Top regional jobsites have meant sourcing top talent has become faster, easier and more cost effective for employers than ever. They have also meant that the job market is that much more transparent and that professionals can access it at any time from anywhere and for free. In this age of great job market transparency and faster than ever candidate attraction tools, retention has become more important than ever for employers and they are increasingly investing substantial resources trying to better understand how to motivate, engage and hold onto their key staff. So why do professionals quit their jobs? Below are just some of the top reasons professionals seek greener pastures gleaned from the research of Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 jobsite.
Today’s professionals expect their employers to invest in their growth and development in a structured fashion and are hungry for skills acquisition and training. With days of lifelong job security long behind us and job tenures shrinking, professionals are cognizant that their skill sets needs to be sharp at all times in order to compete with others in the job market. Moreover with the whole realm of the employment marketplace flexing to accommodate consultants and freelancers more, as enabled by modern technologies, professionals are looking more than ever to rapidly build a skills portfolio that enables them a certain modicum of flexibility and autonomy in the long run. - According to Bayt.com’s Reward Programs and Employee Engagement in the Middle East survey, 44.7% of professionals in the Middle East say that more opportunities to learn and grow within the company is what they need to feel more engaged at work. - Nearly half (45.8%) of professionals polled in Bayt.com’s ‘Good Working Conditions’ poll indicating proper training and professional development schemes were the most important factors in creating good working conditions.
It is often said that professionals don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers. While managing up is a skill many professionals are relatively weak in, management of subordinates does take a special set of skills and necessitates a good degree of empathy, discipline and emotional intelligence. Employers promoting professionals to the management track are highly advised to invest in training them on the requirements of the new role and monitoring and coaching new managers closely to avoid discontent and disloyalty spreading in the lower ranks. - 31.1% of MENA professionals polled in Bayt.com’s ‘Management Challenges in the MENA’ poll describe their manager as having ‘poor management skills’. - 34% of polled MENA professionals agree that good leadership and management skills is what they look for most when hiring senior candidates/management. (Bayt.com Hiring Management in the MENA poll) - 17% of professionals describe their relationship with their boss as bad, and 24% said that their relationship with their manager is not stable and likely to depend on the boss’s mood. (Bayt.com Manager-Employee Relationships in the Middle East Workplace poll) - 72% of the region’s professionals consider a healthy relationship with their direct manager to be very important in the workplace. (Bayt.com Manager-Employee Relationships in the Middle East Workplace poll) - Effects of an unhealthy manager-employee relationship are cited by 17% of polled professionals to be low employee motivation, by 13% to contribute to a stressful work environment, 12% thought it could lead to unfinished job tasks and 54% cited all of these. (Bayt.com Manager-Employee Relationships in the Middle East Workplace poll)
While compensation isn’t the only reason professionals stay in a job, unfair and uncompetitive compensation is often cited as a reason jobseekers are in the market for a new role. Compensation issues aren’t only the salary but also the composition of the compensation and the types and magnitude of benefits offered. - 31.6% of professionals in Bayt.com’s Work Satisfaction in the MENA poll say that what they would most like to change about their current job is the salary. - 60.8% of professionals do not feel well compensated in their current job. (Bayt.com Work Satisfaction in the MENA poll) - 62.9% of professionals across the MENA region said their company does not offer any kind of incentives. (Bayt.com Reward Programs and Employee Engagement survey) - 69% of MENA professionals a indicate medium to low level of satisfaction towards their current pay. (Bayt.com Middle East Salary Survey 2012) - 63% of MENA professionals feel that their salary is lower than the industry standards in their region. (Bayt.com Middle East Salary Survey 2012) - One in 10 respondents say that hey have not received a raise in the last 12 months. (Bayt.com Middle East Salary Survey 2012)
A good work environment alleviates stress and greatly lifts morale and productivity. Lighting, space, office layout, color schemes, decoration all play a role here in defining the physical work environment. Also influencing the work environment are factors that influence culture including company cultural outings, athletic activities, gatherings and celebration days as well as HR policies and general attitudes that prevail in the workplace. - 32.7% of polled professionals rate the working environment in their company as ‘fair’ to ‘poor’. The poll also showed 23.4% of employees feel that the absenteeism in their organisation is high. (Bayt.com Absenteeism in the Workplace in the MENA poll) - 15% of MENA professionals say that poor work environment is the primary source of stress for them (Bayt.com Work-life Balance in the MENA poll)
Professionals crave reward and recognition and need to be assured that there is progress in store for them and that they are proceeding along the right path to grow their careers. Companies that do not offer clear progress milestones and map out in no uncertain terms potential career paths for individual professionals risk losing them to companies that do show they appreciate their employees’ full potential and are constructively appraising and grooming them for growth. - 34.3% of polled professionals say that there is no clear management track within their organization. (Bayt.com Hiring Management in the Middle East poll). - 39.2% of professionals say there are no opportunities for career growth and advancement at their company. (Bayt.com Work satisfaction in the MENA poll). (Photo credit: Yahoo! Finance)
