Government employees are relatively happy and fulfilled at their jobs, a new study by JobStreet Philippines has found. This runs contrary to the popular belief that government workers are unhappy, as well as the unfounded stigma that the government isn’t beneficial to work for.
In the study, 1,008 government employees – 257 government employees and 751 from JobStreet’s database – were asked to rate their happiness in various criteria related to work environment, such as management/leadership team, job security, and work-life balance. They would rate their happiness in each category on a scale of 1-7, with 7 being the highest. Government employees recorded an average of 4.85 points on this scale. Indeed, in 2017, government emerged as one of the top 3 happiest sectors, alongside hotel/hospitality and food and beverage/restaurant workers.
The biggest drivers of government employees’ happiness were reputation of government agency, relationship with immediate boss, and the mission, vision, and values of their agency. Meanwhile, pain points included lack of travel opportunities, lack of performance bonuses, and low salary.
Job happiness is an important element of work performance and employee health – happier employees are 12% more productive, physically and mentally healthier, and stay with their jobs longer.
The purpose of the study was to inform JobStreet’s government partners what makes jobs in the government attractive to those who work in the private sector, determine the factors that contribute to job happiness in the government, and help partners form strategies to maintain current employees and secure new ones.
“Through the data gathered from this study, we aim to encourage more Filipinos to look past the stigma and prejudice and be more open to working for the government. After all, it does have its wonderful perks,” said Christine Sevilla, JobStreet Philippines’ Senior Manager for Government.
JobStreet also found that 80% of candidates want to work in the government, especially due to the benefits of job security, retirement plans, and career growth, yet only 37% are actually eligible for government work.
This research comes hot on the heels of the recent Civil Service Examinations, held last March. It’s up to JobStreet’s government partners to more efficiently and adequately disseminate information about eligibility for civil service, including the different levels of eligibility associated with the CSE-PPT exam. Another exam is coming up in August, and candidates should be well-informed about what to expect, and how to achieve their desired positions.
“With these results, we recommend that government human resources divisions conduct their own happiness surveys from time to time to help identify areas of improvement for the job satisfaction of their employees, as well as bolster efforts to improve areas where happiness is already at a high level.” said JobStreet Philippines General Manager Philip Gioca.
Employers now claim that aside from an applicant’s attitude or work ethic, they also place more consideration on communication skills and analytical thinking as top considerations when hiring fresh college graduates.
This inclination toward interpersonal and 21st century skills has emerged as JobStreet.com Philippines, the country’s largest online job portal, conducted a survey involving 503 employers from various parts of the country in February 2018 as part of its annual Fresh Graduate Report.
These results reflect a marked shift compared to 2015’s top determinants which are experience-based qualifications — on-the-job training, extra-curricular activities, and part-time work experience, which now see themselves in the bottom ranks.
Furthermore, when respondents were asked to rate particular qualities they observed on their fresh graduate hires, factors such as task management efficiency, leadership potential, customer empathy, and analysis of situations averaged the lowest.
These ratings further reflect the preference of employers in hiring candidates who have already developed interpersonal and 21st century proficiencies despite being new to the workforce.
Top School Preferences Maintained
But despite these marked changes, employers maintain their opinions on a topic most find traditional: the schools where the hired applicants graduated from. This year, when asked if they have reasons for sourcing employees from particular institutions, employers pointed out that they believe in the schools’ reputation of producing quality graduates and eventual employees.
The top three most preferred schools by most employers surveyed are Polytechnic University of the Philippines, University of the Philippines, and Ateneo de Manila University. The inclusion of two schools outside of Metro Manila — University of San Carlos (#8) and University of Cebu (#9) also marks the first time tertiary institutions not located in the National Capital Region make their appearance in the top ten list since 2014 .
Increased salaries, opportunities
The report also indicates that fresh college graduates can expect an abundant job market this year. In the last quarter of 2017 alone, employers were bullish with 52,149 jobs available to fresh graduates—a 10% increase from 2016’s 47,339.
The national average salary for fresh graduates remains to be attractive at nearly Php20,000. The average of Php19,785 in the last quarter of 2017 shows a slight increase from 2016’s Php19,437.
According to JobStreet.com, law graduates remain to be the best-paid among the lot, with an average monthly salary of Php27,355. This is followed by fresh graduates who take on roles in public relations/communications, with an average monthly salary of Php24,675, and those who specialize in creating content (i.e. content writer, foreign language content translator, and junior technical writer), with an average monthly salary of Php22,446. Thus, the highest paid are more aligned towards content and communication-related jobs.
