: 8 out of 10 Spanish companies foresee a worsening economy ::

Spanish companies expect the economic situation to worsen this year, although the impact on the labor market will be limited. This follows from report presented today Randstad Research in collaboration with the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) in which it was surveyed more than 300 Spanish companies during November and December 2023. The presentation of the report today in Madrid was attended by Antonio Garamendi, CEOE President; Ana Requena, Executive President of Randstad Spain, and Valentin Bothe, Director of Randstad Research

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The report highlights that 77% of companies surveyed foresee a slight or significant deterioration in the international economic situation, and this percentage rises to 82% in the case of the Spanish economy. Except, 51% of companies predict the worst situation in their sector and 31% in their own company.

Despite forecasting a more difficult economic scenario, the impact that the Spanish company foresees on employment is small. In fact, only 2 in 10 companies predict workforce reductions through 2024, while the majority (59%) foresee workforce retention and even 21% believe it could increase during this year. Moreover, at this time it reflects an improvement from the 2023 forecast survey, where 3 in 10 companies expressed doubts about retaining their workforce.

CEOE President Antonio Garamendisaid that “Given the simplistic solutions to the talent shortage proposed by some voices in our country, this is a complex problem that affects not only our labor market, but also occurs at the European level and depends not only on wages. Training is critical to upskill workers, enhance their employability and influence, thereby bridging the gap that exists between the demand and supply of professional profiles.“, the president of businessmen emphasized.

To cope with this problem, companies are preparing operational and productivity changes, as well as productivity improvements and technological innovations.. According to a survey conducted by Randstad, 81% of companies surveyed are committed to significant changes in digitalization and technological innovation, although 75% say they will promote changes to reduce costs and 71% will promote modifications to improve organizational efficiency. . .

Talent shortages will remain the number one human resource challenge in 2024. Finding the right talent and knowing how to retain them through measures that improve employee well-being and competitive remuneration are the most important areas. and the challenge for human resources in the current context.

According to Randstad Research, 57% of companies responded that talent shortages are the top HR challenge, followed by talent retention (48%) and talent acquisition and selection (46%). .

Actually, Companies recognize that talent shortages are already having a major or minor impact on productivity (98%), competitiveness (95%), and the ability to meet customer needs. (93%) and, ultimately, on financial results (91%). The most qualified profiles are the most difficult to fill, and more than 80% of companies surveyed admit that they have difficulty hiring these types of positions.

“In our third HR report, we note that companies’ biggest challenge remains the same: talent shortages. This is a challenge that we, as talent leaders, at Randstad must tackle together with organizations like CEOE, so that together we can work to create a better structure so that companies do not fear the future.“, he assures Ana Requena, CEO of Randstad Spain. The majority of companies (51%) see the problem worsening in the future and actually believe that It will be more difficult to fill a vacancy this year than in 2023. and much more than before the pandemic.

Impact of AI

Regarding the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), one of the major trends currently in the world of work, Randstad research shows that 90% of companies claim that this did not have a significant impact on the number of employees

of these companies, while 8% of those surveyed had a positive impact and only 2% experienced workforce reductions directly related to AI technology.

Looking to the future, the business world believes that AI can help reduce the talent gap (37%) and also help solve the generational problem. (29%), although for this they believe that it will be necessary to solve the problem of training their employees. Nearly half of the companies surveyed are already using AI for some tasks, including data analysis and forecasting (49%), streamlining administrative tasks (38%), automating production processes (36%), customer service (33%) or virtual assistants (30%) .