Prague usually offers higher wages, but even the regions can surprise – FAEI.cz
“Due to the halted recruitment processes in Ukraine and Belarus, companies were unable to fill a number of qualified positions, especially welders, casters, metal workers, machine fitters, electricians, CNC operators and adjusters,” informed our Martin Malo, director of Grafton Recruitment and Gi Group.
According to Grason, flexibility is currently offered in less than 10% of advertised jobs. And this even at a time when for 70% of employees flexibility is a sign of attractiveness. This applies not only to young people, where it becomes a necessity, but also to other age categories.
In an effort to get the necessary workers, companies today are competing to offer salary packages, benefits as well as starting and relocation bonuses, and are increasingly using agency employment.
However, not only because of flexibility, as was the custom in previous years, but because of the outsourcing of recruitment processes.
Even though three-quarters of employers planned to raise wages this year, high inflation caused real wages in the private sector to fall. Only one percent of companies increased wages by more than ten percent. So-called blue-collar workers, i.e. production workers and other employees with lower than average wages, feel the most effects of the reduction in real wages.
At the same time, financial remuneration usually plays a greater role among company employees than among workers in other fields. Skilled production workers are usually more loyal than unskilled labor, in whose case the phenomenon of so-called job-hopping, i.e. changing jobs after a few months, often works.
“This is also why many employers introduce start-up bonuses, which they usually only pay out after six months or even longer. Bonuses to an existing employee for recommending a new employee are also very common. The amount of both bonuses is most often 25, but in the position of a worker it can range from five to 75 thousand,” said Galo.
A recent survey by the staffing agency Grafton Recruitment showed that, for example, in the Vysočina region in June 2022, 52 percent of manufacturing companies paid a starting bonus, and even a full 89 percent paid a financial reward for recommending a new employee. “The highest bonus currently recorded was 100,000 for an adjuster position,” added the director of Grafton Recruitment.
For commonly filled positions, wages in Prague are about a tenth higher than in the rest of the Czech Republic, so the difference is not as big as, for example, in IT. However, for highly qualified and therefore often in short supply positions, wages in the regions are usually the same as in Prague and may even be higher.
For example, a lean production manager earns 70-100 thousand in Prague and 80-110 in the Hradec Králové and Pardubice regions. The opposite excuse is a welding engineer, who in the regions most often takes 40-50 thousand and in Prague 45-80 thousand. Wages for production operations workers are most often in the range of 30-45 thousand, for other positions it is in the range of 40-70 thousand.
Production companies in the regions do not want to exceed the threshold of 100,000 per month. In total, in the statistics of the Grafton Recruitment agency, there are only 13 positions in the production and engineering sector with a salary of 100,000 or more per month, but in two cases this salary was recorded only in Prague. It was the position of OSH/EHS manager and experienced automation engineer.
According to Grafton Recruitment, the highest paid position in the manufacturing and engineering sector is a plant manager. The most you can make in Liberecko is up to a quarter of a million a month. This salary makes her the highest paid outside the capital and, together with the IT director (CIO) and the executive director (CEO) in Prague, ranks her among the three highest paid job positions in the Czech Republic across all fields.
200,000 per month can be reached by the director of the production plant in the Prague, Pilsen, Ústí, Hradec Králové and Pardubice regions. Only in the Central Bohemian and Zlín regions can his salary start at 110,000, in other regions the lower limit is always higher.
Personnel agency Předvýběr.cz informs the editors of FAEI.cz about the latest results of monitoring the behavior of employers, which it has been monitoring for the third year: There is an increase in companies that do not let applicants know how they fared in the interview. In the third quarter, only 48 percent of job applicants received a job interview report.
According to an online survey conducted by the agency among a hundred permanent respondents from the ranks of owners and heads of companies, a third of them are part of the fact that providing feedback is still not part of the company’s culture. “Employers’ approach varies from month to month, but this year there is a clear downward trend,” said agency director František Boudný.
“With unsuccessful candidates, for many people, providing feedback is out of their comfort zone,” explained Pavel Buryánek, HR director of South Bohemian Madeta. “If you find a candidate for, there is a strong incentive to give feedback to others,” added Pavel Střasák, managing director of engineering company Enginn Effect.