MADRID, 14 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
53.88% of Spanish managers expect to increase hiring in 2023 and 38.95% expect to increase their workforce in 2024, according to the results of the III LHH Executive Barometer on Executive Leadership in Spain, prepared by LHH Executive, the division of Adecco Group executive search for high profiles.
For their part, 25% of the 500 managers surveyed in this Barometer rule out hiring in the next two years. This response is more widespread among managers of companies with less than 10 employees and among those with more than 1,000 workers.
Hiring prospects have been improving over the last few years, as shown by a comparison with previous editions of this Barometer.
In 2021, 47.1% did not expect to hire throughout that year, compared to 25% in this latest survey. However, this figure is in line with the responses from last year, when 25.58% of managers did not plan to increase their workforce either.
53.5% of the executives surveyed will look for technical profiles in the coming years, compared to 46.8% of managers who demanded this type of candidate in 2021.
47.64% of companies also plan to incorporate middle managers in the next two years, 20.34 points higher than in 2021.
The LHH Executive Barometer shows that businessmen will look for creative profiles, according to 32.01% of the responses, as well as managers, in 21.84% of cases, and executives, 8.68%.
The survey also analyzes the activities that executives plan to carry out to increase the income of their companies in the next 12 months. 39.73% of the executives surveyed will prioritize operational efficiency, followed by 32.75% who opt for increasing technological investment.
Among the most cited responses, the launch of a new product or service also appears, for 25.19%, as well as optimizing jobs or reducing staff, according to 25%.
Plans to increase profits also involve entering new markets, growing organically, carrying out new mergers and acquisitions, or making new strategic alliances.
These initiatives vary according to the age of the executives surveyed. The youngest are betting on new markets while the older ones are opting for operational efficiency to increase revenue in the next twelve months.
In the case of companies with fewer than 49 employees and those with 250 to 1,000 workers, the main option is to increase investment in technology to improve profits in the near future.
The general director of LHH Executive Spain, Rémi Diennet, believes that companies will respond with new measures to the demands of workers, who now value more “the impact of work and what they want to obtain from their lives.”
“This has led companies to change their propositions: offer attractive careers, the flexibility of a hybrid work model, as well as an attractive work environment and company culture. Offer people a job in which they feel fulfilled, Continued opportunities to grow and learn, flexibility, and diverse, values-oriented workplaces will be essential in 2023 as well,” adds Diennet.
54.07% of the managers surveyed by LHH Executive maintain that the aspect that will evolve the most in the coming years will be technology.
However, they also value the social and psychological aspects as part of the workplace.
Thus, 46.12% believe that progress will be made in conciliation and flexibility, while 39.15% cited equality and inclusion. Among the answers, sustainability also appears, for 39.15%, or mental health, according to 27.52%.
Mental health prevails among the responses of the youngest executives surveyed, while in managers of the technical sector technology appears as a priority.
LHH Executive also collects in its Barometer the impact of technology in the future. 53.1% point to artificial intelligence, followed by 47.67% that alludes to data analysis. Likewise, 40.89% refers to cybersecurity; 32.63%, to the Internet of Things; 33.14%, to virtual reality.
Managers over 45 years of age, in a higher percentage than the rest, believe that artificial intelligence and data analysis is the technology that will have the greatest relevance in the coming years.
Regarding the preparation to face digitization, 73.84% of those surveyed consider that they have sufficient technological or digital skills to face the future, compared to 26.16% who believe the opposite.
Diennet notes that “accelerating digital transformation is leading to increased workplace automation that will bring about the creation and reinvention of jobs.”
“People will increasingly share our work with intelligent machines and robots, and this has huge implications for the skills and talent that companies will need in the future,” he predicts.
In his opinion, this will force the requalification of a large number of workers and the hiring of new talent with the preparation demanded by companies for the future.