State of the Zimbabwean labour force: Employee confidence June 2017

We recently undertook a national employee confidence survey that assessed employees’ outlook and perceptions on a number of issues pertaining to the economy, employers, job security and employment opportunities.

Most of the participants (51. 5 percent) believe that if they lose their jobs right now, they will not be able to get another similar or better job in the next six months. 48.5 percent of the participants believe they will get another similar or better job in the next six months if they lose their jobs now.

Majority of the participants (84.6 percent) are not confident that they will get a cost of living adjustment this year, looking at their organisation’s current circumstances and outlook for the next months and 15.5 percent of the participants are confident that they will get a cost of living adjustment this year.

A large proportion of the participants (70.6 percent) are not concerned that they could be retrenched in the next six months. 29.4 percent of the participants are concerned that they can be retrenched in the next six months.

55.5 percent of the participants do not expect things to be better in the next six months and 44.5 said they expect things to be much better in the next six months.

In the next six months, 77.9 percent of the participants do not expect the economy to improve and 22.1 percent are expecting the economy to improve.

Most the participants (61 percent) believe that the leadership in their organisation are capable of changing the fortunes of their organisations for the better. 39 percent believe their current leadership is not capable of changing the fortunes of their organisations for the better.

In the last six months, the most negative thing that participants experienced in their organisations is reduced benefits (38 percent of participants were affected), 33% of the participants said it was salary delays, 20 percent said it was retrenchment, 17 percent said salary cuts, 16 percent said being forced to take leave, 27 percent said its other reasons that were not given as options and less than 10 percent mentioned other things such as short time, unpaid leave and judicial management.

Hiring new employees was the second most positive thing that happened in the past six months in the participants’ organisation (31.3 percent of participants raised this issue). Less than 10 percent gave other options such as companies offering personal loans, housing loans, share options and salary increase as positive things that have happened in their organisations.

14.3 percent of the participants said in the past six months, new board members were introduced into the company, 13.4 percent said a new CEO was introduced and less than 10 percent gave other options such as new board and new shareholders.

Statistical analysis showed that there is a relationship between job category and confidence of finding a new job in the next six months. Most of the Managerial participants (52.4 percent) are confident that if they were to lose their jobs right now they will get a similar or better job in the next six months. A large proportion (57 percent) of the Non-Managerial employees are not confident that if they were to lose their jobs right now, they will get a similar or better job in the next six months.

The data revealed that, regardless of job category, both Managerial and Non-Managerial employees are not expecting the economy to improve in the next six months.

Both Managerial and Non-Managerial employees believe that the current leadership in their organisations is capable of changing the fortunes for better.

528 participants responded to this survey. Average age of the participants is 39 years. The average work experience for participants is 15 years and their average experience in their current organization is 8 years.

To receive the full Employee Confidence Survey Report, contact me on the details below.

Memory Nguwi is an Occupational Psychologist, Data Scientist, Speaker, & Managing Consultant - Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd a management and human resources consulting firm. https://www.linkedin.com/in/memorynguwi/  Phone 481946-48/481950/2900276/2900966 or email: mnguwi@ipcconsultants.com or visit our website at www.ipcconsultants.com