How HR can improve workforce engagement with the right strategy
With ‘disengaged workforce’ among the Top 10 people risks facing human resource (HR) managers in Asia, organisations must enhance the employee experience and enhance the competitiveness of their talent strategies with the right strategy and actions.
Increasing health and benefits costs is top-of-mind, but it is not the only risks of concern among HR managers in the region, with risks relating to ‘talent, leadership, and workforce practices’ making up the four out of the top 10 risks according to the Mercer Marsh Benefits (MMB) People Risk 2024 Asia report :
- Uncompetitive talent strategies: 41% of respondents are concerned about the growing gap between rewards packages for existing employees versus new hires.
- Labour shortages: Insufficient qualified candidates to meet job vacancies leading to greater talent competition, higher wages, and limitations on growth.
- Disengaged workforce: 40% of respondents are concerned with the inability to motivate the workforce towards a unified vision and purpose.
- Ineffective leadership: Weak decision-making, communication, emotional intelligence, and more, lead to a lack of trust, high employee turnover, decreased productivity, and reputational issues.
These concerns may impact the level of workforce engagement along with productivity: A recent study by Gallup found that employees who are disengaged cost their organisation the equivalent of 18% of their annual salary. Hence, it is imperative that HR chooses the right approaches to improving workforce engagement.
What can HR managers do to improve workforce engagement?
Improving workforce engagement is highly dependent upon improving employees’ trust in the organisation, which fell significantly in the past two years (from 80% in 2022 to 65% in 2024) according to Mercer’s 2024 Global Talent Trends Asia report. Other than proactively building employee trust, organisations can take the following actions to improve workforce engagement:
- Meet employees’ demographic and basic needs via finance-related benefits.
- Develop a future-ready workforce by helping the workforce upskill, reskill and plan their careers.
- Evaluate employee experience by reinforcing the employee value proposition (EVP) and fostering trust and empathy.
- Build effective leadership by advocating two-way communications and cultivating soft skills.
Aside from talent, leadership and workforce practices, other people risks and potential blind spots for HR managers include health, well-being and safety risks, technological change and disruptions, governance, compliance and financial risks, as well as risks relating to environment, sustainability and protection.
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