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It is crucial to engage staff, HR consultant Ms Yap Yoke Wah of Hewit Associates said, especially during the economic downturn, so that an organization can overcome a crisis and in building a sustainable business in the long run. According to her, “our research shows that the best employers have a revenue growth of about 22% year-to-year including the downturn”.

Emphasizing that engagements is more than job satisfaction and commitment, it is “how much I want to and actually do improve our business results” factor that is the driving force of opportunities for business growth.

Watson Wyatt Worldwide’s ongoing “WorkAttitudes” studies also show a strong link between employee engagements and key business metrics such as productivity and turnover. It reflected that highly-engaged employees are 70% more likely than low-engagement employees to exceed performance expectation with very low turnover risks.

HR consultants are at the opinion that it is not an option to ignore employee engagement during the downturn but rather this need to be strengthened by enhancing the communication and providing clear picture of the business health so that it could build strong strategic direction and leadership.

While economic uncertainties could potentially weaken engagement, it added that companies that excel in this area were likely to make it through the current crisis and deliver superior results in the future.

Looking randomly at the policy at hand in the varies companies in Asia and Pacific region – the responsible companies had taken the initiative to encourage the employees to get training and retraining during this time to further enhance the skill of these workers. The trade unions welcome these initiatives but also seek the employers to be transparent and work with fairness during these challenging times.