High salary, workers still quit

Many businesses in Ho Chi Minh City shared that no matter how well they build their compensation policies, after Tet, workers still quit their jobs and businesses cannot proactively plan production.

The fear of labor shortage after Tet always haunts businesses. Photo: Le Quan.

After Tet, the number of workers quitting their jobs at businesses is always in the tens of thousands.

Data from the HCM City Human Resources Forecasting Center shows that the number of workers who quit their jobs in 2015 and 2016 did not differ much, both at around 20,000 people. Thus, after many years, the labor shortage after Tet is still a difficult problem for businesses. Despite having predicted and built much better policies, it seems impossible to prevent the flow of workers quitting their jobs.

Prepare money to pay overtime

This year, the Center for Human Resources Demand Forecasting and Labor Market Information of Ho Chi Minh City said that after Tet, the city alone will lack about 19,000 workers, especially in the general labor force. Meanwhile, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Dong Nai province announced that businesses in the province are lacking about 31,000 workers after Tet.

Mr. Tran Kim Quynh, Director of Hung Phu Garment Company (Go Vap) shared: “Every year, the first thing to do when starting production after Tet is to organize the source of money to work overtime and meet the order schedule for partners. The next thing is to find new workers as quickly as possible to replace the workers who have quit after Tet to meet the production line capacity. Garment workers have to spend several weeks to train their skills. Therefore, in the first two months of the year, the company's revenue mainly covers recruitment and training costs.”

Salary and bonus are always the first factor to evaluate this situation. Many experts believe that the current average salary increase rate in Vietnam is relatively high, but compared to the general level, it is still low and the difference is also relatively large. The most basic reason is that the level and labor productivity are relatively low compared to other countries in the region.

According to businesses, after long breaks, ordinary workers often have the mentality of quitting their jobs to find new opportunities. Photo: Le Quan.

In Vietnam, bonuses, especially Tet bonuses, are one of the company's compensation policies to retain employees.

However, according to a recent survey by a global labor and employment research organization, up to 16.7% did not receive a Tet bonus. Bonuses of less than 1 month and 1-2 months accounted for the highest proportion, 35.6% and 31.5%, respectively, among the surveyed workers.

The least volatile sector is the mining, oil and gas sector, because they receive the highest bonuses. 14% of workers recently surveyed by Navigos Search said they received more than 4 months of salary and bonuses. Meanwhile, in labor-intensive industries such as garment, seafood processing, food... the salary and bonuses are considered insufficient to motivate.

Good treatment is also difficult to retain workers

However, Mr. Quynh shared that the fear of labor shortage after Tet always haunts processing enterprises. Therefore, over the past many years, the compensation level has increased significantly.

"However, the competition for skilled labor in the processing and manufacturing industries is one reason why it is increasingly difficult to stabilize the labor force. Meanwhile, the psychology of workers is always fluctuating, so their resignation often does not depend on the issue of treatment. Today they hear that this place is good, tomorrow they hear that another place is good, we cannot control it."

Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, CEO of Digitexx Document Digitization Service Company, also expressed: “With the goal of expanding branches next year, the need to increase human resources in the company is very large. However, the search for labor resources has not been completed, and we have to deal with the resignation of old employees. Before Tet, the company was operating with about 1,300 employees, entering the first days of the new year, the number of employees who resigned was about 7%. So it will take more time to stabilize the work.”

Learning from experience from many years ago, to save time and money on recruitment activities after Tet, many businesses have offered relatively high benefits. They even provide maximum support for going home for Tet, but when returning to work, they must start a similar cycle as last year.

Ms. Thao shared: “Building a good compensation regime is only a small factor in retaining employees. A good regime must also be commensurate with the productivity and revenue of the enterprise. Most ordinary workers will think about changing jobs after the holidays to find other opportunities. This is the most easily influenced group of workers. The long holidays have made them affected by many other people, with recommendations for other jobs. In addition, they always hope that the change in the new year will bring better results. Therefore, enterprises cannot take the initiative in this situation, no matter how much they increase the compensation level.”

According to Zing.vn