Malaysian workers ranked fourth among seven countries surveyed for job happiness, Jobstreet.com revealed.
Among the factors that keep Malaysians happy at work are a good work location, good colleagues and sound company reputation.
Meanwhile, poor leadership, a lack of career development and lack of training opportunities were identified as drivers of unhappiness on the job, reported Free Malaysia Today.
“Malaysian talent today are increasingly becoming clear on what they want. We hope companies can fully utilise market intelligence insights from our Employee Job Happiness Index 2017 to be a step ahead in talent retention in 2018,” said JobStreet.com Malaysia country manager Chook Yuh Yng.
“To instill a greater sense of confidence in the leadership of a company, employers should practice transparency in communication, at the same time, schedule regular skills upgrading programmes to engage and retain top talent.”
Respondents to the survey were asked to rate their job satisfaction on a 10-point scale for the Job Happiness Index, where 5 was considered neutral. Malaysia scored 4.65.
For 2017, Indonesia ranked first with a rating of 5.27. Vietnam and the Philippines were next, with 5.19 and 4.97, respectively.
Ranking below Malaysia were Thailand (4.55), Hong Kong (4.45) and Singapore (4.31).
The survey was done by more than 35,000 workers across 20 industries. Respondents ranged from fresh graduates to those in top management positions.
The survey showed that employees working in the civil service, food and beverage, and medical industries were the happiest.
“We see that ‘career development’ and ‘training opportunities’ are key areas whose growing importance cannot be neglected… it is understandable that Malaysian employees would feel frustrated and unhappy at their workplace if they find opportunities in these two key areas lacking,” Chook added.
Gender and civil status of employees did not cause them to perceive happiness differently.
Malaysia respondents also said that they wanted commensurate rewards, specifically a salary increase (29%), and recognition from the company (7%). More than a quarter (27%) of Malaysians said they were open to leaving their current jobs for new opportunities in pursuit of greater job happiness.
“Employers with good leadership practices and attractive rewards can make a critical difference in motivating and driving job happiness among the employees in the region,” Chook said.
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