This document summarizes the results of a recruitment practices and trends survey conducted in Romania in 2016. Key findings include: - Most companies measure closing time for vacancies and quality of hires as recruitment KPIs. - Identifying suitable candidates is the most time-consuming recruitment factor. - IT software experts, IT hardware professionals, and engineers are the most difficult positions to fill. - Specialist and manager positions experience the largest delays in recruitment. - Companies value candidates' team fit, results orientation, and flexibility over previous experience.

1. How efficient is your recruitment?
TalentSpotting carried out in Jan - Feb 2016 a research on recruitment
practices and trends on the Romanian market, designed to help
companies increase the efficiency of their recruitment departments.
Recruitment in Romania - Practices and Trends
2016

2. Executive Summary
All the companies identified as best in class for recruitment satisfaction and for
recruitment channels efficiency measure their candidates’ team and culture fit and their
results orientation.
Interestingly enough, the majority of companies appreciate flexibility more than previous
job experience.
In what concerns recruitment departments KPIs, the majority of the companies measure
closing time for the vacancies, while over half of them consider mainly the quality of their hires.
Business from IT / Telecom, Call-center / BPO, Commerce / Retail measure closing time, while
Banking / Financial Services / Insurance, Professional Services and Health companies consider
mainly the quality of hire. Manager satisfaction is important for organizations from Automotive,
Advertising, Media, IT / Telecom, BFSI, Media and Professional services.
Identifying quality candidates remains a challenge for most of the companies, regardless of the
industry, alongside unreasonable salary expectations, talent competition and the need to
reach a large enough pool of candidates for each position.
Businesses are searching most often for specialists, with an annual average of 50 hires,
while delays are reported by 1 in 10 companies, at all seniority levels.
Recruitment agencies report the biggest delays on the market, and their average delay rate
amouts to 8% for all positions, with top hiring lags for managers.
Companies expect recruitment to become more and more difficult and most of them
regard social networks as the future of recruitment, next to referrals.
These two recruitment channels are intensely used by the organizations identified as
best in class in what concerns recruitment satisfaction and the efficient use of recruitment
channels.
When it comes to professional profiles that are difficult to find, most issues arise when
recruiting IT software experts, who are hard to recruit according to 60% of the respondents.
These are followed by IT hardware professionals, technical engineers and sales professionals.
Most of the respondent companies assess their capacity of identifying
quality candidates as good and very good. In addition, they are satisfied with their use of
social and professional networks in recruitment and with their ability to reach marginal
candidates through their own channels.
However, less than half of the respondent organisations are content with their overall
recruitment results. Approximately 65% of the companies scored below their average
industries scores in terms of recruitment satisfaction.
The power of social recruitment
The collected data also reveals that there are no significant differences in the recruitment
challenges based on company industry. It seems that we are all dealing with the same
predicaments when faced with attracting the best talent for our organizations.

3. Contents
Recruitment Channels................................................................................................................ 1
Recruitment Challenges.............................................................................................................2
Recruitment Departments and Vacancies............................................................................3
Average Closing Time................................................................................................................. 4
Difficult to Fill Positions.............................................................................................................4
Delays in Recruitment................................................................................................................ 5
Time Consuming Factors .......................................................................................................... 6
Company Expectations..............................................................................................................7
Evaluating Recruitment............................................................................................................. 8
Recruitment Satisfaction .........................................................................................................12
Recruitment Satisfaction Scores ...........................................................................................13
Recruitment Rating Scores......................................................................................................14
Recruitment Trends...................................................................................................................15
Best in Class Companies..........................................................................................................16
Industry Focus - IT&C ...............................................................................................................21
Respondent Companies ......................................................................................................... 23
The power of social recruitment

4. Recruitment Channels
Over 40% of the respondent companies
are using their own recruitment team.
Social and professional networks (28%)
and internal referrals (22%) are among
the most used recruitment channels.
27.55 %
Social networks
21.70%
Referrals
8.56 %
Events
40%
Internal
recruitment teams
Top recruitment channels
In addition, 9% of the companies rely mainly on events in recruitment.
1
The power of social recruitment
?
Did you know that referrals are
the #1 source in hiring volume?

