Job dissatisfaction widespread, study finds
Deloitte survey in the Asia-Pacific finds that more than 60 per cent of employees are looking to change their jobs
If you are considering leaving your company, you are among a majority of employees, according to a global survey conducted by Deloitte Consulting.
The Talent Edge 2020 study, which gauged opinions of employees at nearly 400 firms with annual
revenue of at least US$500 million (Bt15.4 billion) worldwide, including one-third in the Asia-Pacific region, found a high level of employees who were dissatisfied with their current jobs. It revealed that 65 per cent of the participating employees “have been [seeking] or plan to seek new employment”, and 30 per cent are “actively looking for new jobs”.
“This finding is in line with the results shown from the side of employers, that 63 per cent of executives are either highly or very highly concerned about employee retention over the next 12 months,” said Kessara Sakmaneevongsa, partner for consulting services of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Jaiyos Advisory, the parent firm’s Thai arm.
Nevertheless, leadership shortages and succession planning topped the talent concerns of company executives (30 per cent), followed by “recruiting hard-to-find skill sets” (29 per cent) and “sustaining employee engagement and morale” (25 per cent).
Kessara said that judging from Deloitte’s experience working with Thai clients, leadership development and talent recruitment and retention also topped the concerns of executives here, as well as performance management, which has attracted a lot of attention.
“Among the big questions are: Why are so many people getting the same pay rises? Why are the differences [in bonus payments] so small? If everyone gets the same three-month bonus, how does the company retain talent?” she said.
Apirak Jatukanyaprateep, another Deloitte partner for consulting services in Thailand, said that over the past three or four years, Thai companies had begun to place a lot of importance on the people-management issue.
“We have two groups of clients: fast-growing companies that can’t find [enough] people to serve their growth, and companies that aren’t growing quickly that fear that if they don’t adjust the way they manage their people, they will face a brain drain,” he said.
To address the performance-management issue, Kessara said a company should begin by defining its organisational objectives and then set out a key performance index (KPI) for the firm, cascading it down to each department, function and individual. Commitment from top management that they will honour the KPIs rather than using their “gut feeling” when evaluating their staff’s performance is crucial to the successful implementation of a performance-management system.
“There are a lot of cases in Thailand of an executive overruling judgements of his manager who is the direct supervisor of the staff in question. If employees feel they are not rewarded for what they have done, they will lose their enthusiasm and energy, and instead behave as a ‘nice brother’,” Apirak said.
“If he can enter the inner circle, it [the workplace] will become like heaven. If he can’t enter the inner circle, he will lose his thirst or may leave the company,” he said, adding that firms should refrain from adopting a KPI-based performance-management system if their executives are not ready to accept it.
Other key findings from the survey include:
“Improving top- and bottom-line performance” tops the strategic issues that capture the most management attention, with 38 per cent of participating executives identifying it as their top priority.
“Expanding into global and new markets” ranks second. Nonetheless, the proportion of executives who report that their companies are focused on this issue has been steadily rising from 12 per cent when this survey was first conducted in 2009 to 14 per cent in January 2010, 28 per cent in December 2010, and 33 per cent in this latest study.
More than 72 per cent of participants expect voluntary turnover among Generation Y (under 30) employees to increase over the next 12 months and 60 per cent expect higher turnover among Gen X (ages 30-44) workers. For baby-boomers (ages 45-64) the figures fall to 46 per cent, and for veterans (over 65) to 42 per cent.
