This is one of the key conclusions of the latest ManpowerGroup Bulgaria study which makes an analysis of the measures employers took during the crisis COVID-19 situation, the changes of the daily business processes and their impact on employees in different industry sectors.

According to the survey results a large number of employers reduced corporate spending during the crisis by lowering wages, canceling additional social benefits and enforcing mandatory unpaid leaves. However, this was not the most popular approach. Almost 51% of the surveyed employees share that the company they work at did not cut staff benefits, more than 61% of the employers kept the pay levels and just 17% resorted to unpaid leaves.

‘Some of the canceled additional incentives resulted from the long period of home-based work for many of us as it did not require to cover costs for public transport, fuel vouchers, office catering and similar,’ said Gerasim Naydenov, Market Research consultant, ManpowerGroup Bulgaria. ‘On the other hand, merely 19% of the respondents say that their employers reduced the salary levels, however, this happened in the most affected sectors during the crisis such as Tourism and Restaurants, Wholesale and Retail trade and Manufacturing. Regarding roles and industries where there is still a severe shortage of skilled talent such as the information technologies sector, wages did not stop rising during the pandemic.’

In addition, 39% of the surveyed employees expect their employers to hire more human resources as a result of the increased workload during the pandemic, most notably in the IT, Healthcare and Pharma and Transport and Logistics sectors.

Last but not least, almost half of the respondents approve of the measures their employers took in the crisis situation, showing greatest satisfaction with the provision of protective equipment such as masks, gloves and disinfectants (79%), home-based work opportunities and flexible working hours (69%), and professional development programs such as counseling and trainings (50%).

‘The fact that two-thirds of the Bulgarian employees would recommend their company as an employer of choice is a clear sign that businesses took adequate measures for their talents during the most difficult moments. Skills shortages and the rapidly changing business needs forced many companies to develop flexible strategies in order to build and position their image as employers of choice while applying non-traditional solutions for work process organization with the individual needs and specifics of every single employee taken into consideration,’ added Maria Stoeva, Business Development manager.

ManpowerGroup Bulgaria survey of COVID-19 induced business trends was conducted from the end of December 2020 to the end of January 2021 as an inquiry comprised of 16 questions with a representative sample of 217 employees at different hierarchical levels in companies from 13 industry sectors across the country.

About ManpowerGroupBulgaria

ManpowerGroup Bulgaria is part of ManpowerGroup South-East Europe Cluster and one of the leaders on the Bulgarian market in contingent and permanent recruitment solutions, staff assessment, RPO and career consulting. With branches in Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas and Varna, ManpowerGroup Bulgaria has been providing organisations in the country with a continuum of staffing solutions for 12 years now, working with businesses from all industry sectors and giving them access to the people they need. In 2019 ManpowerGroup Bulgaria received special award “Recruitment Company with the Biggest Contribution to the Industry” from Automotive Cluster Bulgaria. Please find more information about ManpowerGroup Bulgaria at www.manpower.bg.