5. Identifying quality
candidates
Unreasonable
salary expectations
from candidates
Talent
competition
Identifying a large
enough pool of
candidates for
each profile
Recruitment challenges
When invited to acknowledge their recruitment challenges, most companies
report difficulties in identifying quality candidates (62%).
Unrealistic salary expectations make recruitment more difficult for 39% of the
respondents, while 32% of them see the biggest challenge in the competition for
talent.
Identifying a large enough pool of candidates for each position, next to candidate
attraction and engagement in the recruitment process are also serious challenges
for employers.
Biggest recruitment challenges
1 2 3 4
61.96% 27.61%31.90%38.65%
2
The power of social recruitment
?
Did you know that referrals
are the #1 source for new
hire quality?

6. Recruitment departments and vacancies
Most of the respondent companies have specialists vacancies, with an annual
average of 50 hires. Blue collar and sales vacancies follow, with 24 and 20 hire
averages per year.
50
24
20
Specialists hired / year
Blue collar hired / year
Sales hired / year
The average number of recruiters amounts to 3 in 80% of the companies, while
6% of the organisations do not have recruitment departments.
79.14%
8.59%
6.13%
3
Average number of recruiters
3 recruiters 8 recruiters No recruiters
Average number of recruited positions / year
The power of social recruitment

7. Average closing time
The average closing time for top management positions amounts to 3.4 months,
and 2.7 months for middle management positions.
The average closing time is 2.4 months for specialist positions, and 1.3 months
for entry level ones.
Specialist
Entry level
2.40 months
1.33 months
Top management
Middle management
3.42 months
2.72 months
Difficult to Fill Positions
The collected data shows that companies encounter the biggest difficulties in
recruiting IT software (60%) experts, independent of the industry of the company.
IT hardware (21%) professionals, technical experts and engineers (20%) come
next, followed by sales professionals (18%), accountants (11%) and customer
support experts (10%).
IT Software IT Hardware
Engineering -
Technical Sales
58.28% 20.86% 19.02% 17.79%
4
Specialists
Entry level
Profiles with dificulties in recruitment
The power of social recruitment

8. Delays in recruitment
Companies report delays at all seniority levels. However, specialist (10%) and
manager (5%) positions are filled with the largest delays.
Thus, 35% of the respondent companies declare recruitment delays for over 15%
of their specialist positions. Similarly, 10% of the companies report delays in filling
more than 15% of their management positions.
0
2,75%
5,5%
8,25%
11%
Board members Directors Managers Specialists Administrative Internship/Graduates Blue collar Other
Industry
Recruitment Agencies
Agriculture/Food
IT / Telecom
Commerce / Retail
Professional services
BFSI*
Automotive
Call-center / BPO
Advertising / Marketing
% of all recruited positions
7.97%
6.11%
3.68%
2.92%
2.77%
2.42%
2.29%
2.05%
1.88%
Top delays for
Managers
Specialists
Specialists
Other positions
Graduates / Interns
Specialists
Workers
Other positions
Specialists
5
Delays in recruitment by seniority
Recruitment agencies report the biggest delays on the market, with an average
delay rate of 8% for all positions and top hiring lags for managers. Businesses in
Agriculture follow with a 6% delay rate and IT / Telecom companies, with a 4%
annual delay average for all their positions. In both cases, the biggest delays are
declared for specialist positions.
*Business, Financial Services and Insurance
The power of social recruitment
?
Did you know that referrals
are the #1 fastest time to fill?

