More than60% of respondents across the Middle East and North Africa said their employers prioritized good working conditions, according to the latest online poll series conducted by the Middle East’s number one job site Bayt.com. The results of the ‘Good Working Conditions in the Middle East’ poll showed that32.6% of respondents said employers treated good working conditions as a top priority,32.9% said they treated them as a priority to a certain extent and only34.5% said they did not prioritize good working conditions at all.
The poll went on to ask the region’s respondents if their companies provided training and professional development schemes. Over one third of those polled (34.3%) said yes while47.7% said no,18 % said it depends on the position. Participants were also asked if their employers gave them room for personal job authority and decision making;32.1% said they do,31.6% said they don’t and36.4% said it depends on the position.
The respondents were then asked which criteria they believed were the most important to creating good working conditions. Nearly half (45.8%) said proper training and professional development schemes,22.7% said generous incentives (such as vacation days, parking and education allowance),16.8% said room for personal job authority and decision making and12% said good office setting (such as lighting, seating, lunch rooms and gyms).
When asked what office settings their employers provided, a factor established as important in good working conditions during the poll,14.1% of respondents said agreeable office seating,12.7% said a good lighting system,4.8% said a lunch room with healthy food,3.4% said a company gym,18.8% said all of the above and an overwhelming46.1% said none of the above.
Next respondents were asked how better working conditions would affect them as employees. According to64.3% of the surveyors, improved working conditions would result in more organizational loyalty, more productivity and more job involvement. Meanwhile, the rest of the respondents were divided in their answers;11% said more organizational loyalty,11.5% said more productivity and10.7% said more job involvement.
“As the number one job site in the Middle East, Bayt.com is dedicated to researching and analyzing data that can be useful to both employees and employers,” said Amer Zureikat, VP Sales, Bayt.com, “The results of our most recent poll show that improved working conditions not only benefit employees but also improve their productivity which in turn greatly benefits employers themselves. Strong managers have always known that in order to get the most out of their subordinates it is best to create the ideal conditions for effective productivity and we are seeing more and more companies dedicated to improving their staff’s working conditions.”
Finally when asked if they were currently on the job hunt for better working conditions, most of the respondents (94.3%) said yes while only5.7% said no. “This however, is more a reflection of people’s natural tendency to believe the grass is greener on the other side and to continuously seek out new opportunities as the Middle Eastern employment market betters,” concluded Zureikat.
Data for the ‘Good Working Conditions’ poll series was collected online between January7 and February15,2011, with a total of12,329respondents from across the Middle East. This and other Middle East research, as well as information on Bayt.com’s classifieds, are available online on Bayt.com.