The FINANCIAL — Corporate loyalty is at a low level in Georgia, a recent survey run by The FINANCIAL has shown.
According to the survey, over 45% of employees would be willing to switch workplace if the opportunity arose, even if their current employer were to fully satisfy their demands. Only 2% of those questioned are committed to spending their whole careers in just one place of work.
Those workers who do not switch from workplace to workplace frequently are more likely to get better offers from prospective employers, according to the HR specialists interviewed by The FINANCIAL. The FINANCIAL interviewed more than 100 employees of leading Georgian companies for the survey.
Acquiring new skills and professional development are the main reasons why people change workplace even when they are paid well in their current one.
“In my opinion, changing one’s workplace is important whether the current company satisfies one’s demands or not. Most frequently, the need arises when an employee sees that they have fully exhausted their potential in their current job. Spending three years at one company is the optimal amount of time for me. The wage and location of a company are the main reasons why I would change job,” said 28 year old Anne.
Corporate loyalty is quite low in Georgia. It is determined by a company’s attitude towards its staff. Recruiting and developing staff, motivating and encouraging them, is often neglected by management. Despite that, as the number of job vacancies in Georgia is small and has even decreased further in recent times, workers have to make do with the existing situation and therefore they appear loyal whether they are in fact or not,” said Lili Bibilashvili, PhD, President at HR Professional Guild.
In Bibilashvili’s words, if the number of job opportunities in the country were to increase, then staff outflow from Georgian companies would also rise. This would then most likely affect companies’ financial results.
“Spending a long amount of time in one position cannot contribute to the professional development of staff. Attention should be paid, however, to certain factors, namely: the content of the work, hierarchical level (position), and the number and diversity of subordinated positions,” Bibilashvili said.
“There is no concrete formula on how frequently an employee should or should not change workplace. The professional development of an employee depends on the specific profession, age and skills of the individual. At what age they started their career is also an important point. After those factors, employees should think about the possibility of recruitment inside or outside the company. One thing we can say for sure is that frequent change of workplace has a negative impact on employers and raises the sense of instability in the office. To summarise, particularly for one’s resume, it is preferable to develop and progress within a company and to think about changing workplace only after a reasonable length of time, such as a few years,” said Eka Machavariani, HR Manager at Maxhome Trade. Machavriani taught Human Resource Management at Caucasus University. She also worked as HR Manager at Sheraton Metechi Palace.
Machavariani advises people to spend a period of at least three to four years at any one company.
According to her, job applicants who have spent their careers working at just two or three companies and have not been changing workplace frequently are favoured by prospective employers.
“The decision to change workplace depends on many factors: development opportunity, private ambition, number of vacancies at a job fair, corporate culture, employee’s age and others. An employee will exhaust their potential in one position in three to four years (some professions are an exception to this however). After that period their work becomes routine and tedious. They then face a dilemma: to continue in the position familiar to them, or make an effort and start searching for better work opportunities that will satisfy their requirements,” said Akaki Tavadze, Teacher at Free University.
Tavadze said that employers are interested in keeping their staff loyal with minimal effort. “Companies are interested in keeping staff members for a long time, but on top of this, new workers are necessary for companies to grow. If a potential employee seems to change workplace more than once every three months they then become undesirable to the hiring company.”
“Measuring corporate loyalty is difficult in Georgia,” Tavadze added.
“If a company’s employee flow is low, this does not mean that its workers are particularly loyal. This fact can lull management in to a false sense of security though, and make them care less about motivating their staff. The reality is that some of the staff might simply have no opportunity for change. Many companies run unanimous enquiries to measure their staff’s satisfaction levels, but the fact is that their employees are afraid for their jobs and therefore do not respond as honestly as they could. They respond in line with what they think their company’s expectations are. That then makes it difficult to determine who has completed the enquiry honestly and who has not and gives skewed results,” Tavadze told The FINANCIAL.
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