White Paper
Focusing on the Employee Segment of One for Higher
Engagement and Productivity
Sponsored by: Workday
Daniel-Zoe Jimenez
June 2016
IDC OPINION
Your employees are equally, if not more important than your customers. When employees are
engaged in the workplace, they tend to be more productive, and that contributes to the organization's
success and helps boost the overall customer experience. So how can organizations keep their
employees satisfied and engaged? What is needed to make the workforce more productive and
aligned to the organization's goals, as well as retain the top performers?
Improving employees' productivity and profitability has become the top driver for organizations' digital
transformation (DX) initiatives in the Asia/Pacific region. To succeed in this hypercompetitive
environment and deliver on their heightened customer expectations, organizations need to focus on
improving employees' productivity. This requires rethinking, and often transforming, several aspects of
work and the workplace. These include the strategies, processes and technologies used to source,
manage and optimize talent as well as facilitate a DX mindset across the organization.
Through December 2015 to January 2016, IDC conducted two regional surveys across both
employees and management roles across the Asia/Pacific region. Sponsored by Workday, these
surveys aim to shed light on the evolving nature of work, as well as assess employees' engagement
and commitment levels and organizations' maturity in addressing these requirements. This highly
anticipated research provides a holistic view of the ongoing transformation in the workplace, and helps
organizations understand what is required to drive improved organizational productivity. Key findings
of the research include:

Thirty-five percent of employees across the Asia/Pacific are moderately satisfied and engaged
at work; 30% are very satisfied. The countries with the most satisfied employees are the
Philippines, followed by India and Australia. Conversely, the lowest satisfaction levels are
Malaysia and Singapore. While overall satisfaction is high, 28% of employees in Asia/Pacific
are very likely to switch jobs if an opportunity arises, and 27% are likely to do the same.

Pay and rewards, followed by work enjoyment and work-life harmony are the top factors that
managers need to consider for higher satisfaction in Asia/Pacific. But, while employee
satisfaction is important, their commitment and engagement go beyond how they "feel" about
their job. Engagement is demonstrated in their performance, and their effort and willingness
that is put into their work, when it is strictly required or not.

Organizations need to increase focus on understanding what really motivates individuals and
drives their productivity. It is important to gain a holistic view of all employees' data, as well as
move beyond tracking performance at the output level. This requires leveraging data-driven
June 2016, IDC #AP15004X
insights, and having a robust end-to-end HR/talent management platform connected to frontand back-end systems.
METHODOLOGY
Insights in this White Paper are based on a combination of primary and secondary research, including
the results from the following surveys:

IDC Asia/Pacific Employee Survey. Sponsored by Workday, this survey was conducted during
the months of December 2015 and January 2016 across Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong,
Malaysia, the Philippines, China and India. The 579 samples provide gender splits (male,
52%; female, 48%) and generation types: millennials (1982-2004), baby boomers (1946-1964)
and Generation X (1965-1981) employees. Also, the survey further segments employees
across "standard organizations" (58%) and start-ups (42%).

IDC Asia/Pacific Employer Transformation Survey. Sponsored by Workday, this survey was
conducted during the months of December 2015 and January 2016 across Australia, China,
Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand
and Vietnam. IDC interviewed 871 director-level and above respondents across all industries.
SITUATION OVERVIEW
DX is impacting all enterprise functions and processes, and the "people dimension" is no exception.
According to the IDC Asia/Pacific Employee Survey, improving employees' productivity and profitability
has become the top driver for organizations' DX initiatives in the region. More than half of the
respondent pool (55%) consider themselves at par with their peers, while 20% feel they lag behind,
and thriving in the Digital Era requires more than that.
Four key trends are impacting work and the workforce:

"War on talent". Asia/Pacific organizations are facing intense competition for talent, and are
looking for better ways to retain the best employees, rather than replacing and retraining which
can be costly. Retention of the best employees — or those with the critical skill sets — is vital to
achieve business growth and to build organizational competencies, which represent a
competitive advantage.

Different generations at work. Today's multi-generational environment is a challenge for HR
organizations everywhere. Four different generations coexist in the workplace, and employees
of different groups may have different needs and expectations — understanding what those are
is critical to improve productivity. Also, by 2020, millennials will make up about 50% of the
workforce, and by 2025 this number is projected to be 75%.

Digital technologies. Work is no longer a place employees go to, but something they do.
Pervasive mobile connectivity enable employees to be "always on", anywhere. This, in turn, is
blurring the lines between work and personal life, and impacting work-life harmony.

