Raising engagement levels in Singapore

According to a Morgan McKinley Working Hours Survey in 2014, over 80% of Singapore’s professionals who responded say they are working in excess of their contractual hours.

It also revealed that 65% of Singapore’s professionals say they feel obligated to work longer hours but only 28% believe they are more productive during these extra hours. Sadly also a whopping 85% of respondents feel these excessive hours are impacting their work-life balance.

Also in late 2013, Gallup’s State Of The Global Workplace report was released. It covered 142 countries and it revealed that only 10% of the Singapore workforce felt “engaged”. Among the lowest in the world.

So what do these numbers mean? Like many surveys it’s hard to take raw figures and accurately predict the long-term effect.

However if we assume that we have a significant number of disengaged staff, a large majority working longer than contractual hours, a majority of those being unproductive during the extra hours, and that nearly all of respondents saying that excessive hours is impacting their personal and professional balance, whatever the effect, it’s unlikely to be good!

So what can be done?

The key has to start with engagement.

People don’t join a company demotivated and disengaged. They arrive at that state over time. Preventing the slide into demotivation and disengagement relies on tapping into what’s already in their hearts.

We can’t do that without first discovering the company’s own values and purpose: its heart and soul. Staff members that align well with your values and purpose will be more engaged, stay longer and yield vastly higher long-term results.

Yes, values and purpose have been the subject of some ridicule over recent years. We’ve all seen lists of inspiring words on banners and on the walls in many companies. Although frequently such a list is produced, printed…and then largely ignored!

A company’s values can’t be downloaded. They are present already and have to be uncovered.

They reside in the actions of those contributing most to the business. They are there in the stories of legendary service, over-the-odds contribution, and deadlines met despite setbacks.

In these stories lie the true company values. It’s worth spending some quality time reviewing these stories and discovering (or re-discovering) what the company’s values really are – not what others think they should be!

When they are properly determined, they won’t be a simple list of words but typically short phrases. From your values comes your purpose.

The purpose of the company comes from answering the question ‘what difference do we really make?’ Or ‘if we didn’t exist, how would our market be worse off?’ If this isn’t clearly understood by everyone, the company is just somewhere to work until a more inspiring job comes along.

Disney’s purpose is make people happy; the purpose of Starbucks centers around the word escape and providing that ‘third place’ in peoples’ lives aside from where they work and where they live.

Trying to act against your true values in any area of the business will be hard and will limit your growth. Once you have your values and purpose clear, use them to select team members, review progress and performance, draw attention to poor behaviour, and praise the positive.

And, by the way, that means the leadership will have to repeat themselves… a lot!

This is not a process to be rushed but the results are worth it. The hard monetary cost of disengaged staff is huge, measured in lost business opportunities and, worse, other good staff leaving.

Sound tough? Maybe. Will it take some time? Definitely! But the results can be huge.