Investigating personnel dynamics within SMEs: A survey analysis for the case of Romania

Recently and especially within emerging economies such as Romania, most of the uncertainties and risks of the economic and business environment stem mainly from the changes in the wage and fiscal policies, as well as from the conditions on the labour market. In this paper we focus on the main causes of personnel dynamics within the Romanian SMEs, using survey data on 1200 companies. The survey was conducted at the end of 2019 and is representative at national level in terms of size, regions and main fields of activity. Through this survey analysis we investigate aspects related to both wage and personnel policy for the Romanian companies, looking as the proportion of temporary employees, the types of nonwage incentives offered by the Romanian SMEs to their employees and the participation of their own employees in vocational training programs. Among the most frequently offered non-wage incentives to their employees we identify: flexible work schedule, subscriptions to medical clinics, meal vouchers or transportation to work. To a much lower extent, however, they may offer subscriptions to gyms or even company shares. Our findings highlight the following main determinants of recent personnel fluctuations: lower wage attractiveness than competition, too high labour taxation, as well as limited attractiveness of non-wage incentives to their employees. Moreover, it is relevant to also point out the proportion of employees who decided to leave their job in order to start their own business, which represented about 26% of the cases reported by the surveyed SMEs. The regional analysis of the effects of these factors on personnel dynamics ranks the Bucharest- Ilfov region first with the most notable recent personnel fluctuations, followed by the North-West region. In addition, the results also show that the effects of personnel fluctuations are more visible in urban areas as compared to the rural area.