“This shows that more and more employers are opening their doors to fresh graduates, presenting a significant shift in what employers need in these increasingly digital world,” concludes Philip Gioca, JobStreet.com Philippines Country Manager.
A new crop of fresh graduates: K-12
It has been five years since the K-12 program was implemented, and the first batch of graduates from this system are set to join the workforce this year. The survey revealed that 25% of employers are willing to hire, while 40% are indefinite about hiring K-12 graduates. The 40% indefinite employers said they are still evaluating or will eventually hire pending definite timelines.
For employers who are open, the survey affirms this as a number of industries have been identified as the most willing to hire K-12 graduates: BPO, manufacturing, professional services, retail, and machinery and equipment; for entry level jobs in administrative, customer service, sales and marketing.
With this non-committal attitude of employers, Mr. Gioca advises the newest entrants of the job market to be more discerning and strategic on their career planning. “There are indeed employers that are receptive to hiring them, but they have to contend with two factors: One, that not all employers are accepting of K-12 graduates as of the moment and two, they will have to compete with fresh college graduates, which employers may favor more, for the same jobs they are eyeing,” he pointed out.
In terms of salary, K-12 graduates may find themselves sufficiently paid, as 50% of respondents said that they are willing to pay their K-12 fresh graduate hires more than the minimum wage.
2018 is poised to be a good year in the Philippine job market, with both employers and talents expressing an optimistic view in relation to their hiring and job search activities, according to this year’s JobStreet.com Job Outlook Report.
The report, now on its second year, asked companies of their job market outlook in 2018. On a 7-point scale, employers averaged a 5.01 showing an increase in outlook optimism versus 2017, while candidates maintain their optimism at 4.68.
This positive sentiment among employers and candidates is backed by indications of increased hiring and job-hunting activity, as 95% of Philippine companies claim to be expanding, hiring more personnel, and maintaining their hiring rate, while 88% of talents will be either monitoring the job market or applying for jobs in 2018.
Confidence among employers is also seen in the increase in job postings, which experienced a 14% increase year-on year and is driven by growth in the top three hiring industries – call center/IT-enabled services, retail, and manufacturing.
While candidates also managed to display a more positive outlook, they expressed concerns about their job-hunting journey, saying that increased competition in their fields and diversification of skills and jobs are most likely to happen, signifying that searching and applying for good job opportunities may be more challenging to them this year.
The study also revealed another cause for candidates to be more active in searching for better opportunities this year – the benefits they most prefer are not necessarily offered to them by their present employers.
Close to 80% of candidates pointed to health and medical insurance for themselves and their dependents, but only 52% claim to enjoy it. On the other hand, 86% listed family care leave as their most desired form of time-off, but only 13% enjoy this type of leave benefit. “While more candidates see themselves to be more participative in the job market this year, companies are also foreseeing robust hiring activity, which means the competition to attract and retain top talent will be more vigorous. What will make or break employers this year is how attentive and primed they are to address the emerging needs of employees,” said JobStreet.com Philippines Country Manager Philip Gioca.
About JobStreet.com
JobStreet.com is a leading online job board presently covering the employment markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. JobStreet.com currently services over 230,000 corporate hirers and over 15 million jobseekers in its database.
About SEEK Asia JobStreet.com is part of SEEK Asia, which is the leading online employment market place in Asia. SEEK Asia covers 7 countries namely Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
SEEK Asia is the extension of the Australian Securities Exchange listed company called SEEK. The company’s purpose is to help improve people’s lives through a better career. SEEK Asia’s database consist of over 500,000 corporate hirers and over 24 million candidates.
JobStreet.com, the largest job site in the country, will be holding the 3rd Philippine Engineering Students Congress on March 9, 2018. As with the two previous editions, the congress will be held in the Quezon City campus of co-host, the Technological Institute of the Philippines.
This one-day affair highlights a Congress plenary that aims to help participating engineering students to prepare and successfully apply for jobs after graduation. The program will present topics such as the job market landscape for engineering students, insights on increasing employability and tips on successfully passing the board exam.
Heading these panel discussions are leading figures in the field of engineering. The event will also feature presentation of award-winning engineering incubation projects and an inter-school quiz bee.
The congress will also feature a day-long career fair which will be participated in by 20 top companies that have the opportunity to showcase their employer brand during the event.
Participating companies include:
Hitachi Elevator Philippines Corp.
Asian Institute of Management Inc.
Sunfish Asia Energy Solutions Inc.
