Salary and benefits tops career priority list; Google and PTT retain their positions as most desirable employers in Thailand

BANGKOK, Oct. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Universum launches the findings from the Thailand portion of its annual global talent survey, with more than 12,700 participating students from 23 Thailand universities. The research sets out to track the career aspirations and preferences of Thailand's future talent pool, the student survey also recognises the most coveted employers based solely on the responses collected.

In this year's survey, Google retains the top spot as the most ideal employer among business students, a crown it has held since 2020. Followed by Shopee, who has leapt up the ideal employer ranking by six places and landed as the second most attractive employer in the ideal employer ranking. Meanwhile, local champion PTT has once again being selected as the number one employer of choice among engineering talent. 

Thai students have a strong desire for remote work opportunities

According to the research, remote work is one of the key talent magnets for Thai students. This year, 93% of them expressed their interest in remote working opportunities, while their main concern about remote work is that they will overextend themselves, which will affect the work-life balance they want for themselves.

When asked what university students look for in an ideal employer, Thai students still prioritize employers offering competitive base salaries and benefits packages. However, their responses also reveal they are placing greater importance on employers who offer flexible working conditions, which has risen three places on the list to sixth from the ninth rank compared to last year.

"In order to attract the best young talent in Thailand, employers need to communicate clear and attractive policies around remote working; staying quiet on the subject will be seen as a negative by digitally savvy talent starting their careers. It is also clear that, in Thailand, employers need to communicate a strong value proposition that highlights their strengths of their culture and the softer side of the employment experience, including things like their commitment to DE&I" said Mike Parsons, managing director APAC, Universum. 

Highest salary expectation among engineering students

The expected annual salary of university students has increased from 431 689 THB to 479 000 THB. The 2022 study reveals engineering students expect an average annual remuneration of 483 638 THB while their counterparts from business discipline expect a yearly of 465 016 THB.

Additionally, the difference in the gender gap in expected annual salary has risen by 1%, with expected salaries of men at 519 294 THB and women at 464 618 THB.

For full report and rankings, please visit https://universumglobal.com/rankings/thailand/

About the Universum Top 100 Ideal Employer Rankings 2022 – Thailand Edition

The results are based on the answers of 12,757 students studying for degrees in business/commerce, engineering, IT, natural sciences, humanities/liberal arts/education, law and health/medicine with 21,857 individual evaluations of 126 employers within each main field of study from October 2021 to March 2022. Each respondent is asked questions about their career preferences, expectations and employment related drivers and then presented with a list of 126 national and international employers, nominated by the target group through an independent and structured nomination and assessment process, which prevents companies unfairly influencing their positions. The rankings consist of those employers chosen most as an 'ideal' choice when working through a structured funnel-based methodology.

About Universum

Universum, part of the StepStone Group, is a global thought leader in Employer Branding. Universum has over 30 years of peerless experience in the field of employer branding and is established in over 60 markets globally. Universum has a diverse workforce is physically present in 20 countries. With so much data, historically and geographically, Universum is uniquely positioned to deliver key insights to employers about how to attract and retain their future workforce. Our data-led, human and purposeful output has attracted over 1,700 clients, including many Fortune 500 companies, as well as global media partners that publish our annual rankings and trend reports. Find out more at https://universumglobal.com