Almost half of GCC workers unhappy

Manama : Almost half of UAE workers are unhappy in their current job, according to a survey.

The poll of 20,000 people across the GCC by revealed 43 per cent of respondents are dissatisfied by their current jobs.

“We found an alarmingly high level of dissatisfaction,” said Ahmad Khamis, CEO of bloovo.com, the social networking recruitment platform that conducted the study. “This dissatisfaction reduces aggregate productivity, leads to churn, and also increases the cost of finding replacement talent. It is startling to find that half of the GCC’s workforce is dissatisfied and potentially ready to switch jobs.”

A poor fit of employee and job is the biggest factor in poor satisfaction, according to 43.4 per cent of dissatisfied respondents.

Almost 35 per cent of dissatisfied employees felt low pay was the biggest factor in their unhappiness, while 8.5 per cent of respondents said a poor organisational culture played the biggest role in dissatisfaction and 7.7 per cent put it down to a lack of career progression.

“For most employees, a salary is a direct indicator of their worth in the company,” said Khamis. “Importantly, academic research has shown time and again that salary expectations are relative – employees become far more dissatisfied if they feel their peers are being paid more than them. It’s very important for organisations to be transparent about pay grades and scales.

“Organisational culture is a very important factor in employee motivation and one that companies sometimes don’t stress on enough.

“Career advancement is a very important non-monetary motivator. It makes great business sense for organisations to have formal career paths so employees have something to aim towards.”