9. Time Consuming Factors
Almost 74% of the companies spend most of their recruitment time trying to
identify suitable candidates. At the same time, 32% of employers invest a lot of
time in identifying a large enough pool of candidates for each profile.
Low show-up rates for interviews are also time consuming for 23% of the
respondent organisations.
73.62%
30.67%
23.31%
11.66%
10.43%
1.84%
Identifying suitable candidates
Identifying a large enough number of candidates
Low show-up rates
Candidate communication
Sending candidate feedback & status updates
Other (lack of quality candidates)
6
Most time consuming
The power of social recruitment

10. Companies from industries like Transportation, Health, Agribusiness, Automotive,
BFSI, IT and Professional Services invest between 50% and 100% of their
recruitment time in identifying suitable candidates.
Transportation / Logistics / Import - Export
Media / Internet
Medical / Health
Recruitment Agencies
Agriculture / Agribusiness / Food
Automotive
BFSI
IT / Telecom
Commerce / Retail
Professional services
Advertising / Marketing / PR
Call-center / BPO
0% 25 50 75 100%
Time spent to identify suitable candidates vs. industry
Identifying a large number of candidates takes also a lot of the recruitment time
of Transportation companies, followed by those from Media and Health
industries.
Media / Internet
Medical / Health
Recruitment Agencies
Agriculture / Agribusiness / Food
Automotive
BFSI
0% 12,5 25 50 60%
Transportation / Logistics / Import - Export
7
Time spent to identify a large number of candidates for each position vs. industry
The power of social recruitment

11. Company expectations
Candidates’ team and culture fit - or congruence between the norms and values
of the person and those of the organization - is valued by 60% of the companies,
alongside results orientation (59%). The ability to work under stress and to deal
with continuous change is regarded as important by 43% of the companies.
Flexibility is also appreciated - to a higher extent than previous job experience.
59.51%
Team and culture fit
58.90%
Results orientation
42.94%
Ability to work under
stress and deal with
continuous change
29.45%
Flexibility
26.99%
Previous job
experience
16.56%
Creativity
1.84%
Other*
* initiative, curiosity and technical skills, the desire to develop within the organisation
and advanced knowledge of foreign languages
8
The power of social recruitment

12. Media / Internet
Medical / Health
Agencies
Professional services
Automotive
Commerce / Retail
BFSI*
Call-center / BPO
Agriculture / Agribusiness / Food
IT / Telecom
Advertising / Marketing / PR
0 25 50 75 100
Results orientation vs. industry
Team and culture fit is another essential performance criteria for these
companies. In fact, it is more appreciated than previous experience by all the
companies, regardless of industry.
Transportation / Logistics / Import - Export
Medical / Health
Automotive
Commerce / Retail
Agriculture / Agribusiness / Food
BFSI
Call-center / BPO
IT / Telecom
Advertising / Marketing / PR
Professional services
Recruitment agencies
Media / Internet
Team and culture fit vs. previous job experience
0%
66.67%
33.33%
11.11%
55.56%
22.22%
10%
40%
25%
16.67%
33.33%
100%
66.67%
66.67%
66.67%
66.67%
60%
60%
58.33%
50%
41.67%
33.33%
42.86% 0%
9
Results orientation is a fundamental performance criteria according to a series of
companies from different industries. All the respondents from Transportation,
Media and Health use it, alongside the majority of the respondents from
Automotive, Commerce, Call-center and IT / Telecom.
The power of social recruitment
*Business, Financial Services and Insurance
Team and culture fit
Previous job experience

13. Evaluating recruitment
Closing time for the vacancies is a KPI for 68% of the respondent organizations when evaluating
the efficiency of their recruitment departments.
In turn, quality of hire is taken into account by 58% of the companies; it is a top KPI for
respondends from Media, Transportation, BFSI, Health and Professional services.
Manager satisfaction - measured after 3 or more months from hire start - is an important KPI for
45% of the respondents. Most of them represent industries like Automotive, Advertising, Media,
IT / Telecom, BFSI and Professional services.
Manager satisfaction
Closing time for the vacancies
Quality of hire
Costs
Performance rating
Churn / Attrition / Turnover
Others*
0% 17,5% 35% 52,5% 70%
* Number of interviews per profile; the evolution within the organization; internal recruitment
10
Recruitment departments KPIs
The power of social recruitment

