Employee engagement is quickly becoming an issue of concern among HR managers. According to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, Singapore, alongside Malaysia, had the lowest employee engagement in comparison with other Asian markets. Up to 75% of workers in Singapore indicated they were “not engaged” at work. Find out the three reasons why.
As a leader, it’s crucial to resolve this problem, both for your employees and your organisation. Not only are engaged employees more productive, but they are also more likely to be committed to work and stay.
Through the past four weeks, we’ve explored various ways you can improve employee engagement, such as giving helpful feedback and providing clearer career road maps. This article covers our last tip - the importance of creating a shared vision and enlisting your employees to buy into this vision.
A leader’s ability to create a shared vision for the future is crucial in giving employees purpose and guiding them in their work. This is when employees are able to connect their personal purpose and goals with an organisation’s vision, creating personal satisfaction when performing daily tasks.
Research has found that when employees are able to do so, there is almost a spiritual commitment to making the world a better place and helping the organisation contribute to that (Frontiers in Psychology, 2015).
This was also found by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge. Through their research, they found that constituents want visions of the future “that reflect their own aspirations. They want to hear how their dreams will come true and their hopes will be fulfilled.” The most successful visions are shared visions, which can only be created when leaders “listen closely to others, appreciate their hopes and attend to their needs” (Harvard Business Review, 2009).
This may seem daunting, especially for large organisations present in multiple countries. Each organisation has its own challenges and constraints, and it can be challenging to develop and implement a shared vision for success. Developing a shared vision can however have a huge impact on improving employee engagement and organisational success.
Here's how we partnered 2 organisations, helping them overcome their challenges to implement a shared vision for success. Learn how a shared vision can have a real world impact on improving an organisation's culture and even profit.
