Singapore renews its focus on engagement

SINGAPORE – As human resource development’s influence grows, so does human capital development.

SINGAPORE is a magnet for global talent, and its business community is exceptionally receptive to advanced business ideas, no matter where they originate. That’s unusual in Asia, which tends towards hierarchical, traditional management structures. Still, it hasn’t been until fairly recently – the last 10 years or so – that Singapore’s business culture has broadly incorporated workplace engagement.

Employee engagement refers to workers’ enthusiasm for their jobs and their emotional attachment to their company, and it must be measured and supported to be sustained. For a decade, engagement was a known development tool, but business leaders only began emphasising engagement in the past few years.

Before that, leaders didn’t do much with the metrics they received or applied them too randomly to be effective. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report bears this new emphasis on engagement out: only 9 per cent of Singaporeans were engaged in 2011-2012, compared with 23 per cent in 2014-2016.

Source : https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion/singapore-renews-its-focus-on-engagement