OTGV #47 - Happy Workers?
Date of Broadcast: 02/02/04
Are we a nation of happy workers?
Or, are we a nation of workers clinging on to jobs simply because we are too afraid to lose employment?
Two surveys, six months apart, seemingly different findings, yet strangely congruent.
Hi Welcome to On the Grapevine with me Chong Ching Liang.
The Sunday Times survey two weeks ago provocatively asked if we are a nation of happy workers.
Regional Practice Leader of the Gallup Organisation Ashok Gopal says such broad strokes hide the underlying details.
"The proportion of people who loved their job is only 59%. I mean that is little more than one in every two people. Now, can you look at every one in two people getting happy and say that this is a nation of happy people? I really hesitate to use that particular term."
Mr Gopal's own organisation had conducted a survey to examine the health of the Singapore workforce sometime back.
"The focus of our survey was really unearthing a set of issues that relate to how engaged employees are which is a predictor of how productive and non-productive they are going to be. I continue to believe there are issues within Singapore that are issues of concerns."
Workers being happy won't reveal how productive they actually are, and that's why the Gallup polls stayed away from questions on worker happiness, says Mr Gopal.
"The Gallup Survey was not to measure are people happy or not. Happiness can often be a bit of a negative. People say they are happy because they have a job and two because they have no accountability what-so-ever. So they can have a great time for their job and continue to get a salary for it. So happiness by itself doesn't count for too much as far as productivity is concerned."
Of course, workers are more likely to leave if they are unhappy, and more so if they felt their managers haven't being entirely on the square with them.
George has been with his private sector company for over 5 years.
He is contemplating moving on as he felt the management hasn't been holding up its end of the bargain when it comes to promises made.
"The management themselves did not give satisfactory sort of answers in a way and also due to the fact of work satisfaction."
Managers are the cogs between layers of a company.
Good ones will result in productive workers with a more smoothly functioning company and bad ones will result in workers who are detached from what they are doing.
Mr Ashok Gopal with a statement he claims Gallup Polls pioneered.
"People join companies and leave managers. The focus of our survey and that's about 6 months old now was to look at issues that managers can influence as far as manager performance in Singapore were concerned. Managers did not seem to do a good job when it comes to setting expectations, when it came to giving feedback, when it came to making people feel cared for. I think Singapore as a nation, the World, has a long long way to go when it comes to making people better managers."
The Gallup polls painted a darker, gloomier picture of employee-manager relations, while the Sunday Time survey seems more a ray of sunshine.
However, despite the seeming difference in polarity, Mr Gopal says there is some similarity.
"When I read some of the sub-pieces within the article, some of those things tie up exactly with the things that we find. It speaks about some people hating what they do but still actually showing up for work. Now that is a dangerous situation because they spending most of their time trying to undo what others are doing well. And obviously what you want to do is to reduce the proportion of such dis-engaged employees in the work place."
But it isn't always easy to get rid of dis-engaged workers.
Sometimes, the workers who leave the organisation aren't always the ones who have become disengaged.
Karen used to work for a statutory board.
She tells us why she left a seemingly secure job to re-enter the job market in such tough times.
"Well I left the job for the simple reasons that I found that I wasn't happy not just with the hours but with, I guess, management. And it wasn't due to the work environment so to speak, as in like with the colleagues because they are a great bunch of people. It's just that I decided that in terms of the management style and the kind of work they were giving out to us. I felt that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it and wouldn't be able to work on a long term kind of basis."
In private or public sectors, a significant portion of workers leave their work because they are frustrated they aren't allowed to carry on with their work.
This group of workers probably has quite a number of contributions left to make when they leave the company.
Loud vocal professing of loyalty by those who remain may not help employers identify who will be of the most ultimate value to the companies as well.
Mr Gopal explains.
"A statement of loyalty is not necessary a positive statement. It reflect, number one, a poor market environment for jobs. It could reflect some kind of handcuffs. We did a survey with a group of IT companies a few years ago and they told us something very fascinating. A group of people said, 'we hate what we are doing' but 90% of them say they see themselves continuing with the company 2 years from now. Now that sounds like an absolute paradox. But when you go into it further, they say that is because 'we have our stock options tied in and we will be leaving behind literally millions of dollars."
It really doesn't matter if the Sunday Times survey or the Gallup polls are right or wrong.
The important thing is that these polls are the proverbial mirrors, held up for us, useful only if we use it to correct our imperfections,
rather than for us to appraise our own beauty.
This is Chong Ching Liang for Newsradio 938.
=======================================
Newsradio 938 (now 938Live)
http://www.938live.sg/
Gallup Organisation
www.gallup.com
Are we a nation of happy workers?
