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According to the latest survey conducted by eJobs & UP Romania, 71% of participating companies stated that they will offer Christmas benefits to employees this year. 16.7% have not yet made a final decision in this regard, while 12% say they have not allocated a budget for the holidays. 63.3% of employers will provide cash bonuses, 48.3% will organize year-end parties for the entire team, 36.7% offer seasonal product baskets, and 35% provide gift vouchers. A third of employers have announced to their teams that they will receive additional days off, and 5% include holiday vouchers in the same list.
30% of respondents have allocated a budget ranging from 201 to 400 lei per employee for this purpose. 10.2% have a budget of 100 – 200 lei per employee, 13.6% – 401 – 600 lei per employee, and 6.8% allocate between 401 and 600 lei per employee. 11.9% of respondents will provide benefits with a value between 801 – 1,000 lei, while 22% have prepared a budget of over 1,000 lei for each employee in the team. 5.1% say that, although they will have benefits, an exact budget has not yet been determined.
“Despite 2023 not being necessarily 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, with Christmas benefits being one such category. Thus, 37% of respondents stated that this year’s budget is even larger than last year’s. For 48%, it remained the same, while for 9%, it decreased. What we observe differently compared to other years is an increased interest, both from employees and employers, in the introduction of gift cards and holiday vouchers into the list of holiday benefits. This is primarily happening because it offers employees flexibility in spending the respective amounts as they wish,” says Loredana Vătăvoiu, Marketing Director at Up Romania, one of the major issuers of value vouchers in the local market.
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 remote work, gift cards, gym memberships, or reading subscriptions.
“We know that 70% of employers provide fringe benefits to employees, and we also know that packages are sometimes reconsidered annually to align with the desires of employees. In fact, 20% of employers conduct internal employee satisfaction surveys every year, 10% do this twice a year, 27% do not take quantitative measurements but have one-on-one discussions with employees, and 24% survey this aspect whenever they feel it is necessary. These internal evaluations show that only 15.3% of employees are dissatisfied with the benefits package they receive, with the most appreciated being flexible schedules, meal cards, gift cards, remote work, subscriptions to private medical clinics, or access to a fringe benefits platform,” explains Raluca Dumitra, Head of Marketing at eJobs, the largest online recruitment platform in Romania.
The same survey, conducted among candidates, indicates that there is still room for improvement regarding fringe benefits received: 38.9% express dissatisfaction in this regard. On the same note, salary is a concern (unsatisfactory for 55.9% of respondents), the lack of sufficient career development opportunities (54.1%), having too many tasks to handle (47.9%), job unhappiness (34.5%), or engaging in repetitive and monotonous work (30.9%).
Moreover, 43.7% of the participating candidates and employees state that their relationship with the manager and their team is strictly professional, while 27.1% believe that the working dynamics with colleagues could be significantly improved. Almost a third emphasize having a close relationship with colleagues and the manager, relying on each other in projects, feeling supported and encouraged to develop, or even forming friendships and engaging in activities outside of working hours. In this context, 85% of employers and 93% of employees believe that the labor market in Romania needs a complete redefinition.
When asked about other appreciated benefits, respondents mentioned professional training courses, performance bonuses, additional days off, an annual salary adjustment policy based on inflation, gift cards, or holiday vouchers.
The surveys were conducted in October-November 2023, with a sample of 403 companies and 2,816 respondents among employees.
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