Employers, take note: while plaques and accolades are nice to have, Filipino workers – more than their counterparts in Southeast Asia – would rather have job security than recognition and appreciation.
A recent survey conducted by JobStreet.com with over 1,200 respondents provides valuable insights to employers dealing with workforce retention. The survey results cite issues with present compensation and benefits, seeking greater challenges, exploring other career paths and promotion opportunities as top reasons for employees who leave their current jobs. Similar surveys conducted in Malaysia and Singapore also reveal that Filipinos share almost the same sentiments on career changes as their Southeast Asian neighbors, but differ from Malaysians and Singaporeans by preferring job security over recognition.
Indicators of job dissatisfaction
The same survey also shows that Filipinos prefer to have long tenures with their employers, 33% saying that a stay of five years or more is reasonable, in contrast to majority of Malaysians and Singaporeans who lean towards stints of only two to three years. Despite the preference for longer tenures, the reality is that Filipinos tend to change employers quite often, with 41% of respondents saying that they have worked for three or more companies in a period of five years. In fact, answers to another question reveal that 50% of respondents are actively looking for or changing to another job.
The survey was conducted online last November on JobStreet.com. Participants consisted mostly of young adults, aged 20 to 30 years old (52%). Thirty-one percent (31%) was made up by 30 to 40 year olds and 15% of ages 40 & above. Generally, the survey shows that younger jobseekers (those who were below 25 years old) are keener to explore new career paths while the more mature jobseekers were less inclined. People in their late 20s were more concerned about promotion opportunities while for people 40 years & older, the lack of recognition and appreciation was a more visible area of discontentment.
Retention strategies emerging from survey results
From the results of the survey, employers can devise strategies to promote employee retention.
“A high rate of employee turnover remains a critical issue for many companies as it hampers productivity, quality and profitability, ” says Grace Colet, JobStreet.com’s Country Manager. “We hope that with our survey’s findings, employers can begin proactively addressing concerns cited by respondents with strategies such as providing a challenging and rewarding work atmosphere, positive succession planning and better overall strategic and operational management.”
The online survey is the latest among JobStreet.com’s initiatives to improve the lives of Filipinos by bridging information and communication gaps between employers and workers. The company actively works with industry and employer groups such as the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) and various professional organizations to shed light on labor and employment issues. It also hosts the HRInternet Forum, a free online discussion board of 1,000 HR professionals where they can tackle workplace issues, share resources and compare best practices and HR policies with fellow practitioners across the country.
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