[Note: All the articles linked in this post are from business portals in Romanian.]
I’ve been asked what other benefits there are in the Romanian HR market besides insurance. I admit in my mind, “benefits” rimes with “insurance”. Even for companies, besides the legislation.
Things would have changed if this had been the situation before the crisis. They said, back then, that professional development was more important than salary. In 2008, Capital, the financial offline publishing leader in Romania, was publishing the last edition of Romania’s top 100 best employers. So I was curious how they didn’t rerelease it in 2009. I know, I know, Radu Ionescu hated the idea, but still… I remember there was a top of the best methods for recompensating your employees.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers study from 2007 and 2008 said there was a tendency for the fixed income to drop to 69 % of the gross value of the compensation for the employees. So I’m curious whether this tendency will fall or if it will drop.
It might drop even more for the sector of selling and result-based evaluations of the industries that pay by the commission and can afford to say: “you get paid as long as you work”. But, of course, it might go the other way if companies cut the costs with benefits and compensation practices. Which they already have begun. If you read the prominent business publications, you’d picture the apocalypse of the industry. But bad news for big businesses might be good news for niche businesses.
Capital and Business Magazin explain how companies cut costs with employees’ benefits. Some companies think of innovative solutions, such as coupons, which might be a good idea for the Marin husband’s Cuponix. But a genuinely creative idea is to have flexibility. Some other companies prefer flexible benefits policies.
I don’t know how things are for benefits, but things indeed turn green for insurance companies. And not in the CSR way. As an expected consequence of the abovementioned situation, whoever negotiates better will survive. Another question is whether health insurance will develop or fall. The tendencies are, especially with the new viruses, that people (please read: uninformed people) would get frightened by the whole hoax [WATCH this video NOW in English, it’s CAPITAL, and, if you want to read more]. So things might go either way, although I would be curious about a comparative, cross-cultural study.
Anyway, it’s good to know there is who to get advice from, both for employers and for employees, to negotiate. Ernst & Young says it’s a good idea. PricewaterhouseCoopers studies and managers say the numbers were up for benefits even at the end of 2008.
To end on a funny note, continuing the idea from this forum, I wonder whether the personal computer the employees will work on 2 years from now will be considered a benefit or a necessity…
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