PwC’s Workforce Hopes and Fears Romania Survey 2023

Is your workforce reinvention ready?

Business leaders from Romania and all over the world are prioritizing transformation, in the context of the changes and multiple and overlapping crises in recent years generated by the pandemic, record inflation, energy crises or the war in Ukraine. Workforce development and technology-driven investments become a priority for this transformation, as the most important factor that will affect companies long-term profitability cited by CEOs is the workforce and skills shortage (CEO Survey Romania 2023).

But what if your most skilled people are more “reinvention ready” than your company culture is? And what if your employees say they are even more likely to quit now than they were last year—back when everyone thought the great resignation was at its peak?

PwC’s latest Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey finds sizable pockets of the global workforce eager to learn new skills, embrace AI, and tackle new challenges—even as many companies fail to tolerate debate and dissenting ideas, or even tolerate small-scale failures.

Meanwhile, many workers are restless: 18% of Romanian respondents say they plan to quit their job in the next 12 months, up from 16% last year, but less than 26% globally.

Download the report

Engage and inspire your people—especially those lagging behind

Download chart

Most business leaders take the dynamism and disruption of work and skills as a given. Indeed, according to the World Economic Forum, employers estimate that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years. Yet employees in our survey appear to see things a little differently. If employees don’t anticipate or understand how their job requirements might change, they may not be adequately prepared to acquire the new skills necessary to remain relevant and effective in their roles.

Understand how the cost-of-living crisis is sapping your people

Download chart

Against a backdrop of economic uncertainty and high inflation, employees across the globe are feeling the squeeze.

Nurture employee interest in AI

Download chart

Excitement - and concern - are swirling around AI, as generative AI applications such as ChatGPT have entered the workplace, seized imaginations, and garnered hundreds of millions of users around the world. Respondents in our survey appear largely bullish on AI, and cite the positive impacts of AI more frequently than negative ones.

Download the report

The survey, the second in Romania and the fourth globally, drew responses from nearly 54,000 workers in 46 countries and territories and over 500 in Romania underscores the central challenge facing CEOs and other C-suite leaders: You have to reinvent your organisation, but without the support and energy of all your people these efforts will fail.