While COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the current investment expenditure of Georgian ICT companies, investment and hiring is set to increase in the future for most firms in this sector.

Last month, the Alumni Association of ISET conducted a training session for the institute’s MA students, the aim of which was to provide information about the largest employers of ISET graduates, demonstrate their needs and expectations and prepare the students for the hiring process by conducting mock interviews.

Even more surprisingly, as the ISET Policy Institute team found out while interviewing businesses in Rustavi, Gori, Kutaisi, and Batumi, Georgian employers do not necessarily consider education to be a major criterion in their hiring decisions. Many of the interviewees were mostly concerned about the work ethics of their future employees. Others, particularly owners of small family businesses, cared to hire their relatives, whether they had the necessary education (and qualifications) or not.

Georgia’s current rank in the ease of “hiring and firing practices” and “redundancy costs” (weeks of salary an employer is required to pay a dismissed worker) is 9th and 13th, respectively (World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, 2012-13).