NEWS

More Companies Will Continue to Hire, Raise Salary
20 March 2009

Based on the latest Grant Thronton International Business Report (IBR), more privately held businesses (PHB’s) in the Philippines have a positive outlook for 2009 and will continue to expand their workforce and even raise salaries.

The study reveals that 67 percent of the PHB’s who participated expect increase profitability for 2009, 35 percent expect to hire more people, while 49 percent would likely keep their employee count unchanged.

Also, 76 percent of executives polled said they would likely increase wages above the current inflation rate level or at least stay in line with the economic indicator.

As for retention and recruitment PHB’s are more focused ion retaining their workforce than last year. A higher percentage of the companies in the Philippines provide training and development packages for their employees. Companies also ensure that all employees understand the company’s core values, mission, and goals. Majority of them develop competitive rewards systems and benefit packages to encourage retention and recruitment.

However, limited availability of skilled workers is restricting expansion. Mr. Greg Navarro, managing partner and chief executive of Grant Thornton International’s Philippine member-firm Punongbayan & Araullo, in an official statement said, “Local PHBs are in a different boat when it comes to employment issues. Earlier results of the [survey] showed that 63 percent of local PHBs saw the lack of skilled workers as a major constraint to their business expansion.”

Mr. Navarro adds, “So, while we’re hearing about companies around the world not having enough business to keep all their employees, Filipino business leaders have the jobs but have difficulty finding the right workers. It’s a no less worrying situation to be in.”

The Grant Thornton IBR examines the attitude, plans, and trends of 7,800 PHB’s in 34 economies across six continents. The Grant Thornton IBR builds on data in previous surveys and boasts 16-year trend data for European Union countries and six-year trend data for international economies.

Trabaho.com. thanks its following sources:

Grant Thornton International Ltd., International Business Report 2009
http://www.internationalbusinessreport.com/files/ibr_2008_country_focus-philippines.pdf

Ho, Abigail L., Philippine Daily Inquirer Survey: Many will hire more, give raises (Posted February 26, 2009) Retrieved February 27, 2009 from
http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view/20090226-191049/Survey-Many-will-hire-more-give-raises
Re-posted at Inquirer.net at
http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/jobs/view.php?db=1&article=20090226-191049
Re-posted at Punongbayan and Araullo at
http://www.punongbayan-araullo.com/pnawebsite/pnahome.nsf/section_docs/ML523X_3-3-09

Osorio, Ma. Elisa P., The Philippine StarMost workers to get pay hikes – study (Posted February 26, 2009) Retrieved February 27, 2009 from
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=443529&publicationSubCategoryId=66