Are bosses in Singapore not delivering on their HR promises?

Despite bosses in Singapore increasingly facing talent issues in organisations, looks like they are not doing enough to lead and empower their staff optimally.

The Aon Hewitt Best Employers – Singapore 2015 Country Report found that Singapore CEOs continue to identify people issues as the most critical “business” challenge for their organisations.

The report polled 400 CEOs in Asia to understand key talent issues that are posing a risk to their organisations’ ability to succeed and how they intend to mitigate them.

The report highlighted the presence of  "talent management gaps" between local CEOs and employees.

For instance, 71% of CEOs in Singapore said their people managers have the tools and resources to manage their work effectively.

However, only 55% of these local people managers felt they are fully productive.

In addition, the report highlighted that while most leaders in the report stated that “our employees are our greatest assets”, only 58%of employees believed their leaders actually treat them as their most valued asset.

To make things worse, while 65% of local  organisations said they have a clearly defined employer brand, the report said only 15% of firms have complete alignment between the CEO and HR definition of their employer brand.

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Career opportunities was also found to be the top driver of engagement across all generations. However, only 54% of employees stated they have good career  opportunities at their organisations.

'The 'formula' for a best employer is dependent on its ability to generate high scores in employee engagement, a compelling employer brand, effective leadership and a high performance culture measured through three data sources: an employee opinion survey, evaluation of the company’s people practices and a CEO interview," the report stated.

"In comparison to best employers, Singapore organisations are struggling to cover the distance between rhetoric and reality in these areas."

Consistent with the rest of Asia, the report added that Singapore organisations identified shortage in critical skills and rising salaries as the top people issues they are consistently facing.

“For organisations that don’t make it to the best employers list, but are aspiring to become Best Employers, we want to reinforce that this is a journey. Becoming a best employer doesn’t happen overnight, said Gitansh Malik, regional manager, Best Employers Asia with Aon Hewitt.

“It is possible for everyone to become a best employer, if you have articulated the destination you want to head to and have planned your journey wisely.”

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