Asia Pacific Employee Pulse November 2017
Asia Pacific Employee Pulse
November 2017
Many of the world’s largest companies use Qualtrics to monitor and improve the employee experience. We wanted to know how different sectors and countries stacked up and what employers can do improve the experience.
The results for Asia Pacific (APAC) show employers here still have plenty to do to improve the experience and highlight some interesting differences between the employee experience in different countries.
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Section 1
How engaged are Asia Pacific’s workers?
the overall engagement score in APAC.
How does engagement compare in different countries?
30%
New Zealand
Australia
Malaysia
Singapore
Hong Kong
Which industries have the most and least engaged workers?
Healthcare
+
Travel & Leisure
60%
engagement score
Media &
advertising
+ Retail
48%
engagement score
65%
40%
60%
HEALTHCARE
60%
TRAVEL AND LEISURE
59%
TELECOMS
56%
UTILITIES
54%
IT & TECH
53%
OTHER
52%
FINANCE
51%
MANUFACTURING
50%
PUBLIC SECTOR
45%
MEDIA & ADVERTISING
45%
RETAIL
Employee Experience powered by 
Using Qualtrics’ Drive iQ technology, we found the top 3 drivers of employee engagement in APAC were:
1
Working for a company that’s supportive of work-life balance
2
Managers who acknowledge you for good work
3
Having the right level of training to work effectively
One of the biggest trends to come out of the data is the link between an organisation’s perceived support of work-life balance and engagement. Below you can see the average engagement score for different groups based on how they rated their company’s attitude towards work-life balance:
Section 2
Attrition and the War for Talent
of workers in APAC are looking to leave their jobs in the next 2 years.
Hong Kong scored the highest of all the countries we surveyed, with 21% of workers saying they were looking to leave.
Which sectors are struggling to hold on to talent?
1
Retail
21% said they were looking to leave in the next 2 years
2
Media & Advertising
20% of those we asked were looking to leave
3
Finance
18% said they probably or definitely woldn’t stay
Which sector has the most loyal workers?
Healthcare
70%
of employees in healthcare said they probably or definitely will stay in their current jobs for the next 2 years. Hardly surprising as the sector tops our engagement table
Employee Experience powered by
What’s driving attrition?
Using Qualtrics’ Driver iQ technology, we found the top 3 drivers of intent to stay were:
1
Working for a company that’s supportive of work-life balance
2
Having the right level of training to work effectively
3
How much you trust your colleagues
Subject Matter Expert, Employee Experience
It’s common to hear worklife balance is not being measured. When it comes to attrition, work-life balance is still a key factor and needs to be measured. Work-life balance isn’t about a 50:50 split, it’s about understanding all those experiences where the workplace and personal life interact with eachother. To reduce attrition, organisations need to start measuring these work-life experiences.
Leaders also need to help create an evironment of trust within the workplace. Trust and psychological safety go hand in hand and it’s a key measure in the playbook for high performing teams.
Section 3
Stress, health and wellbeing in the workplace
of workers in APAC say they feel stressed or emotional because of work, always or most of the time. New Zealand scored the lowest here with 19% of workers saying they felt stressed most or all of the time.
Which sector has the most stressed employees?
45%
15%
44%
Telecoms
27%
Travel & leisure
27%
Media & advertising
26%
It/tech
24%
Utilities
24%
Retail
24%
Finance
24%
Healthcare
23%
Public sector
19%
Manufacturing
Section 4
How much do APAC’s workers enjoy their jobs?
Just under half of workers in APAC said they look forward to going to work most or all of the time. Workers in New Zealand were ahead of the other countries we surveyed, with 54% saying the same.
45%54%
50%
45%
43%
34%
Who looks forward to going to work in the morning?
Utilities
56%
of workers said they look forward to going to work most or all of the time
Who dreads going to work each day?
Public Sector +
Retail
28%
say they hardly ever or not very often looked forward to going to work
Employee Experience powered by
Who really looks forward to going to work?
Longer working hours or checking emails on a weekend doesn’t appear to negatively impact how much people look forward to goign to work. In fact, when it comes to checking work emails at a weekend, people who check them more often tend to look forward to going to work more than those who never or only occasionally do.
