Foreign firms fail to retain local workers

With workers at all levels preferring to switch to domestic firms, foreign firms are facing a personnel shortage, human resources experts have said.

 

Cao Duy Hiep of the Vinh Phuc Province Employment Service Centre said local companies offered higher salaries than their foreign rivals, leading to an exodus by low-level workers.

 

While the former paid them VND1.8 million (US$91) a month on average, at FDI companies it was just VND1.2-1.5 million, he said.

 

People were also switching because of the low work pressure and infrequency of extra shifts, he said.

 

Analysts said middle-level and senior managers were making the switch to large Vietnamese companies with an eye on career growth.

 

Jessica Lu, managing consultant at employment firm Towers Watson Vietnam, was quoted by Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper as saying that turnover at FDI firms was expected to be 12.9 per cent this year.

 

Though down from last year’s 14 per cent, it remained a major challenge for the firms, she added.

 

The attrition rate in the high-tech sector reached 23.8 per cent, the highest for any industry, in the first half of the year, according to a survey by Towers Watson.

 

It was followed by the fast moving consumer goods industry with 21 per cent, and manufacturing with 18.5 per cent.

 

The survey polled 154 foreign firms with 45,708 employees nationwide.

 

But Tom Chong, deputy general director of business consultancy Ernst & Young Vietnam, said some middle and senior managers are returning to FDI companies after becoming disillusioned with domestic companies’ short-term human resources strategies which do not foster staff loyalty.

 

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News