A recent survey published on Fin24 reported findings regarding the state of employee engagement in South Africa. A survey of 1100 people from various industries, including banking, mining, retail and government was carried out across South Africa. The findings were that many industries are showing a widening gap between management and staff structures.
The report’s purpose was to look at how employees and employers relate and what the level of employee engagement is in South Africa. One of the startling finds was that 42 out of every 100 people had no motivation to implement effective change in the organisation they worked with, which is crucial to positive performance for a company’s bottom line.
“Several international studies support this narrative,” says Christopher Clark. “British multi-national, Aon, produced statistics that link just a 5% increase in employee engagement with a 3 % subsequent growth in revenue.
“Organisational leadership needs to make employee engagement a key discipline which in turn will have a direct impact on company profit and productivity,” he explains. (Fin24)
A startling contrast in opinions found during the survey, was that employees feel that improved communication from employers is required, while those in management positions felt that communication did not need to be improved at all.
When we look at the top global companies to work for, and their attitude towards their staff, there clearly needs to be a shift in the way many companies are run in South Africa. South African employees are becoming despondent by simply being treated as another cog in the commercial engine of the business world. People want to be treated as individuals, they want praise and they want flexibility. These aspects may assist businesses to encourage their employees to practice loyalty, devotion, and a will to enforce real change within the organisation they work for. Theoretically speaking, this may have a positive effect on a company’s bottom line, and practically, it does seem to work for a lot of top global internationals, which is maybe why they are at the top of their game.
You can read more and locate the findings here:
http://www.fin24.com/Economy/Level-of-employee-engagement-in-SA-dismal-survey-20150826