BR's Working Romania Conference | Vlad Nastase (Concilium Consulting): I do not believe in the massive return of Romanians abroad

Business Review’s Working Romania Event looks at the new trends that challenge the leading local human resources industry to uncover how they navigate the changes affecting the manner in which we work, as well as at the ways companies and human resources executives are changing their recruitment practices in order to attract and retain top talents.

In the first panel (Importing workforce: Romania en route to becoming the biggest workforce importer in SEE), Vlad Nastase, the CEO of Concilium Consulting and President of the Romanian subsidiary of Turnaround Management Association, said that predictability in the labor market is important for everyone – for employees, companies as well as for the banks financing the companies.

“And here comes the employer’s ability to manage their workforce, from dozens of employees to hundreds of employees in different industries. There were Chinese workers brought in the textile industry, for example, but this move wasn’t successful and they had to send them back, for various reasons,” Nastase said.

“Personally, I do not believe in the massive return of Romanians living outside the country; migration is a normal phenomenon at a global level. The problem is if this cost is higher than it was before, and whether we can cover it. And we see rising competition from the public sector; an employee with a competitive salary in the public sector in a certain geographical area will choose that, not to the private sector,” said Nastase.

Legislative changes have a higher effect than anticipated on the workforce. “OUG 114 in December had one of the first effects on companies that also had a CAEN code for construction and had 2 welders in a certain area and the employer was forced to raise salaries for all employees because he could not do it just for the construction workers,” said Nastase.

“In addition, construction has a small profit margin, which does not cover the increase in all cases. There are already several companies in the field that have suspended their activity. Their employees are likely to find work, but the costs remain high for companies. Today, even a big company will think twice before taking a project near Botosani, for example, because it will be hard to cover all the costs.”

”It is interesting that the construction sector is very important for the economy in the next period, but there are too many changes in the legislation,” concludes Nastase.