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Why staying on top of employee satisfaction is of rising importance today

Like much of the world, Hong Kong has been through a volatile year both in a domestic and economic sense but is showing signs of recovery. H1 of 2021 has shown a steady increase in business confidence in the local market, reflected in new job vacancies, with certain statistics at their best since Q3 2018. In the Sales & Marketing sector, demand for talent has spiked since the beginning of this year, partly because of the shift to digital/e-Commerce kickstarted by the pandemic. The e-Commerce sector has been one of the few to thrive in recent years due to the seismic shift in consumer behaviour, and digital marketing specialists, especially those with data analysis skills, are much sought after.

Talent and retention

While many countries have suffered from a declining talent pool because of resignations and relocations, Hong Kong has experienced a sharper decline than most. Incoming talent has been limited due to travel restrictions and domestic issues, and many expats as well as locals have chosen to move away. The combination of diminishing candidate numbers with employers that are recovering and looking to hire is resulting in significant competition for talent, particularly in a booming area such as digital. This has inevitably moved retention back up the agenda for employers, who are faced with a new set of challenges now that candidates are in the driving seat and expect a very different work/life balance post-pandemic.

Employee experience, engagement, satisfaction, and sentiment

Just as customer experience grew in importance in recent years for retailers, employee experience has become a serious focus for employers. A good experience affects employee engagement and satisfaction, which in turn shapes productivity, morale, culture, and retention. However, engagement and satisfaction have become increasingly difficult to measure since the shift to remote working and online interaction. For managers, virtual meetings or appraisals are not as revealing as a face-to-face meeting, and leaders’ instincts about employees are harder to read. Employee feedback therefore needs to come back via different channels – and with three quarters of employees claiming they would be more honest in a survey than face to face, this has been the default way for companies to monitor employee engagement. A survey is also by far the preferred method when soliciting feedback on managers, as very few employees are prepared to give negative feedback in person. In this digital age, many organisations are starting to adopt sentiment analysis software to use AI, natural language processing, and machine learning to understand what their employees are feeling and why they feel that way. With technology that can help detect positive and negative feelings in the language used by the employees, companies can now easily obtain valuable insights on employee sentiment and put it towards shaping their employee engagement and retention strategies.

Is your company also measuring employee engagement and satisfaction? What other things are you doing to help retain talent? If you’re curious to find out more about how the market is performing or need any support with your hiring, don’t hesitate to contact me at cwong@argyllscott.com.hk.

Posted over 2 years ago
About the author:
Christy Wong

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