In the competitive Romanian job market, mismatches between employee expectations and workplace realities are driving turnover, according to Cristian Pantir, Head of Sales at Adecco Romania. Drawing from thousands of annual interviews, Pantir highlights how candidates often mask deeper frustrations until later rounds.

“The best source of information for us about gaps in the job market is obviously the interview area,” Pantir said during Work Compass HR Conference organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest. “We handle thousands of people a year in their quest to find a job, switch locations, or join our company. After passing the ‘why do you want this change’ moment and motivations like ‘I want a more extensive professional career’ or ‘I want to grow,’ and after the remuneration topic, we reach the real reasons, usually in the second or third interview.”

Pantir identifies three primary gaps. First, mismatched work styles: “A gap is primarily the way they expect to work within the company, at the team level. If from the start the expectation isn’t set that you’ll work in a team where decisions are made somewhat horizontally with a degree of autonomy and democracy, and then you face a top-down hierarchy where decisions are imposed, with two meetings a week and three reports at the end of the week, that’s clearly a demotivating factor.”

Second, company mission alignment: “Say you have a company with a grand purpose, but the market practice of reaching that purpose isn’t aligned at all with your internal values.”

Third, declared vs. actual values: “The third gap is specifically in the values declared by the company, especially regarding the person, the employee—equity, collaboration, transparency, etc. All those nicely displayed on the walls. And even if they’re displayed on the walls, in practice they don’t exist. There’s actually an unjustifiably high workload, haphazard decisions, pressure, stress, empty recreation rooms where if you enter you’ll be judged for not being at your desk.”

Managers hold the key to bridging these, Pantir emphasized: “I think the main role in mitigating these gaps lies with managers, especially in how they relate to employees and practice their activity in the organization. Systems and methodologies make sense when the organization is large enough to need that rigor, but at the end of the day, it’s always the person.”

While health benefit packages are popular, they’re now commoditized: “Health benefit packages are highly appreciated by employees, but they’re very common—many employees take them as a given, like meal vouchers.”

Pantir advocates for proactive wellness: “Do you know what life expectancy was in Romania in 1986? 67 years. Now it’s around 75. Fast forward 30 years—something has changed. Access to medical services, medicines, and modern treatments has made a huge difference. In Sweden now? 83. For well-being, training, and education, it’s time to include healthy eating, prevention, and physical activity in employee training. It’s great to have medical packages available. Ideally, we wouldn’t need to use them.”

AI tools are transforming productivity, per the Global Workforce of the Future study. “In Romania in 2024, employees reported gaining 56 minutes a day using AI tools. Now it’s over an hour, about an hour and ten minutes. Over a week, that’s nearly 5 hours, almost 5.5—gaining almost a full day in a week.”

However, usage patterns reveal missed opportunities: Nearly 30% use saved time to check work quality; another 30% for creativity and team productivity; 27% for work-life balance; 26% for strategic thinking over 6-12 months; just 22% for learning something new; and 13% for job hunting.