40% of Pinoy millennials may quit jobs in 2 years

TWO out of every five Filipino millennials are likely to ditch their current jobs in the next two years, mostly because they don’t feel that their leadership skills are sufficiently being developed by their employers.

This puts businesses at risk of losing their millennial talent – referring to young adults who were born after 1982 and who have come of age in the age of Internet, based on Deloitte’s fifth annual Millennial Survey, released by local member practice Navarro Amper & Co. on Friday.

Given the choice, 40 percent of Filipino millennials would leave their current employers within two years, with that figure rising to 64 percent when the timeframe is extended to 2020, Navarro Amper said in a press statement.

On a global basis, 44 percent of millennials expect to resign within two years while 66 percent are likely to quit within five years.

This dissatisfaction among millennial employees stems partly from feelings of being underutilized and the perception that they are not being developed as leaders: 62 percent of Filipino millennials say their leadership skills are not being fully developed in their current organization. Among those who said they plan to leave within two years, 61 percent feel that they are being overlooked for potential leadership positions.

“With a maximum age of 33, millennials are entering that period where they expect to have more say in the way their organization is run,” said Greg Navarro, managing partner and chief executive officer of Navarro Amper & Co. “So in managing and engaging them, leaders have to keep this in mind and come up with a development track that recognizes that ambition: Is there room at the top for these young professionals and are they getting the necessary training for those posts?”

The survey also revealed that millennials are bringing their own values with them into the workplace. Respondents who are currently occupying junior or senior level posts were asked what factors influence them when making decisions at work.

For Filipino millennials, personal values and morals topped the list, with little discrepancy between job levels – 74 percent of junior level and 76 percent of senior level millennials cited it as having a high degree of influence. Globally, 64 percent of senior level millennials and 49 percent of juniors relied on their personal values.

Regardless of job level, 69 percent of Filipino millennials also considered personal goals and ambitions when making decisions, while 59 percent thought about their organizations’ formal targets or objectives in their decision-making process.

To gain some insight into these personal values, the survey asked millennials what metrics they think should be used when taking stock of a company’s success. For starters, 81 percent of Filipino millennials said business success should be measured by more than financial performance, compared to 87 percent globally.

A big bulk or 75 percent of Filipino millennials said employee satisfaction/being a great place to work was an important factor when measuring business success, compared to 62 percent globally. This was followed by quality of its products/services at 72 percent, compared to 63 percent globally. At the bottom of the list is level of efficiency, at 56 percent (48 percent globally).

“Consistent with last year’s survey results, millennials tend to have ‘people-first’ values. For them, a successful business takes care of its employees first and foremost. This is something business leaders should consider as more and more millennials take on positions of authority: How will the values of this generation affect the focus and direction of businesses? These priorities should also clue leaders in on how to keep and attract these employees. This is critical particularly for local businesses since we are going to see a dearth of new graduates in the next two years due to the K to 12 Program,” said Navarro.

When asked what factors – outside of salary – they consider important when choosing to work for an organization, Filipino millennials ranked good work-life balance as the most important (15.3 percent), followed by opportunities to progress/take on leadership role (14.7 percent), and training programs offered to support professional development (9.2 percent).

The least important factors for them are whether the organization is fast growing/dynamic (4.4 percent), its investment in and use of latest technology (4.2 percent), and the reputation of its leaders/senior executives (3.2 percent).

The survey was conducted in the last quarter of 2015 covering nearly 7,700 millennials from 29 countries, including 300 from the Philippines. All millennials polled for this survey have obtained a college or university degree, are employed full-time, and predominantly work in large (100+ employees), private sector organizations.