HIGH employment engagement is an important tool to generate growth and investment, leading global professional services Aon said.
The firm recently conducted and organized the Best Employers Philippines 2018 awards.
“A highly engaged work force results and a top line increase have a direct correlation. Based on data analytics, high engagements make more meaningful engagements,” said Aon Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Philippines Inc. CEO Andrew Minnitt in an interview with the BusinessMirror.
Minnitt said the Philippines can capitalize on its high degree of engagement to attract more investors in the country as they will realize workers who are more engaged are more productive.
“Investors will realize that low cost and low engagement will cost more in the long run,” Minnitt said.
Prashant Chadha, Aon managing director for Malaysia and the Philippines, defined engagement as employees’ high regard for a firm that result in strong individual performance at work and low turnover rates. It is the “strongest measure of employee experience. Moreover, a 5-percent increase in employee engagement scores is linked to a 3-percent increase in revenues the following year.”
In a study conducted this year, Aon said the engagement levels in the Philippines and India posted a high 71 percent, surpassed only by Indonesia at 76 percent. Other countries like Singapore registered at the lower end at 59 percent.
“Filipinos are a happy people” who work hard, Chadha said. This attitude in the employment arena results in a strong performance culture, which links to higher revenues, a constant ideal for global firms. A highly engaged employee operating heavy machinery, for instance, will have less accidents in the workplace compared to one who is less engaged and spends much time on his cell phone.
“Filipinos lead the charge” as far as engagement at work is concerned, and that always counts for something,” he said.
In addition to high engagement, firms recognized by Aon Best Employers Philippines 2018 also show superior scores in other critical areas of talent management, namely effective leadership, performance and branding. These three, however, are now considered prerequisites for companies to simply remain competitive.
Four Philippine-based companies made it to the Best Employers of 2018 category. These were: American Express International Inc., DHL Express Philippines Corp., TeleTech Customer Care Management Philippines Inc. and Telus International Philippines Inc.
Other firms that received special recognition were: The Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. for commitment to engagement; Novartis Healthcare Philippines Inc. for commitment to leadership; and HSBC Electronic Data Processing (Philippines) Inc. for commitment to employer brand.
Minnit said the objective of Best Employers Philippines is to prod companies to pick up best practices from one another, given the current war for talent. In 2018, 460 organizations and 730,000 employees in Asia Pacific and the Middle East were part of the Best Employer program. Those named Best Employers showed 8 percent lower attrition, 1.6 times more job openings filled internally, and 1.6 times higher revenue gain.