Continued hesitation in granting HR a strategic role

The key finding indicates that salary demands continue to be the primary hurdle for companies experiencing recruitment challenges, according to misco’s most recent annual HR survey.

At the same time, 36% of respondents said that staff turnover was higher than that experienced in recent years. To address the issue of staff retention, employers are not only employing foreign workers but also increasing remuneration packages to match the remuneration offered by their competitors.

“Obviously, besides the increase in price inflation that we are currently experiencing, the increase in wages to retain people and attract talent are combined factors that are also leading to wage inflation,” states Joanne Bondin, Director at misco.

misco’s annual Survey on HR Developments in Malta, now in its tenth edition has just been published in collaboration with the Malta Employers Association.

“The HR function continues to be critical for businesses in helping them manage employees, address staff retention and increasing salary demands. However, despite the imminent emphasis on staff retention as the paramount objective for the upcoming twelve months, the broader management team continues to show reluctance in assigning HR a more strategic role and remains resistant to embracing sound HR practices,” points out Joanne Bondin.

“The report is also showing us how whilst the issue of salary demands is by far the key challenge for 75% of HR practitioners, fewer employers are implementing family-friendly measures,” she added.

According to misco’s report, 54% of HR practitioners find the most difficulty in recruiting technical staff, an increase of six percentage points over 2022 followed by difficulties in finding middle management roles (23%) and junior management / supervisory roles (15%).

Other interesting findings among HR practitioners:

• 54% of respondents mentioned that the lack of job applications is pushing employers to offer higher remuneration to retain their staff.
• 49% of respondents said that there is a lack of experienced employees followed by 33% who said that there is a lack of qualified staff.
• 67% of respondents invest in developing and communicating their employer brand.
• 78% mostly use social media to attract talent.
• 36% of respondents said that staff turnover was higher than that experienced in recent years, compared to 47% recorded in 2022, indicating higher retention.
• 93% of respondents stated that employees find on-the-job training as the most effective, followed by internal coaching and mentoring (53%)
• Only 20% think that formal education courses are effective.
• While 75% of respondents feel that salary demands are one of the main challenges, 59% of respondents stated that they are increasing their remuneration packages.
• 65% stated that the most commonly offered benefits are the option to work part-time or on reduced hours and mobile telephony allowances and contracts.
• Only 17% of HR practitioners reported an increase in the level of absences of staff due to sickness in the past twelve months compared to 41% in 2022, when the effects of the coronavirus were still being felt, was 41%.