Elastic workforce. Many organizations today use external contractors to add temporary skills to
the workforce — something that can make the organization more agile in responding to specific
needs Also, organizations are increasingly tapping into their ecosystem of partners,
contractors, or using crowdsourcing for models for innovation.
These trends are forcing organizations across industries to rethink the way they source, manage and
optimize talent in their organizations to improve productivity and stay competitive. Traditional
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processes, tools and strategies that were used in the past are not well suited for this hypercompetitive
marketplace. Re-assessing, and often transforming processes, tools and strategies is required.
Employee Survey Results
Improved collaboration (39%) is the most critical factor to increasing productivity, followed by having
better defined goals and responsibilities (37%) and more flexibility (36%). However, the top responses
are very diverse across countries, something that shows the lack of consensus and the need to better
understand what drives productivity at the individual level, as many factors are at play (see Figure 1).
FIGURE 1
What Helps in Driving a More Productive Workforce?
Q. What will help you be more productive at work?
Source: IDC, 2016
Collaboration can contribute to improving productivity levels, but achieving this often requires a
fundamental shift in the organization's culture, structures and processes, as well as using better tools.
Incremental improvements can also be obtained by better defining employee goals, roles and
responsibilities. Many employees are not comfortable when dealing with uncertainty and are more
effective if roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. In fact, only 12% of the Asia/Pacific
respondent pool strongly agree when asked if they know what their employers expect from them.
Employees value having more flexibility — an aspect that can contribute to higher productivity levels.
However, only 9% of respondents consider their company "very flexible" in addressing their needs and
job responsibilities (39% somewhat flexible), whereas 26% said their employer was "somewhat
inflexible" or "very inflexible". Respondents in the Philippines (21%), India (17%) and Australia (12%)
have the highest levels of satisfaction with their company's flexibility.
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Overall, 35% of the Asia/Pacific respondent pool are moderately satisfied and engaged at work. The
countries with the largest proportion of respondents who are completely or "very engaged" and
satisfied at work are the Philippines (59%), India (59%) and Australia (42%). Conversely, the countries
with the lowest levels of engagement and satisfaction are Malaysia (23%), Singapore (25%), and Hong
Kong (28%).
Tracking employee happiness or satisfaction is important in helping employers understand how
employees feel about factors that impact their performance, such as rewards, flexibility, and their
managers. Among other things, satisfaction at work helps drive a positive working environment. In
Asia/Pacific, the top drivers for employee satisfaction and engagement are better pay and rewards
(16%), followed by enjoying work (12%) and work-life harmony (8%). At a country level, there are
differences that demonstrate that culture, country maturity or economics, are key contributing factors
(see Figure 2).
FIGURE 2
Understanding What Drives Employee Engagement and Satisfaction
Q. What makes you happy and engaged as an employee?
Source: IDC, 2016
While higher satisfaction levels are important in the workforce, this is not necessarily going to help in
driving higher productivity levels or retaining the best employees (i.e., top performers). Thirty-nine
percent of employees (the largest proportion) claim they are very committed or completely committed
to their organizations' culture, values and goals; 60% in India, 54% in Philippines and 50% in Australia.
Employee commitment and engagement are beyond how employees "feel" about their job;
engagement is demonstrated in employees' performance and the effort and willingness that is put into
their work, both when is required or not.
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In fact, 28% of respondents will switch jobs if an opportunity appears, saying they are very likely or
completely likely; 27% are somewhat likely. Interestingly, despite their higher levels of satisfaction, the
highest proportion of employees likely to change jobs are in India (44%) and Philippines (41%),
compared to 18% in Australia (the lowest), Singapore (22%) or Hong Kong (28%). Aside from cultural
and economic differences in these countries, it is clear that satisfaction does not necessarily translate
into higher engagement or loyalty, unless organizations better address their employee needs, and
have the right processes, tools and metrics that help in cementing the relationship.
Indeed, many factors influence an employee's decision to switch jobs. The top drivers are better pay
and rewards (26%), followed by better working environment (12%) and work-life harmony (8%).
Interestingly, there is consistency across the countries, generations and genders for these top three
factors. Understanding the real triggers for employee defection needs to be done at the individual
level, using data-driven insights.
Employer Survey Results
To better understand what is lacking and needs to be done from an organization's perspective, as well
as identify whether maturity in HR practices impact employee engagement and productivity, we also
surveyed organizations across the region.
The most progressive organizations have a good mix of HR strategies that incorporate talent
management and that are aligned to corporate business goals, and well-structured and defined
processes and metrics that help track the employee performance and the success of the established
practices. Metrics are critical in tracking performance, and ensuring goals are well defined and
transparent to all employees. Across Asia/Pacific, 27.9% of respondent organizations only have few
