Despite a projected economic growth of 3 - 4% in 2014, Hong Kong organisations are struggling to engage employees with only 48% of workers reporting they are engaged with their jobs. This represents a two point drop from last year, placing Hong Kong second from bottom of the 20 countries surveyed by market research firm ORC International.
The survey, which received more than 7,000 responses, also found that fewer than four in ten employees have confidence in their leadership team, causing employees to disengage from their company and responsibilities.
The drop in employee engagement this year may significantly impact Hong Kong’s ability to achieve its projected growth goals. These declines are most noted around work-life balance and work pressure, with satisfaction with wellbeing policies sitting at 31%, well below the rest of Asia Pacific at 48%.
Joseph Chui, Managing Director, ORC International commented, “Hong Kong companies face a challenge this year to improve engagement. If they can effectively tap into their workforce and provide a creative and engaging environment to thrive, the positive impact to performance will be felt. Organisations which are not able to actively harness new ideas from employees will see an impact on innovation and growth but more importantly, on customer satisfaction and business performance.”
On the positive side, 70% of respondents feel their skills are well utilised—up 10% from last year—and Hong Kong is becoming stronger on diversity with 57% of employees feeling confident that individual differences are respected.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
