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Dear
Members and Friends
Yesterday’s Labour Day reminds
us that every business needs
talented people and people with
potential, who are fully engaged
in their work and willing to go
the extra mile for their
customers, to achieve the
company’s commercial goals.
Human capital, as we are told
all the time, is Singapore’s
only natural resource. It makes
human and commercial sense for
that resource to be engaged and
developed.
Most
businesses will tell you a
variation of the theme “people
are at the centre of everything
we do.” The problem is not all
of them mean it. Why do we say
that? Because Singapore
consistently scores low levels
of employee engagement – some of
the lowest in the world and,
certainly, consistently the
lowest in South East Asia. This
is the problem we all need to
fix for the sake of every
employee, every employer, every
company and for Singapore’s
economy.
Low levels of
employee engagement are very bad
news for any company. They mean
too many team members are
disengaged from the company and
from their work. Disengaged
employees, or quiet quitters to
use the current terminology, act
as a drag on morale,
productivity, output and,
therefore, commercial success.
They slow down the
implementation of business
strategies which means the
company’s goals are not being
fully achieved. Not good news
from a commercial point of view.
From a human capital point of
view this is a waste of
resources.
What’s to be
done? More employers need to
enable a positive workplace
culture because the culture of
each workplace is a key
determinant of employee
engagement levels. This is why
workplace culture should be a
top priority for everyone in a
company starting with the Board
of Directors. Board Directors
should see it as part of their
fiduciary responsibility to
ensure their company has a
positive workplace culture so it
stands the best chance of
attracting and retaining the
human capital it needs to
deliver on its strategy and
achieve sustained success. And
because work is a collaboration,
workplace culture needs to be
co-created and co-sustained by
employers and by all employees.
These are the two big mindset
shifts needed in our economy and
in many other economies:
consistent interest, involvement
and leadership from the Board
and from every employee in the
culture of the workplace. This
way precious human talent will
be engaged, retained and not
wasted.
Yours faithfully
Victor Mills
Chief Executive
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