Almost half of Irish managers are optimistic, survey finds
“Although there is still considerable uncertainty in the market and growth predictions are sombre, the major steps taken last year towards Ireland’s economic recovery have made many professionals feel that it is time to ‘move on’ and work towards a stronger and more stable 2012,” according to Karen O’Flaherty, chief operations officer with recruitment specialist, Morgan McKinley, which published its latest Irish salary survey yesterday.
Nearly 60% ofrespondent companies said they expected to keep salary levels unchanged over the next 12 months, with 13% anticipating some level of marginaldecline.
Managers also opined that the biggest human resources issues set to face them this year will be attracting new talent, while retaining existing talent and ongoing skills shortages were next on the list.
On a positive note, the percentage of managers concerned with having to handle redundancy issues is currently quite low, at just 4%.
Ms O’Flaherty says: “A negligible number of managers surveyed expect to see salary increases of more than 10%; it’s likely that any significant rises will be within fields where demand for professionals far outstrips supply, for example IT software developers, multilingual specialists or senior finance professionals.”
She added: “Taking into account the current mood of austerity and ongoing uncertainty over the euro currency, it may seem strange that talent attraction, talent retention and skills shortages are seen as predominant issues facing human resources managers in 2012.
“Employers recognise there are still shortages of skilled professionals in certain sectors, so sourcing and retaining top talent — within allocated recruitment budgets — is a priority, even in this challenging economic climate.”
