Asia Pacific – More than a third of employees considering leaving their jobs to start their own business

By memberservices@staffingindustry.com (Danny Romero)

More than a third, or 37%, of employees in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia are considering leaving their current job to start their own business, according to data from the latest Randstad Workmonitor.

Malaysia was found to have the highest percentage of employees (49%) who were looking at possibly leaving their job for a chance at entrepreneurship, while Singapore employees were the least motivated (32%) with regards to starting their own business.

Millennials were the largest group of employees who were considering leaving their job to start their own venture. The data showed that 54% of millennial employees in Malaysia are considering leaving their job to become an entrepreneur. This was followed by Singapore (40%) and then Hong Kong (39%). Despite this sentiment, the Workmonitor research also revealed that the millennial group has the highest preference for working in a large multinational corporation (MNC). It shows that although millennials may aspire to start their own businesses, they are also acutely aware of the benefits work experience at an MNC can bring.

While employees in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia may consider leaving their jobs to start their own business, the data showed that fear of failure seems to be holding them back from making this career switch as seven in ten employees across all three countries felt that the risk of failure being an entrepreneur is too big.

Meanwhile, more than half of employees (51%) in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia would consider taking the route to entrepreneurship if they lost their jobs. Among the three countries, Malaysians were most likely (61%) to do so, compared to Singaporeans (42%).

“Our Workmonitor research recently revealed that employees in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia had some of the highest global preference for working at large multinational organisations,” Managing Director for Randstad Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, Michael Smith said. “It’s particularly interesting that this same research has shown that many of these employees are also considering leaving their jobs to start their own business, but are at the same time held back by the fear of failure. The governments in all three countries have recently been ramping up efforts to create a startup friendly environment to allow new businesses to thrive. As these new business communities grow and thrive, it will be interesting to monitor how the attitude towards entrepreneurship changes.”

Source:: Asia Pacific – More than a third of employees considering leaving their jobs to start their own business