PwC Luxembourg Human Capital Survey 2008/2009

With the economy snowballing into recession and companies striving for profit, senior managers are coming to see human capital as a vital component of an organisation’s survival and success.
Hence HR professionals have an excellent opportunity to demonstrate their capacity to make their organizations agile and efficient. In this specific context, the Human Capital Survey 2008/2009 identified the Luxembourg market position regarding current HR issues, as well as emerging trends.

Key results

The economic framework for Luxembourg-based companies is very different from that of 2006 and is characterised by less effervescence on the job market.

Recruitment within Luxembourg companies have slowed down in 2009, however, the focus is still on training and skills development of staff. Recruitment was at the top of HR priorities in 2008, but only ranks fifth in 2009. This comes as a sudden disinterest since Luxembourg companies were still fighting a war for talent a little time ago.

On the other hand, organisational and cultural changes have made it back to the top for the first time since 2002. To face uncertainty (1/4 of participants reckoned a lack of visibility for recruitments up to end 2009), change management has turned into a key issue and HR managers address it by acting as both a change agent and actor.

HR : A role to reassert

Nevertheless, HR’s strategic impact did not intensify as much as expected by HR managers. Only 44% of participants have a clear formalised HR strategy and 42% of HR managers sit at executive boards.

Regarding reward, the variable part remains the element that is most impacted by individual performance in Luxembourg. In all sectors we note an increasing influence of individual performance upon access to training (19% of influence in 2005 vs. 29% in 2009). This evolution was more than necessary since in this budget-cut context, focusing on training allows HR professionals to maintain their skills development programmes, to motivate their staff and better control their costs.

"At times where upheavals keep following one another, both on markets and within companies, the economic players must become more productive and versatile. The study shows that HR managers in Luxembourg have understood how important it was to play an active part in organisational transformation. These changes surely correspond to a milestone for the ongoing quest towards the model of strategic partnership."

Top HR priorities