What worries employers most, according to DoLE) Qualified people, high turnover, absenteeism cited

MANILA, Philippines — The top three issues that worry Metro Manila employers are the lack of qualified manpower, high turnover rate, and absenteeism/tardiness, according to a survey of the Department of Labor and Employment.

The survey on human resources management practices was conducted by the labor department’s Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics as part of its third quarter Labor Turnover Survey. Made between October and December 2007, the survey was released on Thursday to media by Secretary Marianito Roque.

The respondents, which were drawn from the list of top 5,000 enterprises, were asked to rate each concern according to their relative importance. The rating is a choice between “high” priority and “low” priority.

“Results showed that recruitment problem/shortage of qualified applicants were considered ‘high’ in importance by 39.3 percent of the total respondents,” Roque said.

“This was closely related to high labor turnover rate which ranked second with 30.5 percent response rate and pirating of workers which ranked 10th with 16.3 percent response rate,” he added.

Roque said the survey findings indicated that many companies were preoccupied with hiring the best and the brightest people in the midst of talent shortage.

The survey also showed that absenteeism and tardiness garnered the third highest mention at 27 percent. But this problem varied widely across sub-sectors as it scored high — at 44.1 percent — among employers engaged in real estate, renting, and business activities but a low of 8.3 percent in electricity, gas, and water supply.

Theft, fraud, and willful breach of trust ranked fourth at 24.5 percent. It naturally scored highest in financial intermediation (35.7 percent); it scored lowest in hotels and restaurants (14.3 percent).

Low productivity and lack of work ethics occupied the fifth and sixth positions at 21.3 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively. Across sub-sectors, low productivity was a major concern in real estate, renting, and business activities at 29.4 percent; and hotels and restaurants at 28.6 percent.

Lack of work ethics, on the other hand, was a human resource issue in financial intermediation (35.7 percent), and real estate, renting, and business activities (23.5 percent).

Three other human resource issues received almost equal responses. These were lack of motivation/initiative (18.8 percent), lack of skills (18.2 percent), and sexual harassment (18 percent). These proportions, however, differed widely across sub-sectors.

Enterprises engaged in financial intermediation recorded the highest proportion in terms of lack of motivation (23.8 percent) and sexual harassment (31 percent). Concerns about lack of skills were posted highest in hotels and restaurants (28.6 percent).

At the bottom of the human resource concerns were lack of company loyalty and interpersonal problems at 12.8 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively. –Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net