Conducted by Randstad Romania, leader on the human resources services industry, the research identifies a new workplace baseline emerged in the last year, where talents prioritize personalization, community and future-ready skilling, and employers need to be ready to respond.
“The workplace is evolving, and Romanian talent is leading the way — demanding not just jobs, but environments where they feel secure, valued, and empowered to grow. The companies that will thrive in the future are those that move beyond transactional employment models and embrace a culture of flexibility, belonging, and continuous development. Success will belong to organizations that see talent not as a workforce, but as a community—one that flourishes when trust, purpose, and opportunity align,” says Ionut Huzu, Commercial Director of Randstad Romania.
When their expectations are not met, many employees have begun to take action: 45% state that they actively advocate for better working conditions. In the past six months, respondents have benefited from an increase in salary package benefits, such as additional annual leave days, medical assistance, and pension plans. This development has occurred at different rates for Generation Z (46%) compared to Baby Boomers (21%), according to respondents.
51% of Romanians (compared to 44% globally) have resigned at some point due to a toxic work environment, a percentage that has increased compared to last year. More than half of Millennials and Generation Z say they are ready to leave their jobs if they are dissatisfied with working conditions. From an industry perspective, this trend is most prevalent in IT & Telecommunications and production (blue-collar workers).
Talent also wants alignment on flexible working. Close to a third (31%) have left a job because it didn’t provide enough of it. Younger workers are more likely to enjoy it as a benefit, with close to half of Gen Zs saying they’ve been given more flexibility in terms of location in the past six months compared to just around 15% of Baby Boomers. Respondents say they wouldn’t accept a job if it didn’t provide flexibility around working hours (52% vs. 47% global) and where they work (41% vs. 39% global). If money was no object, 53% of Gen Z (51% global) and 23% of Baby Boomers (38% global) would choose not to work at all. 74% consider their manager trusts them to work independently, with the highest percentage coming from the life sciences & pharmaceuticals sector (100%), followed by transport&logistics (88%) and the least in agriculture (57%). About two thirds would trust their employer more if they provided personalized work benefits (e.g. flexible hours, flexible locations, flexible intensity of work).
In Romania, Randstad has offices in Bucharest, Slatina, Sibiu, Brasov, Timisoara, and more than 100 employees.
Headquartered in the Netherlands, Randstad operates in 39 markets and has approximately 40,000 employees. In 2023, we supported 2 million talent to find work and generated a revenue of EUR25.4 billion.