Labor Market Studies in Poland

Labor market research encompasses projects examining the relationship between employers, employees, and job candidates. These studies analyze employee satisfaction and engagement, employer brand image (employer branding), compensation and benefits trends, training needs, the recruitment process (candidate experience), and the factors driving retention and turnover. In today’s talent-scarce market, data on candidate expectations has become a strategic asset.

Poland’s labor market is undergoing deep structural changes. Unemployment remains at historically low levels, and workforce shortages affect not just IT but an increasingly wide range of industries — from manufacturing to services. Remote and hybrid work has become standard in many sectors, fundamentally changing employee expectations of employers. Generation Z entering the workforce brings different requirements than previous generations — work-life balance, sense of purpose, flexibility, and organizational culture are becoming more important than traditional career paths.

Common labor market research projects include: employee satisfaction and engagement surveys, employer branding analysis (how is the employer perceived by candidates and employees?), compensation and benefits benchmarking, candidate experience research (evaluating the recruitment process from the candidate’s perspective), training needs and competency gap analysis, employee sentiment monitoring (pulse surveys), turnover cause studies (exit surveys), and labor market analysis for specific industries and regions.

Methodologically, labor market research divides into two streams: intra-organizational studies (employees of a specific company) and market studies (the general employed/candidate population). In the former, ensuring anonymity is critical — employees must trust that their responses won’t be attributed to specific individuals. Common methods include CAWI (online surveys — the most frequent method), focus groups (in-depth problem diagnosis), and IDI with management and HR. For market research, CAWI on consumer panels, CATI, and desk research (statistical office data, Eurostat, industry reports) dominate.

The challenge is social desirability bias — in internal surveys, employees may overstate satisfaction out of concern about consequences, even with anonymity guarantees. That’s why it’s crucial that research is conducted by an independent research firm, not the internal HR department. In market studies, the difficulty lies in precisely reaching employees of specific industries and seniority levels, requiring advanced panel profiling.