14. Costs are an important KPI for 17% of the participating companies - specifically for
organisations from Agribusiness and BFSI.
11
Manager satisfaction
Closing time for the vacancies
Quality of hire
Costs
Performance ratings
Churn
0 % 25 % 50 % 75 % 100 %
Manager satisfaction
Closing time for the vacancies
Quality of hire
Performance ratings
Churn
0 % 17,5 % 35 % 52,5 % 70 %
Manager satisfaction
Closing time for the vacancies
Quality of hire
Performance ratings
Churn
0 % 15 % 30 % 45 % 60 %
Agriculture / Agribusiness / Food
IT / Telecom
Call-center / BPO
Manager satisfaction
Closing time for the vacancies
Quality of hire
Performance ratings
Churn
0 % 15 % 30 % 45 % 60 %
Commerce / Retail
Manager satisfaction
Closing time for the vacancies
Quality of hire
Costs
Performance ratings
0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 %
BFSI
The power of social recruitment

15. Almost 47% of the companies are satisfied and very satisfied with their
recruitment results, while 12% are little or not satisfied at all.
46.63%
Satisfied
and
very satisfied
12.27%
Little or not
satisfied at all
In turn, referral programs are assessed as weak by 27% of the respondents, who
are also dissatisfied with their candidate attraction and engagement in the
recruitment process (16%).
Most of the respondents assess their
capacity of identifying quality candidates
(90%) as good and very good, next to
recruitment through social and
professional networks (88%) and their
ability to reach marginal candidates
through their own channels (83%).
Good and very good
Identifying quality candidates
Social and professional network recruitment
Reaching quality candidate through company owned channels 89.57%
88.34%
83.44%
Weak
Reaching quality candidate through company owned channels
Candidate attraction and engagement in the recruitment process
Referral programs efficiency 26.99%
15.95%
14.11%
12
Recruitment Satisfaction
The power of social recruitment

16. Average Recruitment Satisfaction Scores
Recruitment Satisfaction Scores
Respondent companies were invited to evaluate their level of satisfaction in what
concerns recruitment using a 1 to 5 scale.
Average recruitment satisfaction scores (ARSS) calculated per industry indicate
that companies from Automotive, Transportation, Advertising, Professional
services and BFSI, IT / Telecom - among others - are some the most satisfied in
terms of recruitment.
Automotive
Transportation / Logistics
Recruitment agencies
Advertising / Marketing / PR
Professional services
BFSI
IT / Telecom
Agriculture / Agribusiness / Food
Commerce / Retail
Medical / Health
Media / Internet
Call-center / BPO
Constructions
Pharma
0,0 1,0 2,0 3,0 4,0
43,56%
49,69%
Companies above industry ARSS
Companies below industry ARSS
13
43,56%
The power of social recruitment

17. Recruitment Rating Scores
Respondent companies also rated the efficiency of their recruitment channels
using a 1 to 3 scale.
Collaboration with recruitment agencies
Identifying marginal candidates through your own channels
Referral programs efficiency
Identifying quality candidates
Candidate attraction and engagement in the recruitment process
Candidate communication
Social and professional network recruitment
Job sites recruitment
Mass recruitment events participation
Targeted events
Average Recruitment Rating Scores (ARRS) calculated per industry show that
companies from industries like Automotive, BFSI and Call Center assess their
recruitment as efficient and top efficient.
0 0,65 1,3 1,95 2,6
Electronics
Oil & gas
Media / Internet
Automotive
Tourism / Hospitality
BFSI
Call-center / BPO
Professional services
Energy
Environment protection
Medical/Health
Commerce/Retail
IT / Telecom
Agriculture/Agribusiness/Food
Recruitment Agencies
Education / Training
Constructions
Pharma
Sports/beauty
Advertising / Marketing / PR
Transportation / Logistics
Textiles
Library
Other
While average recruitment satisfaction scores suggest that almost half of the participant
companies are satisfied with their recruitment, average recruitment rating scores show that
the majority are discontented with the efficiency of their recruitment channels.
Thus, 64.42% of the respondent companies scored above their industries averages, while
29.45% obtained scores above their market results.
64,42%
Companies above industry ARSS
Companies below industry ARSS
14
29,45%
The power of social recruitment

