- Only 70% feel their career goals can be met by their employers
- At 75% Hong Kong employee engagement levels are amongst the lowest in the Asia Pacific region overall
Employee engagement in Hong Kong has declined consistently over the last three years. A recent Employee Engagement Index, conducted by Mercer, showed a contrast in Hong Kong employee’s engagement compared with several large South-East Asian countries. Only 75% of Hong Kongers are satisfied with the companies they work for compared to 81% of their counterparts in Mainland China. At the top of the list were Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam with an overall engagement level of 82%.
In addition to that, Hong Kongers are less likely to endorse their organisations as good employers—75% of employees in APAC would advocate for their companies as good places to work, while only 71% of employees are willing to do so in Hong Kong.
“To stay competitive, companies in Hong Kong need to foster a culture of empowerment and innovation for their people,” said Jackson Kam, regional talent strategy leader for Mercer. He added, “Employees in Hong Kong feel lack of leadership communication and cross-functional collaboration within inhibit them at work.”
What may be a case for worry is that even among the engaged employees, only a small fraction are reportedly enthusiastic about going above and beyond their scope of work to help their company thrive. And only 75% feel they have enough opportunity to continually learn and grow despite the growing emphasis and investment on learning and development at most organisations today.
“Engagement represents the best opportunity for Hong Kong 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 realize engagement in the workplace,” concluded Mr. Kam.
Mercer’s Hong Kong Employee Engagement Index survey is based on responses of employees from more than 40 companies in Hong Kong, 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.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