Looking forward to going to work vs working hours
50%
47%
41%
44%
44%
48%
67%
Looking forward to going to work vs checking emails on a weekend
36%
40%
35%
58%
67%
When it comes to stress and tiredness, there’s an interesting distribution - unsurprisingly, those who never feel stressed, tired or overwhelmed score highly on looking forward to going to work, but so do those at the other extreme, where they always feel these.
Look forward to work vs feeling emotional / stressed through work
67%
49%
32%
44%
48%
Look forward to work vs feeling overwhelmed
62%
45%
37%
49%
58%
Look forward to work vs feeling tired
70%
48%
29%
48%
60%
What makes people look forward to going to work?
We used Qualtrics Driver iQ to see what factors were most important in creating an environment where people in APAC look forward to going to work:
— Being happy with current work-life balance
— Having a manager who helps tackle your workload
— Being able to try out new things in your role
— Having a manager who helps resolve work-related problems
We also looked at whether these conditions were also true for millennials (in our study, the age brackets under 35). They were fairly similar although the second most important driver for them was having opportunities for career progression:
— Being happy with current work-life balance
— Having opportunity for career progression at the company
— Being able to try out new things in your role
— Having a manager who helps tackle your workload
Subject Matter Expert, Employee Experience
It’s evident across all groups, we love going to work when we have a healthy work-life balance, opportunity to try new things within our roles and a supportive manager. This drivers found using Qualtrics Driver iQ creates a practical checklist for leaders to measure and make a positive impact within their team.
In addition, younger team members want to actively talk to their managers about career progression. However this doesn’t necessarily mean that millennials want to be promoted today. All they want to know is, if they can make a positive impact in the business, that there will be opportunity for career progression for them within the company.
Section 5
How much are we working?
of workers in APAC say they regularly work more than 45 hours a week. Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand recorded the highest figures of all the countries we surveyed while France scored the lowest at just 14%.
Who’s working the longest hours?
45%
15%
58%
Telecoms
45%
Travel & leisure
45%
Utilities
40%
Finance
40%
Media & advertising
40%
Manufacturing
36%
It & tech
33%
Retail
28%
Healthcare
26%
Public sector
Who’s putting in the most over-time?
45%
15%
41%
Travel & leisure
40%
Media & advertising
34%
Finance
33%
Telecoms
32%
Retail
27%
Manufacturing
27%
Public sector
25%
It & tech
24%
Healthcare
23%
Utilities
Who’s working the most? powered by
In APAC , women are slightly more likely than men to work outside their contracted hours.
Not surprisingly, people newer in their roles are more likely to put extra hours in - this tapers off in the first 3 years before rising slightly as people spend more time at a company.
Working outside contracted hrs vs tenure:
50%
45%
39%
40%
43%
45%
Meet the Workaholics
Plenty of people globally said they were working 60+ hours a week (that’s more than 12 hours a day in a 5 day week!) - so we wanted to find out who this group of people were and how they felt about their jobs:
Younger workers in more senior roles
They are slightly more likely to have been in their role longer than the other groups:
— The majority are under 34 years old
— They’re slightly more senior, with the majority in senior management or leadership
— Slightly more likely to be male than female
They really go the extra mile...
— Nearly 50% of them always check their email on weekends, as opposed to just 17% of the APAC average.
— Nearly 25% of them will commute for over 2 hours to get to work, as opposed to 3% average globally
They feel stressed by it...
— A quarter of them always feel overwhelmed by work, as opposed to 6% of the global data set
— Over 20% of them feel emotional or stressed because of work
But they don’t seem to mind!
— This group is the most likely group to recommend their company to people they know as a place to work.
— 36% say they definitely will stay in their roles, compared to average of 24% across APAC
— Over ¼ say they nearly always look forward to going to work, compared to an APAC average of 9%
Subject Matter Expert, Employee Experience
It’s fascinating to learn from our data that those who work 60+ hours aren’t miserable and broken. In fact these ‘workaholics’ are highly engaged, connected and most likely to recommend their company to people they know as a place to work. The majority are under the age of 34, making them the next generation of c-levels who are willing to work hard and smart for career progression in the company.