KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian skilled professionals and employers have shared that salary packages are no longer the top reason employees chose to stay with a company.
This is the finding by the 2024 Hays Asia Salary Guide which surveyed 2,014 skilled professionals and 832 employers from Malaysia.
The survey, conducted across six weeks in late 2023, asked employees looking for new opportunities within the next twelve months to list the top three reasons they wanted to leave their current place of employment.
The survey found that a desire to seek new challenges had surpassed low salary packages as the main reason across Asia.
A similar survey conducted in 2022 identified low salary packages as the primary reason employees were choosing to leave their current jobs.
Additionally, when it came to employees who stayed, flexible work options were unanimously selected as the most important contribution to that decision, rated even above salary considerations.
Among committed employees, good work-life balance and experiencing a good fit with managers and colleagues are ranked second and third respectively.
"A healthy working environment, positive values and a sufficiently challenging role will go a long way towards winning the hearts of employees in Malaysia." said Marc Burrage, managing director at Hays Asia.
"Leaders need to have these discussions with their workforce, and employees need to examine how they can enhance their value in this period of disruption. Collaboration is the key to survival, and both parties will need to face these challenges with open minds and a willingness to adapt," he added.
Hays, the global leader in workforce solutions and specialist recruitment released the 2024 Hays Asia Salary Guide.
It compiles salary and sector overviews based on real data and a survey of skilled professionals across Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Thailand.