Singaporeans less satisfied with employers compared to global counterparts

KUALA LUMPUR: Employee engagement in Singapore has declined consistently over the last three years -- a stark contrast to the upward trend observed in employee engagement across the globe.

According to Mercer’s finding of its ‘Singapore Employee Index: Insights to Enhance Workforce Productivity’, only 73 per cent of Singaporeans are satisfied with the companies they work for compared to 82 per cent of their global counterparts in 2016.

In addition to that, Singaporeans are less likely to endorse their organisations as good employers. Seventy-six per cent of employees in APAC would advocate for their companies as good places to work while only 68 per cent of employees are willing to do so in Singapore.

“Improving employee engagement continues to represent a significant opportunity – not just for businesses but also for the economy as a whole, this is widely acknowledged,” Mercer in Singapore chief executive officer (CEO) Kulshaan Singh said.

“As then Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam noted in his 2014 budget speech, ‘Raising productivity is at the centre of our economic agenda’. The decline is primarily due to the lower feelings of pride in and satisfaction with organisations and our analysis shows that such views are largely driven by the employees’ concerns about innovation and career development.”

An increasing number of employees in Singapore are not getting the right opportunities to learn and grow. Twenty per cent of employees in the workforce say they are not receiving the necessary feedback from their immediate managers to improve themselves.

Even more worrying is that one in three feels that personal career goals are difficult to meet in his or her organisation. At the same time, 95 epr cent of employees in Singapore want to be recognised and rewarded for a wider range of contributions.

Although85percentof employees are proud of the products and services they currently offer, 30 per cent feel their organisations are not continually innovating these products and services.

Notably, one out of every three employees feels that the company does not support the development of ntew ideas. This is in contrast to the strong government commitment and support around driving innovation.

However, attitudes toward employee involvement are notably more positive in Singapore. Seven out of 10 employees feel they are sufficiently involved in the decision-making process on matters that may affect them as compared to 67 per cent globally.

Immediate managers play a critical role in this perception, with 80 per cent of employees saying their immediate managers notify them of important information related to their work.

“Engagement represents the best opportunity for Singapore to optimise the human capital it has. If performance and productivity are a combination of individual talent and engagement, the best way to optimise talent is to ensure it’s engaged.

“Although this seems obvious, many organisations still struggle to build the work environment they need to fully realise engagement in the workplace,” Singh concluded.

Mercer’s Singapore Employee Engagement Index surveyed more than 42,000 employees in Singapore, representing various industries and jobs from global and local multinationals. It assessed employee engagement by measuring the level of pride, motivation and commitment employees have toward the organisations they work for.