Cyprus has become increasingly attractive to international businesses and professionals. Yet the more interesting question for employers is what happens after the offer is accepted. Can people build a career here, work well with their leaders, and imagine a future on the island?
The answer matters to the competitiveness of every company hiring in Cyprus. A talent hub cannot rely on attracting people repeatedly while overlooking the conditions that help them stay.
For employers, this means investing in how people work together: developing leaders, training teams and creating a wellbeing strategy that supports both people and business performance.
The signals behind the headline numbers
In a 2025 survey commissioned by Konnekt and conducted by CYMAR, 67.1% of 500 respondents expressed some degree of openness to changing jobs. That includes people actively looking, those passively open to an opportunity, and those who intended to look later. It is a measure of openness, rather than a prediction of resignations. Salary and benefits were the leading stated reason to consider a move, while flexible hours led the list of preferred personalised benefits.
For a more direct view of work-related strain, EU-OSHA’s OSH Pulse 2025 Cyprus factsheet reports that 41% of surveyed workers experienced stress, depression or anxiety caused or made worse by work in the previous 12 months, compared with 29% across the EU. It also found that 43% reported severe time pressure or work overload and 41% reported poor communication or cooperation at work. Its Cyprus sample comprised 503 interviews.
These studies use different questions and samples. My conclusion is that employers need to look at retention alongside workload, leadership and communication — and develop the skills and working conditions that allow people to perform sustainably.
Pressure affects performance before people leave
Cyprus has a workforce sustainability problem that employers cannot afford to ignore. The 2024 European Working Conditions Survey, reported by Politis, found that nearly 44% of workers in Cyprus feel physically exhausted at the end of the working day always or most of the time — the highest share among 35 surveyed countries, compared with 28% across the EU. In the same survey, 21% reported working six or seven days a week, leaving limited room for recovery.
For a business, the risk begins well before a resignation. In my experience leading teams, sustained pressure can show up in rushed decisions, strained communication, avoidable rework and people withdrawing their ideas. These costs are easy to miss while targets are still being met. When an experienced employee eventually leaves, the company also faces recruitment, onboarding and lost knowledge, while colleagues absorb the additional workload.
This is why training leaders and teams needs to be part of a clear wellbeing strategy. Leaders need skills to recognise overload, manage priorities and respond constructively under pressure. Teams need practical tools for self-regulation, communication and recovery. The strategy must give them the time, support and working conditions to put those skills into practice.
Make wellbeing part of business strategy
A useful wellbeing strategy starts with understanding where pressure comes from and how it affects the organisation. Are priorities unclear? Do decisions bottleneck? Are managers unprepared for difficult conversations? Do the same high performers repeatedly absorb extra work?
From there, leadership and HR should agree a small number of priorities, assign responsibility, allocate time and budget, and define how progress will be reviewed. Depending on the needs of the business, this could mean improving workload planning, developing managers, training teams in stress management, or strengthening access to professional support.
The strategy should connect these efforts. If a company trains people to communicate more openly, managers need to respond constructively when concerns are raised. If it encourages recovery, workload and expectations need to leave room for it. Senior leaders need to take part and demonstrate the behaviours they expect from others.
Train leaders for the pressure they face
Many managers are promoted for technical excellence and then expected to handle difficult conversations, uncertainty and multicultural teams without much preparation. They need structured development and opportunities to practise these responsibilities.
Training should help leaders recognise their own stress responses, regulate their behaviour in tense moments, communicate priorities clearly, listen without defensiveness and address friction early. It should also prepare them to discuss workload, recognise when someone may need support and understand the limits of their role.
In my work, I bring business experience together with practical self-regulation methods using body, breath and attention. A brief pause before a difficult conversation can become an opportunity to choose a more deliberate response. We then connect that practice to real situations: giving feedback, handling disagreement or making decisions under pressure.
I believe this development should be ongoing, with practice, reflection and follow-up built into the way managers learn.
Give teams practical skills, too
Employees also need training that is relevant to the pressures they experience. This can include recognising early signs of stress, managing attention, communicating capacity, asking for support and recovering after demanding periods.
Team sessions should create space to work on shared habits. How do we raise a concern before it becomes a conflict? How do we agree what takes priority? What happens when a new task arrives and the team is already at capacity?
My aim is to help people build skills they can use during a working day, with opportunities to practise together and review what helps. Alongside this, employers need to address repeated overload and give teams a realistic opportunity to apply what they learn.
Give people a future they can see — and review progress
Fair pay remains a foundation. Career conversations, visible development routes, autonomy and meaningful responsibility also deserve attention. For international professionals, the picture extends beyond the office to integration, community and the possibility of building a life in Cyprus.
To review a wellbeing strategy, employers should combine confidential employee feedback with workload reviews, stay conversations and relevant organisational indicators. Ask whether people understand their priorities, can raise concerns, have opportunities to recover and see a credible next step in their careers.
Training attendance is only one measure. Follow-up should also ask what people are applying, what managers are doing differently and which barriers still need to be addressed. Report back on the decisions taken and adjust the strategy as the organisation learns.
The opportunity for Cyprus
There are encouraging signals, too. In InterNations’ 2025 survey, Cyprus rose to 31st in the Working Abroad Index from 51st in 2024. The share of surveyed expats satisfied with their job increased from 39% to 52%, although it remained below the global average of 60%.
Making Cyprus a lasting talent hub calls for action at two levels. The island needs strong career opportunities, integration and conditions that make it possible to build a life here. Inside organisations, employers need to invest in leadership and team development, supported by a wellbeing strategy with clear ownership and consistent follow-through.
This is the work I want to advance through the HR platforms like the Island People Excellence Awards and the European HR Summit and through my consulting and training with companies. I help leaders and teams develop the skills to manage pressure, communicate clearly and sustain performance, while helping organisations turn wellbeing priorities into practical action.
The quality of work people experience today shapes the talent Cyprus can retain tomorrow. Developing that quality requires the same attention and commitment we give to attracting people in the first place.
Gala Grigoreva is a C-level executive, HRDA-certified corporate trainer and founder of Integrated Professional Growth, a consultancy specialising in corporate wellbeing strategies and training. She is also Community Leader of Women in Tech Cyprus.
With more than 11 years of experience leading teams, Gala combines business leadership with training in stress management and self-regulation. She helps leaders and teams sustain strong performance without burning out, and works with organisations to develop practical wellbeing strategies.
She is also a co-organiser of the European HR Summit and Island People Excellence Awards in Cyprus, and a speaker, moderator and host of international business, HR and networking events.
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