Ana Santovac, Team Leader for Permanent Placement at ManpowerGroup – Current labor market tendencies to intensify in the future

There's a somewhat paradoxical situation in the labor market in Serbia, where, on the one hand, the unemployment rate is high, and, on the other hand, employers have difficulty finding adequate human resources. In order to learn more about the market and challenges both employers and candidates face, we talked with Ana Santovac, Team Leader for Permanent Placement at ManpowerGroup. Ana Santovac has been dealing in mediation in employment for nine years, especially regarding managerial and expert positions.

At the moment, she is leading a team of consultants at ManpowerGroup Serbia in charge of hiring people in various industries – automotive industry, information technologies, consumer goods, banking and others.

ManpowerGroup provides services in employment and HR management and is continually following trends and tendencies in the worldwide labor market.

Which candidate profile is there the most demand for? Which are the hardest to find?

– Engineers and programmers are the most demanded profiles. Also, sales jobs are currently in demand, often in companies operating within the consumer goods sector. Recruiting programmers is the most challenging. Regardless of the growing number of experts in this area, the demand is still very high, which makes the market rather specific when it comes to various information technologies. Experts in this area sometimes get several job offers a week, so it's a challenge to remain competitive and attract talented people. This is certainly an important aspect of cooperation with our clients and joint investments in the successful realization of projects.

Which skills are needed the most to succeed in the labor market in Serbia?

– It's actually a set of skills which could be defined as resourcefulness in the modern corporate environment. It's not just previous experience and expertise, it's something that connects candidates of various seniorities, certain principles of modern business. It's important that candidates are familiar with corporate culture and communication, business relations and special business processes and methodology, characteristic of industries and areas in which an individual is developing and building their career. Also, certain personality profiles will always have an advantage over others, and these are people who are taking the initiative, who are motivated, hard working and willing to learn and develop. These are often typical characteristics of the so-called millennials, generations born between 1982 and 1996, but also individuals belonging to earlier generations. Global research by ManpowerGroup indicates that millennials work longer and harder than the previous generations. They value training, professional development and constantly improving themselves.

Which challenges do you face in finding adequate candidates?

– As in other lines of work, there are various challenges in what we do. Finding talented people is in fact not a challenge, since our company is present globally and has a long tradition, which means that concrete models and solutions for identifying and approaching talented candidates have been developed. On the other hand, bringing in line the candidate's and the employer's aspirations, as well as certain market constants, and understanding the entire context and aspirations of all participants in the process is the challenging part. Our task is to have the candidate be satisfied with their first or their new job at the end of the process and that the employer gets talented workers who will contribute to the operations of the entire organization, that is, to find the best solution in a market which has its own limitations.

How much significance is placed on human resources in Serbia?

– Increasingly more, but still not enough. Numerous companies emphasize that people are their greatest asset and truly base their operations on this postulate. On the other hand, many companies only have an HR sector in a formal sense or not at all. HR is not just employment, payroll calculation and HR administration. Advances in valuing this area are certainly noticeable, but there's still a lot of room for development – employee training and development, professional development, motivation through internal promotion, introduction of flexible modes of work as a type of benefit, etc.

What motivates qualified candidates to accept or change a job?

– I believe that motives for change or a concrete choice are extremely varied. Whereas some are looking for a new challenge after years spent at a single job position, others are guided by financial factors. It is often the case that the motive for change is dissatisfaction with interpersonal relations or (not) being valued by one's superior. Also, the expert factor can also play an important role, so a more modern technology of operations and increased possibility of acquiring new knowledge and developing professionally are also a significant stimulant. This is supported by the result of ManpowerGroup's global research on candidate preferences, which shows that one of the most important motivating factors is branding and trust between the employer and the employee.

How do you see the labor market in Serbia?

– As a very segmented market. Public organization/private capital/multinational corporations – they all have their specific qualities and the percentage of candidates switching successfully between the segments is relatively low. Regardless of the high unemployment rate, employers complain that they are having a lot of difficulty employing adequate people in vacant positions. On the other hand, a new group is being formed among candidates, as it is globally, the so-called “permanent candidates”, which are in fact those permanently employed who are constantly looking for new and better job opportunities.

Which characteristics should employees have in the future?

– An employee of the future is the one who strives towards a greater efficiency and continual optimization. Also, constantly expanding expert knowledge plays a significant role. One should be prepared to constantly take the initiative and ready to make a considerable effort.

What can companies do in order to attract and keep quality human resources?

– They can pay attention to their management structure and system of employee benefits. Quality employees can leave due to a single unpopular manager, that is, due to not being motivated to join the organization. The same goes for established interpersonal relations in a company. As for benefits, many of them are not material or do not require considerable investments, and can be very significant to employees, especially when it comes to balancing between one's private life and one's career. For example, flexible working hours or an option to work from home in certain periods.

What are your projections for future trends in the labor market?

– I don't believe that there will be any significant changes in near future. Instead, the current tendencies will intensify. It can be expected that foreign investors will continue to be interested in investing in production, and that the great demand for IT experts will continue.

Manpower d.o.o. Beograd

Ana Santovac

ManpowerGroup

human resources management

millennials

searching for human resources

labor market

recruiting human resources

mediation in employment