SMEs losing manpower to multinationals

CEBU, Philippines - As Cebu continues to attract investments from both local and international companies, the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are now facing the dilemma of hiring good manpower due to the strong demand for employment across industries.

Cebu-based job portal, Mynimo (www.mynimo.com) president Wesley Chiongbian said that the competition now is between SMEs and large companies, including the growing BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) needing for skilled and talented workers. Most of the time SMEs are left behind because of the attractive packages offered by multinational companies, and the outsouring firms.

According to Chiongbian opportunities for employees is significantly increasing, and SMEs are one of the top employers that badly need accountants, sales executives and managers.

Chiongbian’s Mynimo online portal, one of the largest online job websites in the country, posted a 50 percent growth of job opportunity volume in a year-on-year performance, an indication that there is good employment demand in the Philippines.

He said while job seekers now are becoming highly competitive with good educational backgrounds, versatile and with multi-talent caliber, most if not all of them are expecting higher salary packages,

Because of the higher quality of today’s generation of job seekers, SME employers are having difficulty in attracting good people, because majority of job seekers are looking for more stable companies.

“The big challenge now for SMEs is looking for the right people. They should provide good compensation packages,” Chiongbian said.

He said SMEs should compete with multinationals and big corporations in providing creative compensation packages and benefits, and recognizing employees’ importance and role in the company. After all, he said most people do not only regard salary as the most important thing why they stay, what is important is recognizing their value and contribution to the entire company’s success.

At present, Mynimo registers at least over a thousand job titles in the website, employment opportunities range from BPO sector, multinational companies (MNCs) and local SMEs, Chiongbian said.

As the Cebu economy continues to project a brisk outlook towards the coming year, Chiongbian projected that employment opportunity demand would double in the next few months.

Chiongbian added that growth of volumes in terms of job seekers via online website is tremendously increasing, as the new generation of job hunters are now considering online as it primary source for job hunting activities.

 Likewise, companies now are also looking at online job websites, as their primary channel to seek for the right people.

However, the reality now, is for SMEs to offer re-packaging of their compensation offers, otherwise, they will be left with the less competent people, while the “cream of the crop” will be taken by the multinationals.

Chiongbian said this is the time, that SMEs should put more importance on human resource investments in order to stay ahead amid the heavily competitive global market.

He said job opportunities, vacancies are growing tremendously, and good and talented people are mostly attracted to stable companies even if the job is not in line with their profession. (FREEMAN)