The EY 2022 Work Reimagined Survey saw that employees around the world now hold more sway in the global job market. In the Philippines, the survey found 41% of respondents said they are likely to quit in the next 12 months.

Higher pay, overall well-being, better career opportunities, and flexibility, are among the reasons provided by the respondents on why they are willing to give up their present jobs.

EY surveyed more than 1,500 business leaders and more than 17,000 employees across 22 countries and 26 industry sectors including 50 employers and 300 employees from the Philippines. It shows that as many countries emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, employees have gained significant influence over their employers and that their “wish list” from potential employers is changing.

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“The survey results reflect how much employees are now able to discern what matters most to them, especially when aligning work expectations with their personal preferences,” said Czarina R. Miranda, People Advisory Services – Integrated Mobility Services Leader, SGV. “As employee retention and recruitment appears to be a pressing concern for most HR teams these days, employers need to revisit the value proposition offered to employees to address their concerns which center around compensation, career growth, and well-being. Employers who are able to succeed in this will hopefully acquire a competitive advantage in keeping its finest talents and in attracting the choicest recruits.”

Increased pay

The main motivation for employees seeking new jobs, according to the survey, is now a desire for higher pay. Forty-nine percent of Philippine employees say that a salary increase is their main objective, and 33% say they are looking for career growth. Fifty-three percent of employees surveyed say that pay increases are the key to addressing staff turnover, but only 18% of employers agree.

Flexible working arrangements, which were by far the biggest factors leading to employee moves according to last year’s survey, are now less of a driver given that most are already working for companies that offer flexibility in some form. Only 20% are seeking remote-work flexibility from a new job, while 32% say that better well-being programs would prompt them to move.

Skills gap

The desire among employees to seek out new roles persists even though they hold relatively upbeat views about company culture. The number of employees who believe their organization’s culture has improved has risen to 80%. At the same time, only 42% of employers have confidence in their own company culture.

Sixty-four percent of employer respondents agree it is important to have a strategy in place to match talent and skills to future business needs, and 80% say that they are prepared to hire employees from other countries and allow them to work from anywhere if their skills are critical or scarce. Twenty-four percent of employer respondents believe improving opportunities to build skills will help address turnover.

Looking at the various age groups surveyed in the Philippines, millennials (69%) and Gen X (18%) make up most of the employee respondents. Across the sectors, employees are mostly working in manufacturing (13%), technology software (11%), and telecommunications (11%), while 20% of employers come from the banking and capital markets industry.

Return to the office

Despite the continuing shift toward flexible working models, 20% of employer respondents say they want employees to come back to the office five days a week. Although reluctance to work remotely among employees has fallen to 24%, most employees (96%) say they want to work remotely at least two days per week.