Blomberg Línea — Currently, four generations are coexisting in the workplace: Gen Z, Gen Y, Gen X and Baby Boomers; and the Covid-19 pandemic has reconfigured the feelings that these employees have toward their companies.
Companies are now more challenged to boost their engagement with younger generations, and to extend the strong appreciation that older workers have for the dimensions of social recognition, such as prestige, pride and recommendation.
Following this reconfiguration, the BetterWork study, conducted by Betterfly and Critera, found that in six Latin American countries, employee engagement averages 82%, with Colombia and Mexico leading the way with 86% and 84%, respectively.
They are followed by Peru with 83%, Brazil with 80%, Chile with 81% and Argentina with 77% engagement.
Who has a greater sense of belonging to their company?
The sense of permanence prevails in companies with on-site work (58%) over those that work remotely (55%), but curiously in the latter, it is remote working that influences the recommendation by employees of their workplace to other people: while 51% of on-site employees would recommend their company to others, 57% of remote workers would.
The results also include the ‘sense of permanence’ factor, where Mexico stands out with 60% retention of human talent, followed by Colombia and Peru, each with 59%. Slightly below are Brazil (57%) and Chile (56%), and Argentina closes, far behind as in other indicators, with 50%.
“Beyond the differences by country, which are probably due either to specific situations or idiosyncrasies, what most caught our attention was the gap in work commitment between the different generations. In addition, it was also interesting to see that although remuneration is the aspect with the lowest denominator, it is not the aspect that most influences commitment,” says Cristián Munita, Criteria’s general manager.
Baby boomers and Generation X have a higher commitment to their companies, of 83% and 85%, respectively, compared to 80% for Generations Z and Y.
In addition, in the dimension of work commitment, it is also evident that the criteria of permanence, recommendation and prestige have a higher percentage among employees of companies with more than 1,000 employees, compared to companies with between 100 and 1,000 workers.
Argentines the least satisfied with their salaries
The survey also examined employees’ perceptions of their financial compensation for the work they do.
Thirty-three percent said they receive a remuneration equivalent to other people who have similar responsibilities within the company, another 31% said they receive a fair remuneration for the work they do, while 27% say that their remuneration is equivalent to that of other people who have similar responsibilities in other companies.
“Argentina is the country in Latin America where there is the worst perception of the monetary remuneration they receive for their work. Only 17% consider that they receive a fair remuneration for the work they do and, in addition, only 14% perceive their remuneration as equivalent to that offered in other companies to people with similar responsibilities,” stated Betterfly and Critera.
At the regional level, remote workers are less likely than others to perceive their compensation as equivalent to someone with similar duties elsewhere.
How are benefits valued?
The BetterWork study also found that 31% of the 3,400 respondents considered that social security benefits as the most important, followed by economic wellbeing, with 18% of preferences; flexibility, with 15%; mental wellbeing and recognition, with 10%, respectively, and at the bottom of the list professional development (8%), physical wellbeing (4%) and financial wellbeing (4%).
According to the study, the largest companies are the ones that provide the most benefits and the ones that achieve the greatest commitment from their teams. However, small and medium-sized companies are not left behind with the opportunity to deliver benefits that are more adapted to the needs of their teams and increase their retention figures, as only 39% of respondents say that the benefits they receive from their company are a good reason to remain working there.
The study was applied to men and women from Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru between 18 and 65 years of age, employed in companies with more than 100 employees, both on-site and remotely.
