Seven out of ten employers in Romania will offer Christmas benefits this year, mostly in the form of cash, according to a recent survey by eJobs and Up Romania. One-third of companies have allocated a budget between RON 201 and RON 400 per employee. 

Roughly 71% of the companies participating in the latest survey conducted by recruitment platform eJobs & Up Romania stated that they will offer Christmas benefits to employees this year. 63.3% of employers will provide cash bonuses, 48.3% will organize year-end parties for the entire team, 36.7% will offer seasonal product baskets, and 35% will provide gift vouchers.

One-third of employers have informed their teams that they will receive additional days off, and 5% include vacation vouchers in the same list. 

A third of respondents have allocated a budget between RON 201 and 400 per employee for this year's Christmas bonuses. 11.9% of respondents will provide benefits with a value between RON 801 – 1,000, while 22% have prepared a budget of more than RON 1,000 for each team member. 

"Despite the fact that 2023 has not necessarily been the easiest year for companies, there are certain incentives that are part of the annual tradition and that employers do not give up even in economically challenging years, and Christmas benefits are part of this category. Thus, 37% of respondents even stated that this year's budget is larger than last year's. For 48%, it remained the same, and in the case of 9%, it decreased," said Loredana Vătăvoiu, marketing director at Up Romania, one of the most important issuers of value vouchers on the local market. 

"What we see differently from other years is an increase in interest, both from employees and employers, in the direction of introducing gift cards and vacation vouchers into the list of holiday benefits. This happens primarily because they offer employees flexibility in spending the respective amounts as they wish," she added.

Christmas bonuses are among the benefits most frequently found in the structure of the package of fringe benefits offered by employers. They are joined by other types of incentives such as meal cards, subscriptions to private medical clinics, flexible schedules, the possibility of working remotely, gift cards, gym subscriptions, or reading subscriptions. 

"We know that 70% of employers provide fringe benefits to employees, and we also know that packages are sometimes rethought annually to align with employees' wishes," explained Raluca Dumitra, head of marketing at eJobs.

The same survey, conducted among candidates, shows that there is still room for improvement in terms of received fringe benefits: 38.9% are dissatisfied in this regard. Salaries are also unsatisfactory for 55.9% of respondents. Candidates also complain about the fact that they do not have enough career development opportunities (54.1%), that they have too many tasks to handle (47.9%), they are not happy at work (34.5%), or that they perform repetitive and monotonous work (30.9%). 

Moreover, 43.7% of the participating candidates and employees say that the relationship they have with their manager and the team they are part of is strictly professional, and 27.1% consider that the working dynamics with colleagues can be greatly improved. Almost a third point out that they have a close relationship with colleagues and the manager, and they can rely on each other in projects, feel supported and encouraged to develop, or even become friends and have activities together outside working hours. 

Surveys were conducted in October – November 2023, with a sample of 403 companies and 2,816 respondents among employees.

radu@romania-insider.com

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