The labor market situation is systematically improving from the point of view of employees: half of Polish companies are planning pay raises and the percentage of enterprises forecasting employment growth has increased, as indicated by the results of the 44th edition of the Employer Plans survey conducted by the Randstad Research Institute and Gfk Polonia, published on 14 December. The survey also shows that entrepreneurs assess their financial situation better and the vast majority of employers plan to return to stationary work. The mood among employers is also supported by the relatively good condition of enterprises.
However, record pay rises may result from the wage pressure caused by rising inflation, as well as recruitment challenges that companies will face in the first half of 2022.
Almost every second surveyed company plans a raise in the new year. This is a record result – the same level has only once been noted in the history of the study (at the beginning of 2020). It is also a record increase compared to the previous survey, as the percentage of companies declaring a raise increased by 27 percentage points. Employee salaries will increase by 2-7%.
The financial conditions of employees is set to improve in over half of enterprises in the following sectors: real estate services, modern SSC/BPO business services, finance and insurance and logistics.
Salary increases will most often be recorded in rural areas outside agglomerations and least frequently in the largest cities. Employees from the northern region (the Pomorskie and Zachodniopomorskie voivodeships) most often expect wage increases.
Plans to increase wages and salaries are to a large extent related to a better assessment of the financial situation by enterprises. The percentage of employers who assess their financial conditions at least as good is now 66%. Moreover, the share of entrepreneurs in a bad or very bad financial situation is minimal.
Another reason for wage increases may be the challenges of filling vacancies in companies. The survey shows that for the first time in two years, about 1/3 of the companies participating in the survey plan new recruitments. As many as 40% of companies from the sectors of transport, logistics and industry said they will be looking for new people to work. The next sectors in the list are: construction companies and companies dealing with modern business services.
Recruiting difficulties may also be the reason why the number of companies employing workers based on the minimum wage is declining. The percentage of those enterprises in which more than half of the team receives the minimum wage has also clearly decreased.
Compared to last year, the percentage of enterprises which, due to the increase in the minimum wage, will limit the wage growth of other employees or refrain from investing is clearly decreasing.
Due to the necessity to raise salaries, employment cuts are most often planned in the financial and insurance industries as well as by real estate and other companies. Increases in the minimum wage primarily translate into the prices of goods and services, which more than half of the surveyed companies plan to raise.
Return to stationary work
The latest Randstad survey also shows that more than 80% of companies have recently fully returned to stationary work.
The trend is as follows: the fewer employees employed in the company, the more of them returned to their jobs. Return to stationary work is most visible among entrepreneurs employing up to 50 people. In turn, the greatest differentiation can be seen in companies employing over 250 people, of which more than half work fully stationary, nearly 40% of employees perform their duties remotely, and the rest hybrid.
The research also indicates that in the case of the hybrid mode, the most popular model is where employees stay in the office for three days and work two days from home.
Enterprises in cities with a population of up to 20,000 plan to fully return to stationary work.
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