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A third of small and medium sized Romanian enterprises, or SMEs, going bust in 2007 did so on account of lack of number or poor quality of personnel. This made a total of 40,000 SMEs, said Ovidiu Nicolescu, president of Romania's National Council of SMEs.
A third of small and medium sized Romanian enterprises, or SMEs, going bust in 2007 did so on account of lack of number or poor quality of personnel. This made a total of 40,000 SMEs, said Ovidiu Nicolescu, president of Romania's National Council of SMEs. Ten times as many Romanian companies are faced with work force deficits.
“Providing the right number and the proper qualified work force is a problem now, in Romania. Some 70.94% of SMEs say they are faced with lack of personnel, which is double the proportion one year ago, when it stayed at 32%, the latest study found. In fact, over 400,000 SMEs cannot find the right number and quality of personnel to run their operation,” said Nicolescu.
Estimates put the work force deficit per SME at 17 people in 2008; the number is likely to go up in 2009, to 29 people per SME.
The main cause for this trend lies in Romanian workers migrating to Western nations to find work. The activities worst hit are the constructions sector and the metallurgy. But also in high demand are the car repair mechanics, chemical works operators and architects.
This time, over 71.6% of SMEs leaders say the solution lies in bringing work force from abroad.
Nicolescu wants the Romanian authorities to take measures valid in other European Union member states, like local and central governments co-financing the training of personnel, via special vouchers. “This means the SMEs will not be able to use the funding for anything other than training, conducted by specialized companies,” added Nicolescu.
Other hurdles further complicating the SMEs life is the legal requirement for them to return the cost of training, if the employees leave the company earlier than three years, and to train under 20% of the personnel, he said.
“But authorities should understand that no one is doing training for the sake of training, and that SMEs are the first hit by their employees flight on other work markets,” said Nicolescu.
Life is not made easy for training companies either: they are forced to undergo the whole authorization procedure, each year. “That could be easily replaced with an overview of their activity,” added Nicolescu.
• Translated by Anca Păduraru
