A whopping 77% of businesses are reporting having trouble finding workers, of varying skills, with operations taking a hit as a result.
Malta’s businesses are currently grappling with a staffing crisis as a result of a large number of foreigners leaving the island because of the pandemic.
The hiring challenges were highlighted in the latest survey by Vistage Malta, commissioned by the Malta Chamber of Commerce. A total of 199 respondents took part in the study, with the majority of companies employing more than 100 workers.
According to the majority of survey respondents (61%), hiring challenges are limiting their company’s ability to operate at full capacity.
When asked why they believed more employees were packing up and leaving, 64% admitted their staff were looking for higher salaries.
Despite more than half acknowledging that their employees are after higher pay, less than 40% planned to boost wages as part of efforts to mitigate the problem.
Almost a quarter said they have not adjusted their employees’ wages while just over 30% said they increased them by one to three per cent.
The rest increased wages by over four per cent.
Almost half (45%) of the respondents said they plan to handle the issue by “developing existing workforce”.
On the type of workers that business owners are struggling to find, more than 40% said skilled workers were the toughest to engage.
Employing professional staff is also proving to be a challenge, with 40% saying they struggled to find workers in this category.
40% said skilled workers were the toughest to engage
Although the survey results suggest the inability to find and retain talent “may restrict the achievement of the optimistic revenue projections”, business owners are nonetheless more optimistic for the third quarter of the year than they were for the second.
Nearly three quarters (64%) of business leaders feel the economic conditions will improve over the next 12 months, more than double the 29% recorded in the last quarter.
The proportion of businesses anticipating increased revenues has grown from 33% in the last quarter to 59% in the third quarter.
“We can see from this quarter’s results that the decision-makers in our local businesses are looking at the near future positively. With travel re-opening, business activity increasing and people returning to the office, the feeling is significantly more buoyant than in past sur-veys,” Vistage Malta chair Nathan Farrugia said.
“What remains to be seen is how the perceived lack of human resources and the supply chain issues, as the two main concerns, will impact our businesses over the coming months.”
The survey was conducted in June, before Malta was greylisted by the Financial Action Task Force.