1. Employee Engagement What managers need to know?
Brenda Wilson
Business Leader
Human Capital
Hong Kong

2. Overview Section I: What is ‘Employee Engagement’?
Employee Engagement Defined
What Managers Can Do to Improve Engagement
Section II: How to improve employee engagement in your department?
Key Drivers of Engagement
Section III: A case study in the public sector
Experience Sharing with our Project with Singapore Government
Section IV: Key Takeaways

3. Section I Employee Engagement What is it?
Does the HR infrastructure (compensation program, communication program etc) at your department support employee engagement?
Does a committed employee necessarily engaged?

4. Let’s vote: what’s your view?
Q: What is the definition of employee engagement?
Select one answer:
A new management technique to get your employees to do what you tell them … the first time.
When two employees plan to get married.
An internal party for employees: “Hey Joe, are you going to that employee engagement at 2:00 p.m.?”
All of the above (they all sound good)

5. What is employee engagement?
Engagement Defined
What is employee engagement?
A psychological state in which employees feel a vested interest in the company’s success and are both willing and motivated to perform to levels that exceed the stated job requirements.
Engagement fosters and drives discretionary behavior, eliciting employees’ highest productivity, their best ideas and their genuine commitment to the success of the organization.

6. Engagement Defined Enjoys the job
1960
1980
2000
TIME
Satisfaction
Motivation
Commitment
Engagement
Morale
Enjoys the job
Is not dissatisfied with terms and conditions
Not necessarily a team player
Strives to achieve personal goals
Contributes energetically
Values achieving personal goals more than team/ organizational goals
Loyal to organization, optimistic for the future
Collaborates to achieve team goals
Has a sense of belonging to organization
Proactively seeks opportunities to serve the mission of the organization
Willing to go the “extra mile”
Is willing to withhold criticism and/or be constructively critical for the good of the organization

7. Engagement Defined: How’re you doing? Check your level of engagement
Are you…
Getting satisfaction from the tasks required in their job?
Feeling valued by management?
Contributing energetically, not in isolation, but collaboratively?
Positive about the work experience – your employer, its leaders, the work and the environment?
Ambitious for the organization?
Speaking positively about the organization’s goods and services?
Planning to continue to work for the organization?
Going beyond the stated requirements of the job and contribute ‘discretionary effort’?
Yes No
Are you engaged?

8. From Satisfaction to Engagement Mercer’s Employee Engagement Model©
Advocate
Committed
They freely contribute discretionary effort – a willingness to go the extra distance in executing projects and their regular duties. They see a mutuality of interest between his or her values and aspirations and those of the organization.
Committed employees have thoroughly internalized the values and behaviors represented by the earlier stages of the engagement model, but have also forged a strong identification with the organization.
Advocate
Committed
Motivated
Motivated
Satisfied
In addition to sharing some of the attributes of satisfied employees, motivated workers contribute energetically and are highly focused individual contributors to the organization.
Satisfied employees perform their jobs and are satisfied with the terms and conditions of employment. However, they tend not to go “above and beyond” in their efforts.
Satisfied

9. Let’s vote: what’s your view?
Q: What can manager’s do to improve employee engagement?
Select one answer:
Act like cupid: every one loves a good engagement.
Give more work, hard work, and lots of it!
Use fear to scare your employees into being very satisfied at work.
None of the above – there is nothing a manager can do.

10. From Satisfaction to Engagement What can managers do?
Satisfied
Motivated
Committed
Advocate
Satisfied:
Provide work tools, resources and equipment
Enhance the work environment
Reward (reward level and understanding of the rationale for reward change)
Recognize work efforts

11. From Satisfaction to Engagement What can managers do?
Satisfied
Motivated
Committed
Advocate
Motivated:
Establish fair performance goals
Communicate clear expectations
Regularly clarify priorities and feedback
Provide support by removing obstacles to optimal performance
Recognize and reward performance
Delegate work to theses employees
Support skill development

12. From Satisfaction to Engagement What can managers do?
Committed:
Help employees build meaningful long-term careers
Ensure recognition and reward for long term commitment
Listen to employees, share insights and experience
Ensure fairness, consistency and transparency
Develop understanding of long-term vision and business plans
Promote organization values and reinforce them through management behaviors
Satisfied
Motivated
Committed
Advocate

13. From Satisfaction to Engagement What can managers do?
Advocate:
Communicate the organization's progress and challenges
Relate business results to team and individual roles
Endorse strong customer focus
Share understanding of customer needs with team
Challenge and grow through delegation
Establish comprehensive career development plans
Encourage upward communication
Encourage innovation
Recognize and reward
Satisfied
Motivated
Committed
Advocate

