2016 Employee Engagement Trends

Singapore Lags With Alarming Fall in Perception Scores Among Millennials

SINGAPORE--(Marketwired - Jun 29, 2016) - Perception scores among millennials fell by an alarming 5 points in Singapore in the area of 'talent & staffing' -- which refers to the talent attraction, promotion, and retention practices of an organisation, as well as its ability to allocate appropriate and adequate resources to get the job done, according to the 2016 Trends in Global Employee Engagement study by Aon Hewitt, the global talent, retirement, and health solutions business of Aon plc (NYSE: AON).

Perception scores for the same demographic also fell by 5 points in terms of diversity & inclusion, and by 3 points in autonomy as well as work-life balance. Millennials -- those born between 1979 and 2000 -- are the largest generation in the Singapore workforce today. There are 1.2 million millennials in the island state, or 22 percent of resident population. As their career expectations and aspirations grow more demanding, Singapore employers face great pressure to take urgent action to engage with this significant proportion of the workforce.

Overall, employees in Singapore are less engaged this year than their Asia-Pacific counterparts. While engagement scores rose from 60 percent in 2014 to 65 percent in 2015 across Asia-Pacific, the score in Singapore rose by only 3 points -- from 60 percent to 63 percent.

Aon Hewitt measures employee engagement for more than 1,000 organisations around the globe annually. This study was conducted using data from more than three million employee responses in 2014 and more than four million responses in 2015. The responses come from organisations with fewer than 100 employees to the most complex organisations with hundreds of thousands of employees, across more than 60 industries.

Asia Rising

The news gets better when looking out to the rest of Asia. Anchored by two massive economies in China and India, employee engagement over the last year has risen the most in these high-growth markets -- 8 points in China, 5 points in India, and a whopping 13 points in the Philippines.

Stephen Hickey, Partner and Executive Sponsor, Employee Engagement Practice -- Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Aon Hewitt, said: "More and more companies in Asia are focusing on the overall employee experience, rather than just pay and benefits. This is reflected in the continuous investments and improvements in HR practices that lead to a more positive and productive work experience. The slowing of growth in markets such as China has also meant less aggressive hiring. Employees prefer to stay at their organisation longer, so organisations must engage them actively."