18. Recruitment trends
Most of the companies anticipate that recruitment will become more and more
difficult (72%) and expect social and professional networks (74%) to become the
trend in recruitment.
Referral programs (50%) and targeted events (37%) are also seen as the future of
recruitment channels.
Social and professional networks
Referral programs
Targeted recruitment events
Job sites
Job fairs
Others
20%
1%
3%
9%
40%
27%
(open days, employer branding, events)
Industry
IT/Telecom
Call Center / BPO
BFSI
Commerce / Retail
Automotive
Agencies
Referral (1 to 3 scale)Social networks (1 to 3 scale)
1.4
1.7
1.53
1.67
2
1.08
0.82
2.2
2.07
2
2.17
2.33
15
Trending: social networks vs. referral ratings
Trending recruitment channels
The power of social recruitment

19. Best in class companies use mainly social and professional networks in
recruitment (34%) and referrals (26%).
When it comes to evaluating employee performance, companies with the best
recruitment results consider their team and culture fit (58%) and their employees’
ability to work under stress and continuous change (50%).
Best in class organisations also appreciate their candidates' results orientation
and flexibility (42%).
Average number of recruiters in best in class companies: 4.36
Best in class companies
Best in class for recruitment satisfaction
These are companies from a series of industries, satisfied and very satisfied with
their recruitment results. Total best in class companies for recruitment
satisfaction: 12
Average Recruitment Satisfaction Score: 4,25
Industries:
IT-Telecom
Call Center / BPO
Commerce / Retail
Automotive
Human ResourcesBFSI (Business, Financial Services and Insurance)
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
16
The power of social recruitment

20. Top recruitment channels for best in class companies according to recruitment satisfaction
Social and professional
networks
Referrals
34%
26%
Recruitment
Agencies
11%
Events
10%
Top performance criteria for best in class companies according to recruitment satisfaction
Team and culture fit Ability to work under
stress
Results orientation Flexibility
58% 50% 42% 42%
17
The power of social recruitment
?
Did you know that 46% of all hires at top
performing companies are referrals?

21. 29,45%
Closing time for the vacancies is the most important metric when evaluating the
efficiency of Recruitment departments (83%) in best in class companies according
to recruitment satisfaction. Churn / attrition rates come next (33%), followed by
quality of hire (25%).
Closing time for the
vacancies
Churn
Quality of hire
Performance ratings
Costs83%
33%
25%
17%
8%
Best in class companies expect social and professional networks to dominate
among recruitment trends (75%), alongside referral programs (25%).
Social and professional
networks
Referrals
Job sites
Job fairs
Targeted events
75%
25%
17%
8%
8%
18
The power of social recruitment

22. Best in class for recruitment rating
Six companies were identified as best in class among those that rated their use of
recruitment channels as good and very good in the same group of industries:
IT-Telecom, Call Center / BPO, BFSI, Commerce / Retail, Automotive and Human
Resources. These organizations positively rate their recruitment according to their
use of recruitment channels.
Social and professional networks, next to referral programs, are top recruitment
channels for these companies and are used by roughly 30% of the respondents
identified as best in class for recruitment rating.
Average recruitment rating scores: 2.74
Social and professional
networks
Referrals
31%
29%
Agencies
23%
Events
14%
Top recruitment channels
Team and culture fit (70%) are the most important performance criteria for best in
class companies according to recruitment rating, followed by results orientation
and the ability to work under stress, which are simultaneously used by half of
these companies.
70%
50%
50% 50%
Team and culture fit Results
orientation
Ability to work
under stress
Flexibility
19
1 2 3
Average numbers of recruiters: 3.83
1 2 3 4
Top recruitment channels simultaneously used by best in class
companies for recruitment rating
The power of social recruitment

