The strategic goals of employers are clearly aimed at gaining a larger market share, increasing operating profit and turnover. How do companies achieve this? By introducing innovative products and services, by strengthening teams with senior professionals with the appropriate qualifications, by process optimizations that often involve more automated work, by investing in the necessary technology, but also by continuing to make necessary savings.

A combination of factors such as high entry costs, limited budgets and a shortage of candidates in the labour market determines the key challenge for companies' HR strategies - retaining existing employees. The loss of quality, trained people with experience and knowledge that are hard to replace in their field is a risk that companies are unwilling to take. Taking care of existing employees should be one of the main goals of HR professionals this year. In many industries, there are visible efforts to attract employees back to the office, so that companies can foster company culture and team spirit, and thus also improve efficiency and productivity. This usually also means investing in improvements to the working environment.

Last year, 66% of employers faced a skills shortage or a lack of candidates with the skillsets they needed. The main issue is the lower number of applicants in their industry and the high competition from employers. A mismatch between the financial expectations is then noted by 29% of companies.