14. “
We’ve always had a policy of trying to put our staff first. The staff should come first, the customers (the public) second and your shareholders (stakeholders/ tax payers) third.
If you take that approach you’ll find that everyone wins. Happy staff result in happy customers, lots of happy customers result in happy shareholders. ”
Richard Branson, CEO Virgin Group

15. Section II Key Drivers of Employee Engagement
Apart from pay, which ONE driver do you think is the most engaging?
Sense of personal accomplishment
Benefits
Career Opportunity
Respect

16. National Differences in Engagement Drivers
Over the last several years, the Mercer’s What’s WorkingTM studies have been tracking the drivers of engagement across countries
China
What’s working in Hong Kong?
United Kingdom
Sense of personal accomplishment
Sense of personal accomplishment
Paid fairly, given performance
Confidence in senior management
Comparable benefits to industry
Opportunities for training
Engagement
Confidence in senior management
Paid fairly, given performance
IT systems support business needs
Good reputation for customer service
Opportunities for training
Regular performance feedback
Regular performance feedback
Comparable benefits to industry
Cooperation between groups

17. Let’s Vote: What’s your view?
Q: Apart from pay, which ONE element do you think is the most important driver of employee engagement?
Select one answer:
Sense of personal accomplishment
Benefits
Career opportunity
Sufficient channels for communication
Confidence in senior management
Training and development opportunities

18. Key Drivers of Employee Engagement
Although there are some country-specific drivers, a consistent set of engagement drivers is emerging globally
Employee
Engagement
2007
The work itself, including opportunities to develop
Confidence and trust in leadership
Rewards & recognition
Communication

19. Key Drivers of Engagement
Drivers of engagement vary by …
Industry
High technology
Retail
Financial services
Professional services
Civil Service
Organizational Context
Growth
Privatisation
Restructuring/downsizing
Merger and integration
Employee demographics
Country

20. Section III Case Study – Singapore Civil Service

21. ? Singapore Civil Service Why Engagement is so Critical…
The economic landscape is changing…
Strong year-on-year growth in GDP in Singapore
The implications on the employment market…
Increased growth across sectors
Competition for talent intensifying
Increasingly becoming an employee’s market
How do we continue to retain
employees in the Public
Sector?
Compensation is critical, but it’s not everything
Needed to understand the drivers of employee engagement in the public sector for talent retention

22. Approach
In 2005, Mercer established an employee engagement survey, The Singapore Public Sector Employee Engagement Survey (PS EES) for 20+ agencies
The survey yielded 3,743 data points, sampled from 46 individual public sector agencies
Regression analysis was conducted to identify key drivers to engagement
Overall engagement was measured by the following four questions:
I am proud to work for my organization
I would recommend my organization to others
Given a choice, how much longer will I be working for my organization
How satisfied am I with my organization at the present time
11 engagement categories
Leadership / Climate
Supervisory Practices
Career Advancement
Job Growth
Job Motivation
Learning & Development
Teamwork
Workload
Engagement
Rewards
Performance Management & Feedback

23. Results
Compensation almost never rated in top three drivers at over 20 agencies for senior and mid-level staff but was within the top three drivers for junior staff
2007 Key Drivers
2005 Key Drivers
Job Motivation
pr = .34
Employee Engagement
Leadership/ Climate
pr = .44
Leadership/ Climate
pr = .27
Career Advancement
pr = .38
Career Advancement
pr = .26
Job Motivation
pr = .25
Workload
pr = .08
Definition of 11 key category drivers
Leadership / Climate – refers to the senior management team as a whole and perceived clarity in communicating organizational strategy, ability in confronting issues, demonstrating organizational values and concern for employees as well as management of the organization as a whole
Supervisory Practices – refers to respondents’ immediate supervisor in terms of perceived competence, availability for consultation, honest communication and frequency of feedback
Career Advancement - refers to perceived opportunities in career development as well as long-term career prospects in the organization and the public sector in general
Job Growth – refers to staff perceived value of activities outside their scope of work contributing to their personal development of organizational excellence
Job Motivation – refers to perceived levels of personal satisfaction, adequate autonomy, interesting challenges and relevant use of their skills and abilities
Learning & Development – refers to staff perceived value of activities outside their scope of work contributing to their personal development of organizational excellence
Teamwork – refers to respondents’ attitude towards people in the organization and perceived levels of cooperation within the work group and across divisions/ institutions
Workload – refers to perceived reasonable levels of work, adequate manpower and ability in maintaining balance between work and personal life
Performance Management & Feedback – refers to employee level of understanding, perceived equity and flexibility of the PM system, ability to recognize and reward deserving staff and the level of feedback and communication
Rewards - refers to perceived fairness of compensation and other issues of external competitiveness and internal equity
Engagement – refers to staff level of satisfaction and pride for the organization as well as intent to stay and recommendation of the organization as a good place of employment
Rewards
pr = .06
R²=.67
R²=.64
pr = partial correlation, a measure of statistical relationship
R² = coefficient of determination, denotes variation of dependent variable explained by independent variables

