© 2009., Croatian Chamber of Economy, Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 2

CROATIAN CHAMBER OF ECONOMY Human Resource Development Centre Phone: + 385 1 45 61 514 Fax: + 385 1 48 28 380 e-mail: potencijali@hgk.hr http://www.hgk.hr

Zagreb, September 2009

THE TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES WITH PARTICULAR

STRESS ON ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS SUMMARY

Croatian Chamber of Economy realised through its County Chambers on-line survey on the educational needs in small and medium enterprises with particular stress on entrepreneurial skills. The survey was performed during March 2009. The poll covered the area of the whole Croatia with proportionally representation of all economic sectors. The questionnaire was responded by 858 enterprises what is 18% of total sample. The analysis is done by four main categories for comparison. The sample consists of 62% micro enterprises, 26% small enterprises and 12% medium big enterprises. The analysis showed that export orientation is closely positively correlated with the size of the enterprise, while the business trend is not related to the size of the enterprise.

Ownership Structure and Size of Enterprise (in %)

© 2009., Croatian Chamber of Economy, Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 2

The share of enterprises according to the various criteria (in %)

In micro and small enterprises is better educational structure of employees in comparison with medium big enterprises.

Educational structure per sectors (in %)

© 2009., Croatian Chamber of Economy, Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 2

Regardless on the sector, the director in most cases deals with educational tasks and human resource management.

Structure of human resources and educational activities according to the size of the enterprise (in %)

Around in four fifth cases financing of human resource development is realised from the enterprise’s source. Interviewed firms in most cases do not use governmental (state) subsidies for development of employees. According to the indicator the number of days spent on education and training, business leaders spent most time, on average double than experts and operators. The size of the enterprise has influence on co-operation with other firms and educational sector, so smaller enterprises more often co-operate with other firms, while with the enlargement of the firm mentioned share decreases.

© 2009., Croatian Chamber of Economy, Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 2

Frequency of co-operation with other enterprises and educational sector (in %)

By ranking the characteristics of employees for future results of enterprises, business leaders value orientation towards the result, persistence and efficiency in the work; readiness and openness for the improvement of business processes in the framework of current activity of enterprise and personal responsibility and readiness for the risk taking for own initiatives in the work, while other employees respect loyalty and readiness to stay in enterprises even during business difficulties and readiness on the introduction of the technical and technological innovations and improvements in the business.

© 2009., Croatian Chamber of Economy, Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 2

Ranking knowledge and skills that should be improved through educational and skilling programmes (in %)

Enterprise leaders Others

Knowledge and skills % Knowledge and skills %

1 Business decision making 80.3 IT knowledge and skills 68.8

2 Communication skills 80.3 Communication skills 65.7

3 IT knowledge and skills 80.2 Communication with the environment 61.4

4 Motivating 80.1 Motivating 60.4

5 Defining the business goals 77.6 Information and general culture 59.6

6 Business negotiation 77.2 Written and oral communication on mother language – Croatian 57.0

7 Presentation skills 74.9 Marketing and sale 55.4

8 Marketing and sale 74.6 Quality management 54.7

9 Team leading 74.0 Presentation skills 54.7

10 Written and oral communication on foreign language 72.6

Written and oral communication on foreign language 53.5

11 Quality management 72.0 Conflict solving 48.3

12 Human resource management 70.6 Time and stress managing 45.6

13 Finance and book-keeping (accounting) 70.5 Mathematical-numerical knowledge and skills 44.0

14 Managing of business processes 70.0 Team leading 43.2

15 Organisation and delegation 70.0 Business negotiation 43.2

16 Project leading 69.9 Supply and logistic 42.5

17 Strategic management 69.8 Defining the business goals 41.1

18 Risk management 68.4 Organisation and delegation 40.4

19 Information and general culture 67.9 Project leading 40.1

20 Communication with environment 67.8 Finance and book-keeping (accounting) 39.9

21 Conflict solving 67.7 Managing the business processes 39.5

22 Business analysis and controlling 65.3 Risk management 36.1

23 Time and stress managing 63.6 Business decision making 34.4

24 Written and oral communication on mother foreign – Croatian 63.2 Following the Croatian legislation 33.5

25 Managing the changes 62.9 Human resource management 31.7

26 Following the Croatian legislation 61.9 Managing the changes 31.1

27 Following EU legislation and directives 59.2 Following EU legislation and directives 30.6

28 Supply and logistic 58.3 Business analysis and controlling 29.3

29 Mathematical-numerical knowledge and skills 53.8 Strategic management 22.1

© 2009., Croatian Chamber of Economy, Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 2

Ranked characteristics of the employees that are deemed important for future of the enterprise (in %)

Business leaders Other employees

The characteristics of the employees % The characteristics of the employees %

1 Orientation towards the result, persistence and efficiency in the work 95.5

Orientation towards the result, persistence and efficiency in the work 90.9

2

Readiness and openness for the improvement of business processes in the framework of current activity of enterprise 94.6

Loyalty and readiness to stay in enterprises even during business difficulties 87.7

3

Personal responsibility and readiness for the risk taking for own initiatives in the work 93.6

Readiness on the introduction of the technical and technological innovations and improvements in the business 86.9

4

Loyalty and readiness to stay in enterprises even during business difficulties 93.5

Readiness and openness for the improvement of business processes in the framework of current activity of enterprise 86.0

5

Readiness on the introduction of the technical and technological innovations and improvements in the business 93.1

Positive reaction on introducing of changes and/or innovation in the enterprise 85.0

6

Readiness to take initiatives for the discovering and proposing of new solutions 93.0

Personal responsibility and readiness for the risk taking for own initiatives in the work 81.7

7

Positive reaction on introducing of changes and/or innovation in the enterprise 92.3

Readiness and dedication to lifelong learning 79.7

8 Readiness and dedication to lifelong learning 90.1

Positive attitude and readiness for work in multiethnic- multicultural environment 78.9

9 Positive attitude and readiness for work in multiethnic- multicultural environment 85.3

Readiness to take initiatives for the discovering and proposing of new solutions 75.6

10

Readiness and openness for increasing and/or changing current activity of enterprise 84.1

Readiness and openness for increasing and/or changing current activity of enterprise 67.0

Although in the short time period one cannot expect some significant changes in enhancement of education in SMEs with the special attention to entrepreneurial skills, nevertheless it is necessary to consider and assume the reasons of weak use of governmental (state) support for the human resource development. No doubt there are many reasons and surely it is necessary in future questionnaires and researches dedicate adequate attention to this issue. Possible reason could a lack of information about the existence of the support. This is quite likely if one keep in a mind that the survey is about micro and small enterprises which maybe subcontracting book-keeping activities. Maybe business leaders are not aware of the existence of the support, while the responsible person in charge of book-keeping is not willing to apply for them because of additional working obligation. Furthermore, it is quite possible that the process for obtaining mentioned subsidy is quite complicated and businessmen are not inclined to ask for the subsidy because it can arouse authorized tax bodies for more considerate and detail investigation of their business

© 2009., Croatian Chamber of Economy, Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 2

books, what probably to them is not beneficially. Finally, employers are mostly not willing to invest in the education and training of their employees because of fear from poaching and due to the logistical and financial difficulties of replacing employees who are being trained. Project is financed by Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship Prepared by: The Institute of Public Finance Predrag Bejaković Vjekoslav Bratić Petar Sopek Croatian Chamber of Economy Project manager, Vesna Štefica