trend, with 20% saying they are willing to change employer in the first half of 2022, a percentage 4% higher compared to a year ago (16%). 34% of workers who do not feel safe at work plan to change jobs in the first half of 2022 (29% in 2021), while 12% of workers who feel safe at work intend to change jobs during the same period (10% in 2021).

Vocational training and career development opportunities

Professional development is today crucial for retaining and attracting new talent, but also crucial for the development of the labor market itself.

For another year, career development opportunities are important for the majority of employees in Greece (77%), with the lowest percentages being recorded at the ages of 55-64 (64%) and middle-level employees (74%), while office workers (78%) consider professional development more important compared to employees of technical specialties and manual professions (69%). It is worth noting that the high percentage recorded among Greek workers is far from the European average, with only 59% of European workers believing that their career development is very important to them.

The vast majority of employees (85%) consider it very important to receive the opportunity to develop skills (reskilling / upskilling), with the highest percentages being recorded among women (89%) and employees with a high level of education (86%). In fact, these two categories are more willing to stay in their jobs if reskilling / upskilling opportunities are provided by their employers, which demonstrates the great importance of creating and implementing skills development programs.

Popular job search channels.

According to the survey, 39% of Greeks use personal contacts / referrals while looking for a new work environment, while the second place is occupied by job advertisement websites (30%). 23% said they were looking for the information they wanted through Google, with  21% also seeing social media as equally valuable job search tools at..

Balance between professional – personal life

For almost 4 in 10 Greeks (37%) the meaning of work became (much) more important in 2021, compared to 26% of the average in Europe, with only 18% of the workforce feeling that the meaning of work has become (much) less important. The general attitude of employees towards work has become more positive for 3 out of 10 employees (32%), with 23% of employees in all age groups appearing more negative towards work.

Undoubtedly, the health crisis contributed to this, by pushing flexibility in terms of working space and hours, with 26% of workers in Greece working from home compared to 38% of workers in Europe, a percentage that for the Greek market decreased by 21% compared to the previous year. As confirmed by the findings of the Randstad Employer Brand survey, 98% of employees working remotely will continue the same work model in the future while the majority of employees working remotely believe that they will continue in the same work model in the future, even with part-time work from home.

Work-life balance continues to be a dynamic criterion for employees, with salary protection, career advancement and flexible working conditions being the key to achieving a better work-life balance.

Working flexible hours has been adopted mainly by employees aged 18-24 (33%) and freelancers (38%). Remote work is mainly for employees with a high level of education (20%) and employees aged 35-54 (19%) and 55-64 (26%). 23% of employees state that they did nothing to improve the balance between work and personal life, which is especially true for employees aged 35-54 (27%) and 55-64 (32%).

The top 10 most attractive employers in Greece for 2021
1. Papastratos AVES

2. ΙΟΝ Α.Ε. COCOA & CHOCOLATE

3. LAMPSA Hotels

4. Hellenic Supermarkets Sklavenitis SA

5. E.I. PAPADOPOULOS SA

6. Greek Petroleum

7. VIANEX

8. Atlantica Hotel Management

9. ELPEN Pharmaceutical

10. National Bank of Greece