24. Statistically significant drivers of engagement – by category
A total of three items were uncovered as statistically significant key drivers employee engagement at the category level
Employee
Engagement
Leadership/ Climate
pr = .44
The strength of leadership in the organization
Opportunities for growth, development and long-term career potential
Being intrinsically motivated by the work you do
Career Advancement
pr = .38
pr =.25
Job Motivation
These items accounted for 67% of the variance in Employee Engagement (R²=.67)

25. Statistically significant drivers of engagement – by item
Item Level Drivers
A total of five items were uncovered as statistically significant key drivers of Employee Engagement at the overall level
The key drivers of Employee Engagement center around:
The work itself giving them a feeling of personal accomplishment
Employees’ belief that they have opportunities for growth and development in their organizations
Employee perceptions that senior management proactively confronts issues before they become major problems
Employee perceptions that the values of their organisation are evident in people’s actions
Employee perceptions that their organisation has established a good reputation for customer service
Job Motivation
Q. Feeling of personal
accomplishment
Employee
Engagement
pr = .36
Career Advancement
Q. Opportunity for growth
& development
I am proud to work for my organization
I would recommend my organization to others
Given a choice, how much longer will I be working for my organization
How satisfied am I with my organization at the present time
pr = .33
Leadership/ Climate
Q. Snr Mgmt does a good job of confronting issues
pr = .24
Leadership/ Climate
Q. Org values are demonstrated by employees
pr = .18
Leadership/ Climate
Q. Org has established a good reputation for customer service
pr =.16
R²=.61
pr = partial correlation, a measure of statistical relationship
R² = coefficient of determination, denotes variation of dependent variable explained by independent variables

26. Section IV Closing remarks

27. Key takeaways
Compensation is important, but it isn’t everything and for the Singapore Civil Service it didn’t factor significantly in the results for most levels of the workforce.
In order to increase levels of engagement, managers need to understand the drivers of engagement.
Are your employees satisfied, motivated, committed or an advocate for the Hong Kong Civil Service?
What can you do to help improve your employee’s engagement?
Key drivers of engagement may vary from industries, organization contexts, and from country to country: do you know what is driving or eroding your employee engagement?
Managers can take an active role in engaging the workforce through various non-financial means leading to better performance and happier employees who advocate for the government and the public.

28. Contact
Brenda Wilson Human Capital, Hong Kong
Tel

29. Employee engagement categories
Leadership / Climate – refers to the senior management team as a whole and perceived clarity in communicating organizational strategy, ability in confronting issues, demonstrating organizational values and concern for employees as well as management of the organization as a whole
Supervisory Practices – refers to respondents’ immediate supervisor in terms of perceived competence, availability for consultation, honest communication and frequency of feedback
Career Advancement - refers to perceived opportunities in career development as well as long-term career prospects in the organization and the public sector in general
Job Growth – refers to staff perceived value of activities outside their scope of work contributing to their personal development of organizational excellence
Job Motivation – refers to perceived levels of personal satisfaction, adequate autonomy, interesting challenges and relevant use of their skills and abilities
Learning & Development – refers to staff perceived value of activities outside their scope of work contributing to their personal development of organizational excellence
Teamwork – refers to respondents’ attitude towards people in the organization and perceived levels of cooperation within the work group and across divisions/ institutions
Workload – refers to perceived reasonable levels of work, adequate manpower and ability in maintaining balance between work and personal life
Performance Management & Feedback – refers to employee level of understanding, perceived equity and flexibility of the PM system, ability to recognize and reward deserving staff and the level of feedback and communication
Rewards - refers to perceived fairness of compensation and other issues of external competitiveness and internal equity
Engagement – refers to staff level of satisfaction and pride for the organization as well as intent to stay and recommendation of the organization as a good place of employment