“52% of businesses consider labor costs to be the biggest challenge,” said Leda Sgouraki, Director of Professionals & Enterprise HR Services at Randstad Hellas, as she presented a major survey on the Greek labor market during the conference “Leadership and Work: Investing in Human Capital.”
As she explained, this is an opinion survey based on interviews and data collection from October 2025 to February 2026, reflecting changes in working conditions and the expectations of employees and businesses.
Ms. Sgouraki noted that “talent is seeking better pay,” while adding that the biggest challenge in hiring may be that their expectations are unrealistic.
Referring toGeneration Z, she argued that “they are more impatient, more daring, and want more money, faster,” while explaining that increased mobility in the labor market is primarily linked to the search for better pay.
He made a special mention of the technology sector, noting that employees in the industry are “among the highest-paid, ” as “there is added value in the technology market because it changes faster than any other sector.”
Regarding work models, he emphasized that remote work remains a “deal breaker, ” while, as he put it, “talent goes to a job for the pay and stays for the flexibility.”
At the same time, he noted that there is a trend toward returning to the office, as many companies believe that critical skills and interaction among employees are lacking. According to the survey, “26% of the sample indicates that companies are pushing for employees to return to the office.”
Ms. Sgouraki also argued that “AI has moved from theory to practice” and that tech companies, in particular, are already implementing the new tools in their daily operations.
Referring to the talent gap, she noted that many of the skills companies seek today “are not abundant in the market, ” resulting in more and more organizations choosing to invest in the training and development of their own employees. “The ideal scenario is to retain the employee and train them in talent acquisition, ” he said.