It’s the year 2020, and Malaysians are still facing problems with their salaries.
Photo: Midandi
A report by Hays Asia Salary Guide found that Malaysians are most dissatisfied with their salaries as compared to any other countries in Asia.
Based on the report, 46% of employees in Malaysia were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their current compensation packages.
Malaysia also had the highest number of employees (24%) in Asia who asked for a pay raise but did not receive one in the last year, with the majority of employees expecting an increase between 3% and 6% to their current salaries.
Meanwhile, some 20% of Malaysian employers, the highest percentage in Asia to say so, said they did not expect changes in their employees’ salaries at all.
The survey was conducted from August to October 2019 with a total of 6,000 respondents surveyed across Asia, including in China, Singapore, and Japan.
Hays Malaysia Managing Director, Tom Osborne, said in a statement that Malaysia is continuously experiencing brain drain that allows for some of the best talents in the country to seek better offers elsewhere. Hence, it was vital for an organization to offer more incentives in order to attract and retain the best talent.
According to Tom, these incentives could either be in monetary or non-monetary form. With a mismatch of salary expectations, organizations could also explore more holistic benefit packages that could ease their employee’s areas of concern.
Another focus would also be on upskilling, something that both candidates and organizations can look into, he added.
Besides a mismatch in salary, the report also showed that Malaysia had the highest number of respondents in Asia who were actively seeking a new job (52%), citing compensation as their top reason for doing so.
“Interestingly, compensation was not the biggest reason why employees would stay with their current employer. 41% of respondents favoured ‘work-life balance’ as what would make them stay, while 38% favoured ‘salary or benefit packages’, followed closely by ‘work location’ (37%) and ‘management style and company culture’ (36%),” Tom said in the statement.
Malaysians also regarded “training and development opportunities” as more important as compared to all other Asian markets.
“This shows that while Malaysian professionals may be attracted by higher pay, benefits that ease work-life balance and difficulties like travel to work or aid in upskilling would be key in retaining them over salary,” he added.
By: Siti Farhana Sheikh Yahya