Schneider Electric Logistics Asia Pte. Ltd. – Philippine Br.
Living Space
Global Elite Lingua Franca
Kalinisan Chemicals Corp.
ADP (Philippines) Inc.
Global Payments Process Inc., and
AMMEX I-Support Corporation
Philip Gioca, Country Manager, JobStreet.com Philippines
“Engineering has been among the top 10 most advertised and most in-demand specializations on JobStreet.com year-on-year. In the overseas front, the Engineering specialization is also highly in-demand.” Said Philip Gioca, Country Manager, JobStreet.com Philippines.
Gioca also cites WorkAbroad.ph’s 2017 Overseas Salary Report. “Engineering-related jobs make up 22% of the total number of overseas jobs posted between January and October 2017. It is also among the highest paid specializations abroad,” he said.
“We hold this congress every year to equip and inspire future engineers as they embark on their career journey,” Gioca concluded
The congress is open to all graduating engineering students across the country. Interested students who want to attend the congress may coordinate with their college deans or office of the president as invites have been sent to their office.
They may also pre-register at www.jobstreet.com.ph/en/cms/campus, where they can sign up for an account and choose the event. Meanwhile, interested companies that want to be featured in the various activities or participate in the career fair may contact their respective JobStreet account managers.
After more than two decades of experience in various leadership positions, JobStreet Philippines Country Manager Philip Gioca was named one of the recipients of the 2017 CEO Excel Awards.
JobStreet Philippines Country Manager Philip Gioca (center) receives his award from IABC Philippines Vice President and Chairman of the CEO Excel Awards 2017 Belle Tiongco (left) and IABC Philippines Chairman Kane Errol Choa (right).
Under his tutelage, JobStreet Philippines has furthered its leadership position in the industry, presenting an average of 60,000 jobs posted monthly by as many as 24,000 employers across key industries and business sizes.
To date, 7.6 million candidates have registered to the online portal. He has also overseen the rollout of several innovations such as richer job ads with the inclusion of vital information such as salary data, Talent Search, Company Reviews, and the LiNA bot.
With his zeal for innovation and progress, Gioca has overseen the digitization of various traditional offline channels for job search and enablement. Government jobs, a growing labor market segment, has been added to JobStreet Philippines’ already vast number of job listings.
Nearly 100 government agencies have posted as much as 3,500 jobs since July 2017, which are all housed on a one-stop microsite, making the process of applying to government jobs more transparent and accessible. He has also championed Overseas Filipino Workers by making the Pre-Employment Orientation Seminar (PEOS) online in cooperation with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, which is now mandatory to all intending to explore job opportunities abroad.
In the spirit of nation-building, he establishes collaboration with government, NGOs as well as private institutions to increase the reach and access to available job opportunities in the country and help address job skills mismatch. Under his leadership, JobStreet recently partnered with the Office of the Vice President to further grassroots jobs generation and matching by supporting the Angat Buhay Program.
JobStreet also partnered with Edukasyon.ph, a social enterprise that helps high school students make better-informed career choices from education to employment.
The wealth of the company’s proprietary digital data has also been turned into empowering labor market insights. Philip has been a thought leader, acting as JobStreet’s spokesperson for job market insights and trends.
He has presented JobStreet’s Job Happiness Report, Top Companies Report, Fresh Graduate Report, Job Outlook and Trends Report, and Bonuses Report in various industry, media, and campus events.
Through his truly exemplary leadership and his desire for nation-building, Gioca continues to transform JobStreet into a leader in the Philippine online job marketplace, and in the job market as a whole.
The IABC CEO Excel Awards recognize the leaders of organizations who make use of exemplary communication as part of their overall business strategy for achieving goals, building relationships, addressing problems, and maintaining the reputation of their companies.
Employers now claim that aside from an applicant’s attitude or work ethic, they also place more consideration on communication skills and analytical thinking as top considerations when hiring fresh college graduates.
JobStreet.com is a leading online job board presently covering the employment markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. JobStreet.com currently services over 230,000 corporate hirers and over 15 million jobseekers in its database.
This one-day affair highlights a Congress plenary that aims to help participating engineering students to prepare and successfully apply for jobs after graduation. The program will present topics such as the job market landscape for engineering students, insights on increasing employability and tips on successfully passing the board exam.
The congress will also feature a day-long career fair which will be participated in by 20 top companies that have the opportunity to showcase their employer brand during the event.
The congress is open to all graduating engineering students across the country. Interested students who want to attend the congress may coordinate with their college deans or office of the president as invites have been sent to their office.
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