Almost three quarters of Romanian companies implement hybrid work

 Almost three quarters (72%) of Romanian companies have implemented hybrid work, granting freedom of choice to the employee and team regarding office presence, according to a study made by PwC Romania.Presence still remains low, of under 25%, according to 45% of respondents, but for long term, more than half of these (56%) estimate a significant growth of those who will work from the office, between 50% and 75% of total employees."Employees started having more faith in returning to the office, being encouraged by investments in security measures, by employers, as well as the implementation of a hybrid work system. Companies want to keep their employees and to attract new talents, in the context in which the ambitious growth plans can be limited by the lack of human resources. Thus, we see that the majority of respondents have increased their salary budget for 2022 in order to cover the rise of inflation in the second half of the year. And an important emphasis is placed on granting benefits, companies including more and more options, especially in the employees' health and wellbeing category," Oana Munteanu, People & Organisation Leader PwC Romania, declared in a press release.According to the HR Barometer survey, only 8% of respondents have currently implemented full remote work and 11% work from the office exclusively, respecting the legal provisions.Regarding the initial salary budget estimates for next year, more than half of companies have reviewed these budgets upwards.The study shows that 28% of respondents have already increased their salary budget estimated for 2022 by 3 percentage points, 15% to up to 3 percentage points, 46% kept the estimated percentage for salary increase for 2022, 8% have not made a decision yet, and 1% have decreased their budget. Average salary growth in the respondent industries for 2022 is placed at 7%.The PwC Romania HR Barometer took place between December 12-21, 2021, based on the information supplied by 71 companies from IT & Telecommunication, retail, FMCG, pharmaceutical, financial services, industry and insurance. 17% of the respondent companies have over 3,000 employees, between 1,001 - 3,000 employees, 13% between 501-1,000 employees, 32% between 101-500 employees and 18% with under 100 employees.