65% of professionals in Lebanon feel motivated at work, according to the Career Aspirations study by Bayt.com and YouGov
11 January 2019: As the New Year gets underway, a recent Career Aspirations study by Bayt.com – the Middle East’s #1 Job Site – and YouGov – global online market research company – has revealed that professionals in the region are encouragingly optimistic about their career outlooks for 2019. In Lebanon specifically, two thirds of respondents have a positive outlook for the new year. Only 13% have a negative outlook, while the remaining 21% are neutral.
No Limits for Career Ambitions
In Lebanon, 55% reported setting future professional goals for themselves, which included finding a new job (49%), getting a higher salary (48%) and learning new skills (41%).
With career development in mind, 61% of Lebanon respondents believed they deserve to work in a higher-level position, and 42% were willing to move to another department or area of expertise to develop their skillsets and further their professional careers.
36% of respondents stated they were willing to move into a different industry altogether to broaden their professional expertise.
What Drives the ‘Ideal Job’
The top three factors that were seen as “important in an ideal job” for Lebanon residents were salary (73%) and opportunities of career growth (45%) followed by work-life balance (29%).
Interestingly, respondents are more likely to prefer being an employee (45%) in comparison to owning their own business (31%).
The reported reasons for seeking employment in the region are marked by the desire to “consistently learn and gain experience” as indicated by 63% of respondents, the goal to “make money” (64%) and to feel “useful to society” (46%).
Motivation Levels at Work
As for motivation levels in the workplace, 65% reported feeling motivated at work. Only 14% reported lacking motivation while 21% responded neutrally.
Though respondents revealed a positive indication of their motivation in the workplace, 74% of respondents reported that higher salaries and improved perks and benefits would help to increase their motivation. For 39% of respondents better work-life balance and more focus on training and learning new skills would further increase thei motivation at work.
“It is wonderful to observe that the majority of respondents to Bayt.com’s Career Aspirations study emitted such a positive sentiment for the 2019 working year. This encouraging outlook will reflect positively on the region’s hiring activity and the individual career progression,” said Suhail Msari, VP of Employer Solutions, Bayt.com. “At Bayt.com, we work with over 40,000 employers across the MENA region and they rely on our technologies and data to master their talent management practices. Based on this study, it is crucial to acknowledge employee aspirations and satisfaction as we start a new calendar year and as we work to enhance the hiring and job seeking processes even more.”
Future Personal Ambitions
Overwhelmingly, the top personal goal for 2019 was reported to be saving more money, according to 69% of Lebanon respondents. Other prominent goals included more travel (47%), buying property (30%) and exercising more (26%).
Less than a fifth of respondents (12%) chose retirement before 50, indicating a desire to stay in the workforce for a longer period.
“The Career Aspirations study aims to better understand the challenges and aspirations of MENA professionals. It covers aspects such as perceptions and attitudes towards current job, career aspirations, barriers to career growth, overall work environment and personal aspirations and concerns,” said Kerry McLaren, Head of Omnibus MENA at YouGov.
Data for the 2018 Bayt.com ‘Career Aspirations’ study was collect online from November 22 to December 25, 2018. The results were based on a sample 3128 respondents. Countries that participated are the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and others.
About Bayt.com
Bayt.com is the leading job site in the Gulf and Middle East, connecting job seekers with employers looking to hire. Every day, thousands of new job vacancies are listed on the award-winning platform from the region’s top employers. The portal is used by over 40,000 global employers and has a database of over 34,000,000 professionals.