The Randstad 2019 Employer Brand Research report has revealed some rather interesting information about the Malaysian workforce. The report, which surveyed 2,504 Malaysian-based employees and examined 75 of the largest commercial companies to work for across 11 sectors, revealed the top 20 most attractive employers in Malaysia as well as the top employee value propositions Malaysia-based employees looked at.
Some of the big names that appear as desirable to Malaysian workers within said report are PETRONAS, Shell Malaysia, Nestlé Malaysia, Intel Malaysia, and Samsung.
Additionally, 64 per cent of Malaysia-based employees looked at salary and benefits as the most important factor when choosing an ideal employer. Other factors that were high on the priority list included work-life balance, strong management, career progression, and good atmosphere and work culture.
The three most attractive sectors to employees were energy & utilities, information communication & technology, and transportation & logistics.
It comes as almost no surprise that money is still the king of motivators when determining job attractiveness. Throughout all current generations, obtaining an attractive salary along with generous benefits are among the top three reasons to stay with an employer.
Apart from salary, millennials often rank career progression opportunities and a healthy work-life balance highly as well. When choosing to leave a company, they cite low compensation, a limited career path, and poor work-life balance.
Gen Xers place even more stock into benefits and salary as well as a proper work-life balance. Though they are not as concerned regarding career progression. They however often cite financial instability their organisation as a reason for resigning.
Gen Zers are the outliers that separate themselves from the previous generations. While salary and benefits are still important to them, Gen Zers put more emphasis on good training and opportunities to learn as their primary attraction factor. Career progression opportunities are also prioritised by them, leading to high turnover should they perceive that they hit a career brick wall in their organisation.
The research also found a clear disconnect between employees’ expectations and what companies are known to be offering.
Overall, employees rank work-life balance as the second most important factor when choosing their ideal company. However, most Malaysian companies are perceived to offer poor work-life balance, be it through fact, reputation, or poor communication.
At the same time, employees rank ‘use of latest technologies’ as their second last expectation of their ideal employers, but it was ranked highly when it comes to what companies in Malaysia are perceived to offer.
With Gen Zers willing to stay on at an organisation as long as the career and learning opportunities are there, the popular notion among companies that workers today have low loyalty can also be questioned.
Organisations often overestimate the number of active job seekers (those sending out resumes) while underestimating passive job seekers (those who have jobs but are open to other opportunities). As a result, organisations put most of their resources and energy into recruiting and onboarding new employees, but then quickly shift their attention to the next candidate, often leaving new recruits feeling adrift.
All these factors add up to a clear disconnect between employee and employer. This can result in the perception of a lack of employees in the job market because workers are outright turning down offers from companies.
Organisations need to ensure that their message is clear when putting out the call for recruitment. They also nee to cater to the needs and wants of the new generation as that is where the required talent for future tech is being nurtured.