metrics in place and these are mainly focused on employees' outputs (see Figure 3).
FIGURE 3
HR and Talent Management Metrics
Q. Which statement best describes your HR and talent management related metrics?
Source: IDC, 2016
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These organizations track employees' outputs, but not their effectiveness in delivering these, for
example. A relatively smaller percentage of organizations (27.7%) are, however, slightly more
advanced and focused on measuring process efficiency, innovation, and other factors.
The most progressive organizations (15% based on the survey results) have a balance scorecard that
combines HR metrics and organizational metrics, and they also track the impact on the external
ecosystem (i.e., partners, suppliers, or/and customers). These organizations understand that
employees' performance should not only be measured at the output level (e.g., number of projects
delivered and achievement of sales quota), but they should also consider their impact or contribution to
customer retention and satisfaction, or/and other business goals that extend to the organization's
ecosystem.
In order to achieve a holistic view of employees' performance at the ecosystem level, organizations
need to leverage data-driven insights from various front- and back-office systems, and also have endto-end visibility into employees' performance. This can only be achieved when organizations become
data-driven and have end-to-end integrated HR and talent management systems that provide a holistic
view of their employees and are connected to finance and other systems to track employees'
performance and their impact on the extended ecosystem.
Across the region, 35% of respondent organizations have an integrated HR technology platform with
basic workflow and functionalities (mostly administration). In these organizations, reporting is
automated, but this is mostly transactional (e.g., new hires and leave applications) (see Figure 4).
FIGURE 4
HR Technologies
Q. Which statement best describes your organization's HR and talent Management technology
adoption?
Source: IDC, 2016
However, only 7% of organizations surveyed in the region have an end-to-end integrated HR/talent
platform aligned to business needs, which provides a holistic view of our employees. The highest
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proportion of those are in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Australia. This is a key factor, as
organizations in this group also tend to be the most mature across the Asia/Pacific region when it
comes to their workforce management capabilities, particularly those in Australia, New Zealand, Hong
Kong and Singapore.
Organizations at this level often have advanced HR functionalities and their HR platform includes
recruitment, compensation, talent management, payroll, and learning. They are also focused on
leveraging analytics (including predictive analytics) — for employee retention risk analysis, which may
contribute to lower employee turnover (seen in the employee survey results for the most mature
countries) — or payroll cost analysis, which is used to improve business performance.
CONCLUSION
Increasing productivity has become the number 1 priority for Asia/Pacific organizations as they embark
on their DX journey. However, reaching this goal requires metrics to be aligned to the evolving nature
of work and the workplace, particularly as digital technologies change the way businesses are
constructed, how they interact, and how they operate.
Organizations' goal is to make employees more engaged and loyal to drive higher productivity levels,
as well as increase focus on retaining the top performing employees. However, understanding what
makes employees more engaged needs to happen at the individual employee level — that is, moving
beyond merely assessing employees' satisfaction, and focusing on understanding what is required at
the individual level in context. Key factors contributing to employees' engagement do not necessarily
follow demographic patterns, but are related to differences in personality and culture.
For many organizations, having a comprehensive view of employees is a priority, but also a
challenging task, as silos prevent organizations from fully leveraging all their data assets. In the past
few years, HR has become more progressive, with some functions now highly specialized and
automated, resulting in silos. Recruiting or learning, for example, is not always well coordinated, and
best-of-breed applications (or point solutions) that may be used across the HR department, compound
the issues created by the number of silos if not well integrated. This prevents managers and HR
leaders from having single or comprehensive views of employees' data; and from being able to
understand and address key employee requirements.
To thrive in today's competitive business environment, organizations need to become more targeted,
and create more personalized "experiences". Not only for their customers, but also for their
employees. Employees are the most important asset in the organization and companies need to focus
on providing them with what is required to be more productive at the individual level — from customized
training, to metrics and rewards.
Thriving organizations understand that they can no longer use one-size-fits-all HR approaches.
Instead, they have to focus on designing work plans that maximize each employee's capabilities in
order to increase productivity and profitability. Achieving this requires companies to manage and treat
each individual as a "segment of one".
Achieving this also requires organizations to invest in a robust HR and talent management technology
platform that provides comprehensive employees' views, and helps the organization better manage
their most critical asset. This will not transform the business overnight, but it will certainly be a big step
in the right direction toward succeeding in the DX Era.
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About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory
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