|
NUMBERS
don’t lie. Despite Watson Wyatt executives’ assertions
that base pay is no longer an absolute criterion, their
own survey of 400 companies worldwide shows many
employers can’t afford to keep talents and often just
watch their best and brightest walk off to greener
pastures.
Russell
Huntington, Asia-Pacific human capital group director of
the Arlington, Virginia-headquartered Watson Wyatt
Worldwide Inc., admits that companies across the world
are having difficulty attracting and retaining employees
despite the global economy being expected to grow nearly
5 percent from now until next year, driven mainly by
emerging economies.
In his
presentation titled “Global Battle to Retain Talent,”
Huntington told several chief executives of
Philippine-based companies that their survey reveals the
average rate of difficulty in attracting employees
overall is at 36 percent. The rate of difficulty in
attracting top-performing employees is higher at 67
percent; more so critical-skill employees at 70 percent.
The
rates of difficulty in retaining these employees are
relatively lower at 31 percent (overall), 56 percent
(critical-skill employees) and 52 percent
(top-performing employees).
The
turnover or rate of attrition in companies across the
region including Japan is also at an average of above 12
percent, with Hong Kong posting the highest employee
turnover rate of 18.4 percent among 13 countries. The
lowest employee turnover rate was posted by Malaysia (5
percent).
The
Philippines posted an average attrition rate of 12
percent, a few notches above Thailand (11.7 percent) and
below Japan’s 12.4 percent.
Watson-Wyatt’s survey also reveals that low-performing
companies are having the greatest difficulty in this war
for talents–or those with managerial and executive
skills, as well as engineering and specialized
capabilities.
These
companies posted a 76-percent difficulty rate in
attracting critical-skill employees and a 77-percent
rate in bringing onboard top-performing employees.
However, their ability to retain both types of employees
are lower at 64 percent.
Nonetheless, high-performing companies fare better. The
culprit, according to the survey of employers, remains
the base pay.
Six of
11 countries said the base pay remains the crucial point
in luring talents to the companies. Except for the
Philippines, Japan and Korea, which said base pay was
just a secondary factor for attracting these talents,
Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and
Thailand noted base pay as the primary factor for
attracting these talents.
Philippine-based employers said they think the
reputation of the company remains the primary reason why
some of the best and brightest walk outside the
country’s universities and into these employers’ arms.
These employers said base pay is only a secondary factor
while career-development opportunities is a third
reason.
Nonetheless, these employers admit that base pay becomes
the primary reason why their talented employees leave.
The
Philippines is one of seven countries that noted base
pay as the main reason for companies’ failure to retain
the highly skilled employees.
Huntington
told BusinessMirror after his presentation last week
that base pay is one of the challenges that companies
face.
However,
he tries to downplay money as a major reason and points
to what Watson-Wyatt calls as “engagement.”
According to Huntington, engagement has replaced loyalty
as a motivation for employees to stay with the company.
“Engagement is when employees help the company succeed,”
he explained. “Loyalty’s history.”
The
challenge to employers today, he added, is to “go beyond
the traditional definition of rewards and encompass the
entire employment experience when addressing talent
management.”
“Employees must know where the company is going and they
should be engaged in helping the company move toward
that goal,” Huntington said.
He said
this could only be done if employers know what their
employees’ value propositions are. |
