A RECENT study by a Cebu-based online job portal Mynimo.com has revealed that 42 percent of Cebu’s workers are planning on quitting their jobs soon.
The figure translates to 1,890 workers of the total 4,500 Cebu-based workers surveyed by Mynimo.com across 58 sectors.
“The jobs with the highest resignation rates are jobs that have proven to be very demanding to carry out, especially during the lockdowns,” said Mynimo.com’s chief executive officer and president Wesley Chiongbian in a statement.
Call center agents in the business process management industry topped the jobs with the highest resignation rate followed by jobs in the accounting and finance and admin, office and clerical staff.
Jobs in sales, marketing and retail ranked fourth followed by production and manufacturing.
Results of the survey revealed that “lack of company benefits” was the top reason cited by the employees for leaving their jobs followed by “limited growth in the company,” “being underpaid,” “feeling undervalued,” and “no work-life balance,” respectively.
These professionals are said to be seeking better benefits and work-life balance to address the stress they face in their current roles.
Also, most of these roles don’t offer work-from-home arrangements, according to Chiongbian. Another reason the respondents pointed out was the challenge of commuting to work daily pushed them to seek better employment opportunities.
Because of this, Chiongbian said the “great resignation” is changing the way employers engage their workers.
“Aside from providing competitive salaries and benefits, companies should be more sensitive to the needs of each employee to be able to retain them. It’s becoming more evident that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach of the past is no longer the best practice for retention,” he said.
Chiongbian pointed out that employers will need to address each employee’s individual concerns, to keep them committed to the company and engaged in their work.
“This is the best way to retain and attract talent moving forward,” Chiongbian said.
Work-from-home
When the Covid-19 pandemic forced companies to shift to a work-from-home (WFH) set-up, it became a game-changer among industries for not only sustaining operations but also retaining their employees.
“The option to work from home or, more appropriately, work remotely will be here to stay. This is as long as the people who do so prove to be just as, if not more, productive than if they worked at the office,” he said.
Chiongbian added that companies need to keep in mind that they will have to implement new business practices and policies to make their remote working arrangements sustainable.
He said the WFH set-up proved to have more pros than cons as shown in the statistics of Mynimo’s salary report which the company is targeting to release for subscription by May 20, 2022.
“When working from home, time is no longer wasted traveling every day from our homes to our offices and vice versa. This significantly reduces daily stress, which can have great long-term benefits. This has also made business meetings more efficient as companies, and even government offices, have gotten used to video conferencing. Instead of having to travel out of town just for a one-hour meeting, we can just get on Zoom,” he said.
However, Chiongbian said that both the employer and the employee have to realize that not all “homes” are conducive to work in.
“If there are multiple people working from the same home, plus a child doing remote learning at the same time, this can affect productivity significantly. The stability and capacity of the home’s internet connection will also be primary factors. And most importantly, mental health will need to be carefully addressed for this type of work arrangement,” he said.
Meanwhile, the return to office (RTO) trend is seen to be embraced, with the easing of restrictions and the full reopening of the economy.
“It is an emerging trend that was not present prior to the pandemic and lockdowns. Work-life balance ranks higher in terms of importance, which could be related to RTO. However, this means that it is still more important to provide competitive salaries and benefits to retain employees,” Chiongbian said.
Mynimo is set to release its complete report this month. (with PR)