Half of South Korean companies predict that they will continue to be 'very serious' about the economic situation next year, according to a survey from Saramin HR.

The survey also found that 46% of respondent companies said that they were 'somewhat serious', and 96% said that next year's economic situation would be ‘serious’. On the other hand, only 1% and 3% responded that there would be no change or 'improvement', respectively.

By company type, large companies (55.1%), small and medium-sized companies (50%), and medium-sized companies (43.8%) had the highest percentage of respondents who answered 'very serious'.

As for the expected duration of the economic crisis, more than half of them chose '1 to 2 years' (52.3%), while 45% said 'more than 2-3 years' and 2.7% said 'less than 1 year' while the majority (97.3%) predicted that the crisis would continue for more than one year.

The crisis was also affecting corporate employment and welfare benefits as 89.9% of companies that said that the new year's economic situation was serious answered that the economic crisis had an impact on personnel policies for next year. Among personnel policies, the most affected part was 'recruitment' with 50.4%. Other answers included 'compensation and benefits' (34.7%), 'personnel management' (6.2%), 'talent development' (5.9%), and 'personnel system' (2.8%).

In terms of hiring, 36.7% of all companies answered that they would 'reduce or stop' from this year, and 36.4% expected 'this year's level' by a narrow margin. On the other hand, 17.9% of respondents said they would expand while 9% answered 'undecided'.

Just less  than half, or 47.8% of large companies responded that they would stop or reduce hiring ,more than medium-sized companies (40.6%) or small and medium-sized companies (32.8%), suggesting an atmosphere of new hiring reduction centred on large companies.

Meanwhile, companies ranked 'human resource acquisition' (65.9%, multiple responses) as their main agenda in the HR field next year. Continued 'organisational culture' (43.3%), 'manpower efficiency' (43.1%), 'performance management' (40.5%), 'compensation policy' (32.6%) 'talent development' (30.3%), 'talent verification' (24.1%), etc., followed.

Choi Seung-cheol, director of Saramin HR Research Institute, said, "Even in the face of a complex crisis, it was confirmed that companies are contemplating securing excellent talent and improving manpower efficiency, which are the foundation of corporate competitiveness. As the need to recruit is rather increasing, the war for talent among companies is expected to become more intense.”