Kingdom workers eye change

via CAAI

Monday, 14 February 2011 15:01 Mary Kozlovski

A greater percentage of Cambodian workers intend to change employers in the year ahead, compared to those in Vietnam and Laos, a new survey has found.

The study, conducted by Indochina Research Limited, revealed that 45 percent of Cambodians intended to change employers this year, compared with 16 percent of Vietnamese respondents and 31 percent of Laotians, with the primary motivation being financial.

Of the Cambodian respondents in the 900-person survey, 45 percent cited job satisfaction as a reason to work for their current employer, 35 percent mentioned stability, with 31 percent welcoming a high salary.

General Manager of IRL in Cambodia Laurent Notin said that economic development meant that there were more employment options available to Cambodians.

“There is such a limited number of people with a limited number of skills. Companies start fighting for the best,” he said.

“When you fight for the best you tend to attract them with more money.

“[Cambodia] is a very cash [driven] economy and people are looking at how they can make money the fastest way possible.”

Managing Director of HR Inc Sandra D’Amico said that while human resources management was becoming a more important issue for Kingdom employers, the sector was still less developed than elsewhere in the world.

“The idea of work environment, benefits and incentives are not as important to the broader [spectrum of] Cambodian working professionals yet, compared to other more established industries and countries.”

“Although we see in our salary surveys that things such as total compensation are becoming more comprehensive,” she said.

While employers highlighted international competition as a motivation for workers to demand high salaries, other issues are also at play.

Sam Peou, chief executive officer of Nautisco Seafood, said a good working environment was crucial.

“If companies can create a good, healthy working environment which offers great challenges professionally, then high salaries may not be the only solution to retain employees,” he said.

IRL interviewed 900 people aged between 18 and 50 across various professional sectors, with 300 respondents each from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.