Where Does Work-Life Balance Rank in Values That Matter to Filipinos?

The global pandemic locked us in our homes for an extended period of time. However, it also allowed us to take a step back to reflect on the things that we have, and how close we were to losing them.

Of course, our health was our primary concern. However, the threat of losing our jobs and our work-life balance became major concerns as well.

The threat of the virus and its effects continue to haunt us, and it might stay on as it may (or may not) eventually become an endemic.  It has changed not only the way Filipinos live, but also our mindset and values that we deem important.

JobStreet, together with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and The Network, conducted the Decoding Global Talent report with the goal of understanding these changes. The report came across people of different ages, gender, and educational backgrounds.

We learned that these are top three values that matter most to Filipino employees:

What Matters to Employees

Part two of the report dives into what matters to Filipinos and how they want to work after everything that happened in 2020. According to the report, the most important values for Filipino employees remain mostly the same as before the pandemic.

Comparing the 2018 and 2020 data, job security remains in the top spot, followed by a good work-life balance. However, building relationships has become more important than learning or training for new skills as well as looking for ways to advance their careers.

It is a reflection of how we Filipinos have come to value our connections now more than ever. This may be a direct result of being forced to stay indoors for most of the past year and a half.

Based on the report, respondents ranked the values that matter to them in the report this way:

#1 Job Security

It doesn't matter if it was before or after the pandemic; we all want to have a stable and reliable source of income. Given this, job security remains the top priority for Filipinos.

We were all caught off-guard when the world stopped. Some of us lost our jobs or were furloughed, while others found it difficult to apply for new ones.

However, it's never too late to build a wall of security around our jobs. We can do this via upskilling, having good self-management skills, nurturing good relations, and maintaining a positive work attitude.

#2 Good Work-Life Balance

This has proven to be the solution to managing burnout and work-related stress. We should always have a balanced amount of time and effort in our personal and professional lives. Moreover, a clear separation will allow both worlds to flourish.

However, separating the two has become more difficult, especially since the WFH setup became a norm. Here are some tips on how to foster better work-life balance:

1. Make a schedule. Create a realistic set of goals daily and aim to finish them. This way, you are able to end the day with a feeling of accomplishment. 
2. Set boundaries.  Make clear to workmates and even your superiors what they can expect from you in terms of load, time, and output. You need to respect your personal time so that others may do so as well.
3. Go offline when necessary.  It is your right to turn off any form of communication with work beyond working hours.
4. Use your work leaves and days off. Try to live a little and get your mind off work.
5. Create a smart work system. Work from home may be the norm, but you can always add ways of working. Consider a hybrid set-up, or do face-to-face depending on the field of work, frequency of meetings, or even capacity to deliver tasks.

#3 Good Relationship With Superior

This value took the third spot among Filipino employees, which was previously occupied by learning and skills training. Not only that, "having good relationships with colleagues" made a huge leap from the ninth to the fourth spot.

It shows that we are putting more value on our relationships now compared to before.

In these trying times, it's important to have a nurturing superior who we can relate to. We should be able to get along with them regardless of individual differences, culture, ideas, and character.

Since we have to deal with them everyday, we all need a boss who understands our situation given the challenges of working remotely.

Ideal Work Environment

In finding #JobsThatMatter to us, it is important to find something that reflects our ideal work environment. Based on the data from the report, we can paint a better picture of what this looks like for Filipino employees:

Flexible Working Arrangement

The WFH arrangement has proven to be an effective way of working for most of us. During the pandemic, a total of 68% worked either completely remote or mixed remote and on-site work. When asked where they wanted to work if given the choice, only 4% said they would choose to work completely on-site.

While the WFH arrangement is not without challenges, it gives us better work-life balance than working on site all the time. For one, we don't have to burn hours in the commute or traffic traveling to and from the office.

An office that allows a flexible working setup that combines WFH and on-site work could be attractive to employees.

Open Communication with Superiors

We are living in unprecedented times, and we are all learning how to navigate the post pandemic world. Some of us may have dipped in productivity, and could risk losing our jobs because of it.

It's one of the reasons why a good relationship with superiors is one of the top values that Filipino employees look for. Being able to communicate your concerns with your boss can help you work through them to improve your performance. After all, your employers will ultimately benefit if employees are working better.

Building relationships with superiors can also help guide you on your career path. Part of having job security is knowing that you and your boss are on the same page in terms of how you see yourself in the future.

Bosses have a certain expectation in terms of output, but we can't expect them to always know what to do. Because of this, an ideal working environment for Filipinos is one where open communication is encouraged.

Embraces the Same Social and Environmental Values

The report also showed that apart from Covid-19, environmental responsibility and diversity and inclusion, also affected what matters to Filipinos. In fact, our numbers are notably much higher than the global average.

While we stayed indoors and online, we became more aware of the social and environmental challenges our world is facing. The BlackLivesMatter movement, as well as the Australian bushfires are a couple of examples that happened in 2020. As a result, our sense of responsibility for the environment and social inclusivity were impacted.

In the report, environmental responsibility scored high on the chart (83%) versus the global average (69%).

Diversity and inclusion also matters to 85% of Filipino employees compared to the global average of 68.7%. This means respect for individuality and preference are social issues to be taken seriously.

Being able to work in a place that reflects our own values can help motivate us to do our job better. Wouldn't you be proud to represent a company that believes in the same things you do?

The world is not done changing, as we continue to adapt to living in the post-pandemic world. We found new concepts and systems that could help improve the way we do things over the past year.

We can learn more about these changes by downloading the Decoding Global Talent report. Having a better understanding of the post-pandemic world can help you see which opportunities are on the rise and be prepared for them.

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