KUALA LUMPUR (June 29): Money still matters for most Malaysian professionals seeking new jobs, a study by LinkedIn found.

According to the 2015 Talent Trends study, 52% of Malaysians view a better compensation package as the top deciding factor when considering a job offer. Work-life balance was the second most important factor, with an increased priority of 25% compared to last year’s findings.

The study said 35% of Malaysian professionals are also more actively seeking new job opportunities compared to the global average of 30%, with 87% open to hearing from recruiters or headhunters.

Online channels were found to be heavily relied on by such job-seekers, with 66% using online job boards as their main avenue and 59% preferring social professional networks. The influence of friends and colleagues was also important to 48% of Malaysian professionals.

“To get ahead in the war for talent, companies in Malaysia need to build a strong employer brand and amplify this via social professional networks, leveraging their own employees as ambassadors,” Feon Ang, LinkedIn’s director of talent solutions for Asia-Pacific and Japan said.

“A strong, differentiated employer brand can also help companies mitigate to some extent the compensation pressures they may be facing,” she added.

Companies were additionally advised to place greater emphasis on better interview processes, through which 87% of professionals globally were able to develop a more positive perception of the company.

The study said 62% of professionals in Malaysia said they would like to meet their prospective managers during the interview, compared with 74% in Singapore and 44% in Indonesia.