Greek employees lacking required skills: Survey

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS (AA) - Seven out of nine Greek employers are faced with talent scarcity, according to staffing firm ManpowerGroup’s annual talent shortage survey.

According to the survey, social or technical skills such as responsibility, critical thinking, and analysis, as well as taking initiative, are hard to find among Greek employees, with the rate in Greece equal to the global average of 77%. Compared to last year, the rate appears to have fallen by 1%.

The biggest impact has been recorded in Taiwan, Germany, and Hong Kong, with 90%, 86%, and 85%, respectively.

The survey, conducted in 41 countries and in almost 39,000 Greek employers, found that 27% of employers that participated said that in terms of soft skills, there is a lack of responsibility, reliability, and discipline, while 26% said they cannot find talents with critical thinking and analysis skills.

Some 24% said leadership and social influence skills are missing while an equal percentage of employers said taking initiative to acquire skills is missing from the talent pool.

Also, 22% said there is a lack of cooperation and teamwork skills.

Regarding technical skills, the survey showed that 23% of employers said IT/data skills are missing, 19% of them said engineering, 18% human resources, 17% manufacturing/production, and 15% of employers said sales/marketing technical skills were missing in their talent pool.

- Shortage by industry

The energy, utilities, and communications sectors face the biggest challenge, the survey showed, as 96% of employers said they cannot find talents for the energy and utilities sector, 85% for the industry and construction sector, 84% for the health and life sciences sector, and 82% for the communication services sector.

According to the Manpower’s survey, to tackle the problem, 60% of employers are investing in training their existing workforce and 45% in more technology, while 47% reported that they offer more flexible working hours and location.