Nearly 16 percent of employees here leave their jobs annually, as opposed to less than 9 percent Europe-wide, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

"In comparison to [the rest of] Europe, the Czech Republic still has a long way to go with regard to human resources controlling," PwC Human Resources Services Manager Martina Wolfová said. The report examined 84 leading companies here in 2005.

The automotive industry is among the worst-hit by the problem, with turnover reaching as high as 34.2 percent. Authors of the study explain the rate as a result of the high number of blue-collar jobs in the industry.

"For lower-paying jobs, an additional 2,000 Kč [$91] can play a key role when considering a job offer," said Jiří Sova, project manager at Grafton Recruitment.

Turnover is lowest in the chemical industry, where a higher number of employees are older than 35 and thus less likely to seek a new job.

Analysts could not provide exact numbers as to how much money businesses lose to high turnover but said that companies that effectively battle the problem show higher profit.

HR managers here invest only a quarter of what other European managers put toward employee education and development, which leaves companies unable to keep quality workers, the report concludes.

"Czech companies look at their human resources as a cost item and not as an asset-creating value for the company," said Martina Štěpinová, senior consultant in the PwC's human resources services department.

earching for growth

That is especially apparent in Czech businesses. Companies with foreign capital spend an average of 3.5 million Kč overall on each employee annually. On average, Czech-owned companies spend only 2.3 million Kč per employee, provide three hours of on-the-job training, often underestimate their employees' knowledge and fail to fill vacant positions from within.

The result: Young employees often leave jobs in pursuit of career growth.

"It's normal for young people to stay on a job for two or three years and then go somewhere else," Sova said.

Other experts say, however, that the reason for high turnover is not that simple, and some of the blame goes to the employees themselves.

"A lot of people in this country tend to select jobs on the wrong criteria," said Andrea Colantoni, managing director of Square One Recruitment and InterSearch recruitment companies. "They leave because they are not in the right position in the first place."

Colantoni said that in many cases workers switch jobs in pursuit of higher pay without taking other aspects into consideration.

"Czechs are exceptionally bad at choosing job opportunities," he said. "People often get blinded by a brand or the size of a company and don't consider actual job content or relationship with their future boss."

Companies, in turn, don't often choose wisely when hiring.

Colantoni said that's true for the whole hiring process, from the way companies advertise openings to the way they interview candidates.

In some cases, employers end up hiring people based solely on personal qualities without taking into consideration actual skills, while in others they choose workers purely on the merits of their résumés, disregarding their personalities, he said.

Lack of tradition

The high turnover can also be attributed to the continuing transition from communism to capitalism.

Colantoni, who has also worked in Slovakia, Poland and Romania, said that poor human resources management is characteristic of all emerging markets.

During communism, workers used to hold one job for their entire careers and the responsibilities of human resources departments went no further than processing paychecks.

"Economic transformation is still under way," said Daniel Munich, assistant professor of labor affairs at Charles University's Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education.