Key findings

• Companies are considering various scenarios and are ready and prepared to adjust their plans at a moment's notice. In general, the mood is quitepessimistic.
• Companies, as last year, would prefer to increase staff efficiency in 2015.
• Almost half of the companies are planning to reduce their headcount, but these reductions are not very significant (reductions of no more than 10%).
• Besides headcount reductions, companies are also planning to review their business processes and organisational structures.
• Although 51% of companies are planning to increase their salary budgets, planned and enacted salary increases ("indexations") are only around 6-10%, and most companies are not planning to compensate exchange rate fluctuations.
• More than half of those surveyed (58%) are planning HR budget cuts, with two-thirds of them planning to cut their budget by up to 10% and one-third planning to cut their budget by more than 10%.