New research shows that engaging your Chinese workforce is one of the key measures determining financial success. And by engaging, we don’t mean Hello Kitty themed office parties or even casual Fridays.

The engagement we’re talking about runs deeper and speaks to the emotional, rational, and motivational bonds employees form with their jobs. An article in the latest edition of AmCham-China’s China Brief magazine explains, “These bonds are forged to a great extent by leadership behavior and actions, and an organization’s commitment to both career development for employees and service excellence for customers.”

Clearly, a commitment to buying theme birthday cakes for the office is not buying off anyone’s loyalty or forming bonds that would lead to any tangible motivation improvements and the ensuing benefits.

So what benefits do companies with truly engaged employees see? According to the article, in a one-year survey of 50 global companies doing business in China that correlated engagement levels with financial results, companies with high levels of engagement enjoyed a 19 percent rise in operating income, in addition to a 28 percent rise in earnings per share (EPS). Low employee engagement translated to an income drop of 32 percent along with an EPS decline of 11 percent.

The survey period is limited in scope and of a short timeframe, but the numbers do speak clearly for the need to engage, and thus tap the immense potential power of employees, especially among the Chinese, who were surveyed at a 34 percent disengagement level from their employers. The main gripes? The lack of career advancement prospects coupled with dissatisfaction over salary levels tended to push Chinese employees over the edge.

The article offers four suggestions on bringing employees back around, and getting the most out of your workforce and their ideas:

1. Good strategery is key: Unlike Bush’s low approval ratings, more than 75% of Chinese employees surveyed think their company has a good vision of the future and is well managed. Companies need to translate this into strategies that reward employees for behaviors that will help meet that vision.

2. Pay up, or pay dearly. This is essentially the base of employee engagement, as no amount of secondary benefits or perks will have an effect if employees don’t feel they are being compensated fairly, both among their co-workers, and among their peers in other companies. The research shows this is increasingly more of an issue, so leadership must have strategies in place to show equity and value to their employees.

3. Start some Olympic-grade office training. Career advancement possibilities are the number one driver of employee engagement, though less than half of workers surveyed thought their companies did a good job providing these. The message is clear: Invest in your employees with long-term advancement strategies, and engagement levels and profits will rise.

4. Rip a page from ‘Grandpa Wen’s’ engagement playbook. Chinese employees respect their immediate supervisors to a great degree, but managers need to engage employees with a collaborative work environment that shows the employees’ well being is in mind.

While a bullhorn in the crowds may not work as a visible indicator of engagement for you like it does for Premier Wen among quake survivors, a firm, underlying belief among staff that hard work and good ideas will be rewarded may be the key to employee engagement and success.

    Channel: Local Wisdom     |