Retention still a key challenge for Malaysian HR professionals

A lack of engagement is the main reason behind Malaysia's retention problems, as 36% of employees locally say they are likely to leave their current organisation in the next two years.

This is an increase from 29% of staff who said the same thing in 2012, according to Towers Watson's 2014 Global Workforce Study and 2014 Talent Management & Rewards Study. 

Overall, the percentage of employees in Malaysia who are highly engaged is still a low 40%, consistent with the global average, despite increasing from 36% in 2012. Additionally, 31% of highly engaged employees are reporting they are likely to leave their organisation within two years, also an increase from 30% in 2012.

The reports, which surveyed over 32,000 employees globally, explored employee and employer perspectives on issues shaping the employment deal, with the aim of better understanding what keeps employees in Malaysia engaged, the issues they face, and what attracts them to join an organisation, and why they leave.

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"The findings suggest employees in Malaysia are becoming more demanding in regards to what it takes to keep them truly engaged and committed to their organisation. In other words, the employment landscape in Malaysia is very competitive and therefore the ability to retain top talent will continue to be a challenging reality," said Dr Joyce K. Noser, Tower Watson’s practice leader, organisational surveys & insights in Malaysia.

"To address the increased retention challenges and improve employee engagement levels, employers can start by creating a more consumer-like experience for employees and align the employment deal with company strategic priorities, given the strong relationship that exists between high levels of sustainable engagement and company financial results."

She added employers need to key engagement drivers in Malaysia, which were found to be "empowerment", "goals and objectives", and "workload and worklife".

The key drivers of attraction and retention in Malaysia have stayed the same since 2012 - "pay/salary", "job security" and "learning and development" for attraction; "pay/salary", career advancement opportunities" and "relationship with supervisor/manager" for retention - but companies are still continuing to miss the mark.

"In a talent scarce market, companies not only need a well-defined employment proposition, it also needs to set itself apart from its talent competitors and define a compelling value proposition to connect clearly to its target talent segments," said Mary Chua, director of talent & rewards in Towers Watson Malaysia.

"Our research shows that increasingly, employees feel it is the employer’s responsibility to know their needs and meet them. But worryingly, more than half feel companies fail to live up to the employment promise."

Companies could also do better in the area of career management, Chua added.

"Given how important career advancement opportunities are to employees, the fact that so many employees, including those who are highly engaged, feel they actually have to leave their current company to advance, should be a wake-up call to employers to review their career management programmes."

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