Recent survey conducted by online employment portal Jobstreet.com suggested that Filipinos are less happy at work, with most employees showing a desire for career development.
Entitled as 2017 Happiness Index, the report said that the lack of career development and training opportunities are among top reasons why Pinoy workers are unhappy in the workplace. Besides those factors, the company’s management style is also a leading cause of dissatisfaction among Filipino workers, CNN Philippines reports.
Philippine’s Jobstreet.com country manager Philip Gioca said that this findings could be a good wake-up call for the employers that the situation is not getting better after years. In fact, it is getting worse.
More 9,326 respondents were participating in the survey, which was conducted for over one month period from July 31 to August 31. According to the report, on a scale of 1 to 10, with minimum 1 being extremely unhappy and maximum 10 being extremely happy, Filipino workers averaged 4.97 this year, indicating a slight drop from 5.25 score in 2016.
When respondents were asked about the things that will make them happier at work in the next six months, 33 percent said a salary increase will make them happier, while the other 23 percent expected to resign or move on to a new job. Good relationships with colleagues and co-workers is the top reason for their job satisfaction.
Mr Gioca said factors that drive job happiness and unhappiness among Filipino employees might differ depending on age and career stage. Given that the workplace is composed of different generations, it would be best if managers can get to the heart of why such issue is happening in their company, because each organisation’s DNA is unique.
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The survey found that Baby boomers, or those born before 1960, are the happiest employees, followed by those from the Generation Z, or those born between 1995 and 2012. Meanwhile, in terms of position level, the top executives have the happiest happiness score, followed by the fresh graduates.
The baby boomers felt that work schedule is crucial, while the younger ones consider work relationships and work location as important. Then, a lack of career development and training opportunities made older employees dissatisfied. The millennials are also discouraged by the same factors, added with poor pay and salary.
“One of the key takeaway should be management should be able to address a communication line between their employees,” Mr Gioca said.
With the drop in job satisfaction among Filipinos, the Philippines slides down to 3rd from 1st place in 2016, compared with six other Asian countries. Job satisfaction is highest in Indonesia (5.27), followed by Vietnam (5.19), the Philippines (4.97), Malaysia (4.65), Thailand (4.55), Hong Kong (4.45) and Singapore (4.31).
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