Or, are we a nation of workers clinging on to jobs simply because we are too afraid to lose employment?
Two surveys, six months apart, seemingly different findings, yet strangely congruent.
Hi Welcome to On the Grapevine with me Chong Ching Liang.
The Sunday Times survey two weeks ago provocatively asked if we are a nation of happy workers.
Regional Practice Leader of the Gallup Organisation Ashok Gopal says such broad strokes hide the underlying details.
"The proportion of people who loved their job is only 59%. I mean that is little more than one in every two people. Now, can you look at every one in two people getting happy and say that this is a nation of happy people? I really hesitate to use that particular term."
Mr Gopal's own organisation had conducted a survey to examine the health of the Singapore workforce sometime back.
"The focus of our survey was really unearthing a set of issues that relate to how engaged employees are which is a predictor of how productive and non-productive they are going to be. I continue to believe there are issues within Singapore that are issues of concerns."
Workers being happy won't reveal how productive they actually are, and that's why the Gallup polls stayed away from questions on worker happiness, says Mr Gopal.
"The Gallup Survey was not to measure are people happy or not. Happiness can often be a bit of a negative. People say they are happy because they have a job and two because they have no accountability what-so-ever. So they can have a great time for their job and continue to get a salary for it. So happiness by itself doesn't count for too much as far as productivity is concerned."
Of course, workers are more likely to leave if they are unhappy, and more so if they felt their managers haven't being entirely on the square with them.
George has been with his private sector company for over 5 years.
He is contemplating moving on as he felt the management hasn't been holding up its end of the bargain when it comes to promises made.
"The management themselves did not give satisfactory sort of answers in a way and also due to the fact of work satisfaction."
Managers are the cogs between layers of a company.
Good ones will result in productive workers with a more smoothly functioning company and bad ones will result in workers who are detached from what they are doing.
Mr Ashok Gopal with a statement he claims Gallup Polls pioneered.
"People join companies and leave managers. The focus of our survey and that's about 6 months old now was to look at issues that managers can influence as far as manager performance in Singapore were concerned. Managers did not seem to do a good job when it comes to setting expectations, when it came to giving feedback, when it came to making people feel cared for. I think Singapore as a nation, the World, has a long long way to go when it comes to making people better managers."
The Gallup polls painted a darker, gloomier picture of employee-manager relations, while the Sunday Time survey seems more a ray of sunshine.
However, despite the seeming difference in polarity, Mr Gopal says there is some similarity.
"When I read some of the sub-pieces within the article, some of those things tie up exactly with the things that we find. It speaks about some people hating what they do but still actually showing up for work. Now that is a dangerous situation because they spending most of their time trying to undo what others are doing well. And obviously what you want to do is to reduce the proportion of such dis-engaged employees in the work place."
But it isn't always easy to get rid of dis-engaged workers.
Sometimes, the workers who leave the organisation aren't always the ones who have become disengaged.
Karen used to work for a statutory board.
She tells us why she left a seemingly secure job to re-enter the job market in such tough times.
"Well I left the job for the simple reasons that I found that I wasn't happy not just with the hours but with, I guess, management. And it wasn't due to the work environment so to speak, as in like with the colleagues because they are a great bunch of people. It's just that I decided that in terms of the management style and the kind of work they were giving out to us. I felt that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it and wouldn't be able to work on a long term kind of basis."
In private or public sectors, a significant portion of workers leave their work because they are frustrated they aren't allowed to carry on with their work.
This group of workers probably has quite a number of contributions left to make when they leave the company.
Loud vocal professing of loyalty by those who remain may not help employers identify who will be of the most ultimate value to the companies as well.
Mr Gopal explains.
"A statement of loyalty is not necessary a positive statement. It reflect, number one, a poor market environment for jobs. It could reflect some kind of handcuffs. We did a survey with a group of IT companies a few years ago and they told us something very fascinating. A group of people said, 'we hate what we are doing' but 90% of them say they see themselves continuing with the company 2 years from now. Now that sounds like an absolute paradox. But when you go into it further, they say that is because 'we have our stock options tied in and we will be leaving behind literally millions of dollars."
It really doesn't matter if the Sunday Times survey or the Gallup polls are right or wrong.
The important thing is that these polls are the proverbial mirrors, held up for us, useful only if we use it to correct our imperfections,
rather than for us to appraise our own beauty.
This is Chong Ching Liang for Newsradio 938.
=======================================
Newsradio 938 (now 938Live)
http://www.938live.sg/
Gallup Organisation
www.gallup.com
posted by CHONG Ching-liang | 11:59 AM
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