23. Best in class companies mainly consider closing time for their vacancies and
performance ratings when evaluating their recruitment departments.
They also employ KPIs like churn rates and costs.
83%
33%
33% 17%
Social and professional networks
Job sites
Customized
events
Job fairs
33%
Referrals
Top recruitment trends* for best in class companies according to recruitment rating
33%
50%
17%
Churn
Performance ratings
Costs
50%
Closing time for
the vacancies
Top KPIs for best in class companies for recruitment rating
33%
Quality of hire
Best in class companies for recruitment rating see the use of social and
professional networks as the main trend in recruitment. In addition, they expect
referrals, job sites and customized events to also be a part of recruitment trends.
20
*Simultaneously expected
The power of social recruitment

24. 21
Industry Focus - IT&C
Average number of employees % of total IT / Telecom
25 15.00%
75 21.67%
200 28.33%
400 10.00%
750 5.00%
2000 16.67%
3000 3.33%
60 respondent companies
Company average sizes
Top locations
Bucharest
38.89%
Cluj - Napoca
14.44%
Timisoara
38.89%
Average
numbers of
recruiters
in companies
5.55
Top categories recruited per year
Recruited Positions
Specialists
68
Graduates / internship
27
Managers
5
Average delay rate in IT / Telecom: 3.68%
Specialists
17%
Managers
4%
Other positions
3%
Total average number: 100
Most employed
performance criteria
Team and culture fit
58.33%
Results orientation
51.67%
Previous job experience
40%
Top Delays
The power of social recruitment

25. Top challenges
Identifying quality candidates
61.67%
Unreasonable salary
expectations from
candidates
48.33%
Competition
45%
Most time consuming
activities in recruitment
Identifying suitable candidates
Identifying a large enough
number of candidates
Low show-up rates
75%
46.67%
20%
Most used KPIs for
recruitment departments
Closing time for the vacancies
Quality of hire
Performance ratings
58.33%
46.67%
41.67%
Manager satisfaction
33.33%
Churn
21.67%
Average closing time in
the industry: 2.09 months
Average closing time per position
Top management
Manager
Specialist
3.6months
2.1months
1.8months
Entry Level
1.2months
Average recruitment satisfaction
rate in the industry (1 to 5 scale): 3.38
1 2 3 4 5
22
Top recruitment trends according
to industry respondents
Social and professional
networks
Referral programs
Personalised recruitment events
75%
57.67%
43.33%
1
month
2
month
3
month
The power of social recruitment

26. Respondent companies
The representatives of 163 companies participated to the research - most of them
from Bucharest (64%), followed by Cluj-Napoca (11%) and Timisoara (8%).
The majority of the respondent companies (66%) have over 100 employees.
Most of the companies represent the
IT / Telecom industry (37%), followed by
Recruitment Agencies (7%) and
Call-center / BPO, Banking / Financial
Services, Commerce / Retail and
Agriculture / Agribusiness (6% each).
IT / Telecom
46,81
%
Recruitment
Agencies
7,36
%
Call-center / BPO
6,13
%
Agriculture /
Agribusiness /
Food
5,52
%
Banking / Financial
Services
5,52
%
Commerce /
Retail
5,52
%
Most of the respondents are specialists (45%),
mainly from Recruitment departments (88%),
followed by junior managers (20%), senior
managers (14%), directors (10%), and board
members (6%).
Specialist
Junior manager
Senior manager
Bucuresti
Cluj
Timisoara
Brasov
Iasi
Sibiu
0 % 2,75 % 5,5 % 8,25 % 11 %
63,8%
23
10,43%
7,98%
1,84%
1,48%
1,84%
Top respondents’ locations
44.79% 19.63% 13.50% 9,82% 5,52%
Director
Board member
The power of social recruitment

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