According to a survey, 78% of professionals in the Philippines are willing to return to their previous employer.

Additionally, 80% of employers who are currently hiring are willing to rehire these professionals without any hesitation or caution.

According to a recent poll from recruiter Robert Walters (of close to 1,000 professionals across six Southeast Asian countries, of which over 100 are from the Philippines) 47% of workers in the Philippines who had left their job in the past two years did so seeking better pay and benefits while an additional 42% left for a better career progression.

As a result, local professionals admit that they would be willing to consider returning to their previous employers, with 24% stating would consider it for better remuneration, 21% for career progression opportunities, and 22% if there are changes to the leadership or team structure.

The Philippines is seen as one of the countries with the highest proportion of respondents who still keep in touch with their former companies, ranking alongside Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Only one in 10 (12%) Filipino professionals are not in contact with their ex-employers.

A remarkable 88% of those surveyed admitted to staying in some form of contact with a previous manager – with close to a quarter stating that this was for the primary purpose of keeping the door open for future job opportunities (23%).

In fact – 33% of local professionals have admitted to reaching out to a previous employer in the past two years regarding job opportunities, while 12% have expressed the intention to do so.

The sentiment from Filipino professionals is largely met with positive responses, as over 90% of managers in the Philippines express their willingness to re-hire them for suitable positions.

Notably, 80% of managers readily affirm their intention to consider allowing “good ex-employees” to return and another 11% are open to the idea, but with a cautious approach.

On the other hand, a segment of Philippine managers shared that they will not consider re-hiring ex-employees (7%), a lower figure compared to the SEA average of 9%.