Bangkok--15 Aug--JobStreet
JobStreet.com, recently conducted a survey on the topic of “The Attitude of Women towards the Role of Working Mothers and the Attention of Employers on Female Employees”. Close to 300 working women took part in this survey.
Ms.Tanaporn Satitpunwaycha, Country Manager, JobStreet.com (Thailand) said, “The survey was done with the representatives from employers in 122 organisations. It revealed that 54% of them had a majority female workforce in their organisations. Moreover, based on the figure from the National Statistical Office in 2008, it showed that there were 6.33 million female workers who were within the system and 11.09 million who were not. This indicates that the female labour force plays a crucial role in empowering a particular firm. As a result, being sensitive to their needs is something unavoidable.”
“It is the second time that the survey has been carried out. Our aim is to let employees and employers know each other’s needs so that the former can be aware of their responsibility which would be good for their work and the latter, meanwhile, are able to create a balance in setting up a benefit system.”
47% of the respondents are single, 36% are married and have children, 8% are married but do not have children and 9% are divorced. The result demonstrated that 40% of them thought companies did not pay attention to staff having children while 26% had an opposite point of view. The other 34% remained uncertain.
As for the work objective, 71.5% of the respondents believed that it would change after the arrival of their babies. Within this number, 35% viewed that a higher salary was the most important factor once they had children, 29% would like to have shorter as well as regular working hours, 25% would rather have more flexible office hours, 8% would like to have fewer requirements including less travelling and so on and the rest 4% identified other objectives. The results remained unchanged from last year.
Ms.Tanaporn further added, “The survey result clearly suggests that the need of working mothers will change once they have children. This is particularly applied to the factors of income and time. Although their work objective may alter, there is only 1% who plans to resign and devote all of their time to raise their babies. The majority of 63% would like to continue their work and 25% plan to have only a short break. Within this number, 57% of them may stop working for less than two years only. As for primary reasons why they are unable to resign, 58% said it was due to financial needs, 22% mentioned about the prospect of career advancement, 12% still loved their job and the rest of 8% mentioned other reasons. If companies realise and try to fulfil these needs, it is possible for them to reduce a turnover rate while at the same time gain commitment and inspire corporate loyalty.”
Ms.Tanaporn further said that on the employers’ side, there is a more positive trend towards giving pregnant employees or those having children more importance. Last year’s figures showed that there were 45% of companies which provided no benefits for pregnant employees or those having children. On the contrary, there are only 23% of such companies this year. Meanwhile, 66% of the employers participating in the survey paid attention to female employees to an average extent while 11% to a large extent like the previous year.
As regards the benefits which companies provided for pregnant employees or those having children, 27% were gifts for newborns, 19% were adjusting staff to proper positions, 13% were financial help in a delivery, 10% were flexible working hours and 2.5% were arranging a lactorium. When it came to what working mothers wanted from their employers, 41% would like to have flexible working hours, 40% a higher salary, 38% financial help in a delivery, 33% a scholarship for their children and 26% more holidays.
When asked if a benefit scheme would be increased, 16% of the companies said that it would within a year or two, 8% would do it in the long run (within five years) and 76% said there was still no plan of action about this.
“67.2% of the employers participating in the survey commented that whether employees had children or not did not affect their recruiting consideration. They further reasoned that having children would enable staff to build more endurance. On the other hand, 32.8% of the employers tended not to employ those having children because they worried that such a family burden would make it difficult for employees to devote themselves to work.”
When asked if any problems arose from employees having children, 53.3% of the employers mentioned a high rate of absences, leaves and lateness, 21.3% needed to recruit a new worker because an old one had resigned to raise her children, 10.7% found out that their staff showed less devotion to their work and 28.7% reported no problems pertaining to this matter.
Nonetheless, 50% of the employers were confident that employees having children were still able to devote themselves to work while 17.2% were on the other end of the spectrum. The rest 32.8% were uncertain about this.
“We believe that working mothers have a common goal of working as well as bringing up their children to be good and able members of society who succeed in their future careers. We also asked about ideal jobs which mothers would like their children to do. The first was entrepreneurs, followed by doctors, engineers, teachers/lecturers and soldiers respectively.”
Ms.Tanaporn passed on useful tips for mothers on working along with raising children without much pressure. What must be taken into consideration are optimism and the act of letting go. “When women have to bear a burden both inside and outside a house, it is important that they learn to manage their time. When everything becomes a “must”, they are, in some cases, forced to choose their work first. As a consequence, most of them could possibly have a guilty feeling of ignoring their children or blame themselves when any mistakes happen. My advice is that they should try to do what is necessary and avoid what seems to be trivial. It is also helpful to talk and have other family members carry out household chores to lighten the burden of working mothers who also have to run an office. Lastly, despite being bombarded with a lot of burdens, working mothers must not forget to take care of themselves and spare some personal time to do favourite activities like going to a spa or a hairdresser’s as well as meeting old friends for a meal. This can help ease tension and incredibly rejuvenate their energy.”