Bayt.com Plans to Launch ‘Company Profiles’ to make workplace information available for job seekers
Beirut, Lebanon, 29 January 2018: Nowadays, what makes a company or an organization an ideal place to work for in Lebanon depends on many different elements that may extend beyond salary and benefits. Bayt.com, the region’s leading job site, explored this topic and just released its latest report entitled “The Ideal Workplace in the Middle East and North Africa” in partnership with global online market research company, YouGov. According to this report, 83% of respondents in Lebanon believe that advanced technology in the workplace is of great importance. While only 35% of workplaces reportedly promote the use of advanced technology, 94% of job seekers say that their potential company should use advanced technology.
What Matters Most to Lebanese Professionals
In addition, respondents in Lebanon believe that innovation and creativity in the workplace is of great importance, according to 83% of respondents. While only 25% of workplaces in Lebanon reportedly encourage innovation and creativity, 87% of job seekers say that innovation and creativity should be encouraged in the workplace, making it the second most important factor in a potential workplace.
Diversity, work-life balance, and challenging work are also among the most important factors in any workplace in Lebanon.
Besides attractiveness, retention is an element that many organizations strive to master. When asked about factors that mostly drive loyalty, the top responses were ‘training and development opportunities’ (according to 41% of Lebanese respondents), ‘opportunity for long term career advancement’ (according to 37% of Lebanese respondents),.
“It is essential to acknowledge what is most important to those employed in Lebanon, as well as what they look for in potential workplaces. By understanding this, organizations can work towards boosting their attractiveness, retention, and even reputation and performance, all while meeting the needs of their employees,” said Suhail Masri, VP of Employer Solutions, Bayt.com.
Business values and culture
In addition to workplace attraction and retention elements, respondents were asked about company culture and its impact choosing a workplace. 49% of Lebanese respondents said company culture is ‘one of the determining factors when joining a company’, 42% said ‘it is important but not a determining factor’, only 4% said they ‘don’t pay attention to company culture’, while the remainder (4%) didn’t provide an answer.
When asked about business values that make a company more attractive in Lebanon, 54% cited ‘good ethics and practices’, 41% said ‘friendly company culture’, 22% said ‘corporate social responsibility’, and 9% said ‘green consciousness / efforts’, indicating that Lebanese professionals are wary of the various elements that make up a company’s mission and impact on societies.
Physical attributes
Not only do values and cultural elements matter to the region’s professionals, physical elements have a significant role as well. In Lebanon, there seems to be a somewhat higher preference for larger companies, as 43% of respondents feel that an ideal company size has more than 50 employees.
In regards to office layout, the opinions vary. 31% of Lebanese professionals prefer ‘closed rooms’, 29% prefer ‘open plan’, 8% prefer ‘cubicles’, and 3% prefer ‘workstations’, while 22% have ‘no preference’ in this matter.
When it came to the interior design of an office, 42% of Lebanese respondents said that the interior design of their offices ‘reflects the company’s brand and value’. 30% disagreed with this statement, while 29% were unsure. Furthermore, the majority of respondents in Lebanon (80%) said they are allowed to personalize their workplace, at least to some extent.
Finding the perfect workplace
In order to pick the ideal workplace, professionals in the region need to access information on all the different attributes they value. When asked how easy it is to access information about company culture and work environment, the responses varied. 11% of Lebanese respondents said it is ‘very easy’, 24% said it is ‘somewhat easy’, 31% said it is ‘neither easy nor difficult’, 22% said it is ‘somewhat difficult’, and 6% said it is ‘very difficult’.
To understand this issue further, respondents were asked about the most useful company information and the most effective ways to promote that information to job seekers. ‘Online company pages targeting job seekers’ and ‘Social media’ were voted the most effective methods of communicating information (22%). In regards to the type of information job seekers want to learn about the most, 49% of Lebanese respondents said ‘company benefits and perks’, 28% said ‘employee testimonials and reviews’, 24% said ‘company events and socials’, 19% said ‘awards and milestones’, and 8% said ‘photos and videos of the workplace’.
Masri adds: “At Bayt.com, we’ve been working with over 40,000 employers and over 30.5 million job seekers across the MENA region for more than 18 years. As part of our endeavor to provide the tools and information to all professionals in the region, we are working on making more company information readily accessible through a new and advanced Bayt.com company profile solution. As the survey indicated, professionals find online ‘company profiles’ to be the most effective for job seekers and professionals, and we look forward to rolling out this tool very soon to help align expectations and increase hiring activities.”
“The ideal workplace survey allows employers to understand what they need to do to meet the needs of their employees and future talent as well as what types of information they need to make available. By doing so, companies and organizations can do a much better job at securing their talent needs and making more career opportunities available region-wide,” Anjali Chhabra, Associate Research Director, YouGov.
Data for the 2017 Bayt.com “Ideal Workplace in the Middle East and North Africa” poll was collected online from December 6 to 22, 2017. Results are based on a sample of 4,418 respondents. Respondents come from many countries, including the UAE, Bahrain, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Qatar and KSA.