Is money the main motivator for Singapore's talent?

What is the main motivator for Singapore's top talent?

According to a survey by Morgan McKinley, a global professional services recruiter connecting specialist talent with leading employers across multiple industries and disciplines, MONEY IS NOT THE MAIN MOTIVATOR FOR SINGAPORE’S TOP TALENT.

So what must Singapore businesses do to retain top talent?

It said that Singapore businesses need to consider more than boosting basic salary levels if they want to keep their top talent.

So what are Singapore job seekers motivated by?

Morgan McKinley’s latest Singapore job seeker survey shows that professional job seekers are motivated more by opportunities for career progression than by money – nearly two thirds cited lack of career progression as their main reason for leaving a job

What proportion of job seeker leave solely based on dissatisfaction with basic salary?

Only 12% surveyed were motivated to leave solely based on dissatisfaction with their basic salary.

How much salary hike does it take for an employee to job hop or jump ship?

Where salary was a motivating factor, the majority of respondents expected a 15-20% pay increase, indicating that a major salary hike may not be needed to tempt an employee to jump ship

Career Progression is main motivation for leaving a job

In January 2014, Morgan McKinley conducted a survey of its professional job seekers in a range of sectors and disciplines to investigate their current outlook, job satisfaction and expectations with regard to career progression.

The survey shows that overwhelmingly, career progression is candidates’ main motivation for leaving a job.  Nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents cited this, a long way ahead of basic salary at 12%. 

However, a significant number cited a very wide variety of other reasons, the most prominent of which related to problems or dissatisfactions with their current role, such as organisational change or restructuring, a desire to relocate, scope of the job, end of project or termination of contract, work-life balance, company culture and ethical issues.

Overall package or broader remit are top of mind when considering career progression

When considering their career progression, two things are almost equally likely to be top of mind: for professionals: 36% responded increase in overall package and 31% responded broader remit (e.g. responsibility for more countries or a larger headcount).

Tricia Liverpool, Managing Director, Morgan McKinley Singapore commented: “Recently published surveys on job satisfaction and compensationhave suggested that Singaporeans are the unhappiest in the Asia Pacific region, believing that they are underpaid and that as a result, 64% say they plan to leave their current role over the next 12 months.

“Our own survey indicates that only a small minority of employees are primarily motivated to change jobs solely because they want an increase in their basic salary. Career progression is a much more important consideration, so we need to take a broader view of contentment at work.”

View the full Singapore job seeker report and infographic on the website of Morgan Mckinley.