Young Filipino talent favor employers who offer professional training, dev’t

Universum launched the findings from the Philippine portion of the world’s largest annual talent survey, with over 8,000 students from leading national universities in the Philippines who responded between December 2020 and June 2021.

Set out to track career aspirations and preferences of the future talent pool, the Top 100 Ideal Employers student survey also recognises the most coveted employers based solely on the responses collected.

This year, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has overtaken Philippine Airlines as the most attractive employer for business/commerce students, whereas Google retained its top position as the most desired employer among engineering talent.

 

Business students have a strong desire to work for domestic employers

The 2021 study reveals that 58% of young business/commerce talent would prefer to work for an employer founded in the Philippines. This is something that is also reflected in resulting employer rankings for business/commerce talent, with nine out of the top choices being homegrown. The banking industry remains the most preferred industry amongst business students (49% seeing it as a top choice), followed by auditing & accounting (37%) and e-commerce (33%).

 

Respect for its people surpass high future earnings

When asked about what they look for in an ideal employer, Filipino students report prioritising employers who offer strong professional training and development and show respect for their people. Both of these key attributes are highly associated with top performing employers Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and San Miguel Corporation.

When looking at the different markets around the world covered by Universum’s talent preference survey, it is clear that today’s students are highly drawn towards employers who demonstrate they have a social conscience, respect their people and perform well in some of the softer aspects, such as culture and working environment.

Mike Parsons, managing director APAC for Universum, said “Around the world in 2021, we have seen respect for its people trending. In the Philippines, this attribute was already important to talent but is now their second-highest priority when selecting a future employer, only behind “professional training and development”. Employers who are serious about attracting the very best young talent in the Philippines need to listen to the strong message talent are sending. They also need to ensure that they not only deliver upon this but that they can articulate, both internally and externally, the respectful nature of their culture.”

 

Salary expectations have increased

The study revealed that the young talent graduating in the Philippines expects, on average, an annual salary of PHP440,843, which represents an increase of 12% from a year before. In most regional and global markets, pay expectations have been stagnant or only increased modestly due to the tough economic conditions of the past year. Clearly, talent in the Philippines has far more optimism.

Sadly, female students expected 5% less salary than their male counterparts. However, among the students surveyed in Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan, the Philippines has the smallest gap between what the different genders expect to be paid.

The results are based on the answers of 8,426 students studying for degrees in business/commerce, engineering, IT, natural sciences, humanities/liberal arts/education, law and health/medicine, with 24,786 individual evaluations of 133 employers from December 2020 and June 2021. Each respondent is asked questions about their career preferences, expectations and employment related drivers and then presented with a list of 133 national and international employers, nominated by the target group through an independent and structured nomination and assessment process, which prevents companies unfairly influencing their positions. The rankings consist of those employers chosen most as an ‘ideal’ choice when working through a structured funnel-based methodology.

Universum, part of the StepStone Group, is a global thought leader in Employer Branding. Universum has 32 years of peerless experience in the field of employer branding and is established in over 60 markets globally. Universum has a diverse workforce is physically present in 20 countries. With so much data, historically and geographically, Universum is uniquely positioned to deliver key insights to employers about how to attract and retain their future workforce. Our data-led, human and purposeful output has attracted over 1,700 clients, including many Fortune 500 companies, as well as global media partners that publish our annual rankings and trend reports. Find out more at https://universumglobal.com/.