Employee engagement survey in China

Daxue Consulting can help to assess the level of employee engagement in your company. We start employee engagement survey in China with preparation, namely briefing and setting. Then, we define the design of survey (wording, tones, formats, types, duration, structure). Each employee receives reminders before the survey, a personal link to the questionnaire, as well as thank you letter. An employee engagement survey can be made available in several languages if your company is multinational. Based on the results, Daxue Consulting can give consulting to improve employee engagement in China.

What is an employee engagement survey?

Employee engagement indicates employee commitment to the company in terms through emotional and social expressions. The level of engagement directly affects how good employees do the quality of work and turnover. Therefore, if an enterprise wants to build a positive work environment and keep employees for the long run, it should take the promotion of employee engagement seriously. Employee engagement surveys help measure employee performance, competency, and satisfaction. It also allows companies to know more about the strengths of the organization and what employees really expect from their work.

[Source: Custom Insight, employee engagement as a part of companies’ high performance]

Employee engagement in China is slowly declining

In 2018-2019, the level of employee engagement in China was 62.46%, which is a little bit lower than in previous years. The overall level of employee engagement was relatively stable within these two years. However, companies in China still have a lot to do to increase employee engagement.

[Data Source: Beisen, ‘Employee engagement in China’]

The top three industries in the level of engagement are service, real estate and medical industries. In 2019 Chinese real estate and building sphere scores were relatively good on all indicators. However, there is still room for improvement in terms of organizational empowerment. 

[Data Source: Beisen, ‘Employee engagement in China per industry’]

From the perspective of academic qualifications, the level of employee engagement in China appears to decrease as their level of education raises. This gap between different groups is getting larger every year.  The group with the highest level of employee engagement in China is employees with high school education and lower (68%). The group with the lowest level is employees with PhD degree and above (56%).

[Data Source: Beisen, ‘Employee engagement in China per level of education’]

Overall employee engagement in China has surpassed several major economies in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Singapore (59%) and Australia (60%).

[Data Source: AON, ‘Employee engagement in Asia 2018’] 

How Daxue team identifies employee engagement drivers in China

Employee engagement includes determining the skillset of employees, their understanding of tasks, relationships with supervisors and the possibility to flourish. The following drivers can affect the engagement level:

Recognition – employees feel appreciated and valued.

Payment and benefits – employees feel that they are fairly compensated.

Leadership – employees trust the senior managers.

Work environment – employees easily work within a team and with colleagues.

“Career progression” is the primary driver of the employee engagement in China, followed by “senior leadership” and “payment and benefits”.

[Source: AON, ‘Top 5 drivers of employee engagement in China’]

It is important for Chinese employees to have working environment which is conducive to career development. Besides, 61% of millennial employees believe that the company’s mission can inspire and motivate them.  This generation of Chinese employees is very optimistic about the tolerance of the company. 70% of Chinese millennials at their workplaces believe that work environment should accept multiculturalism and encourage innovative thinking.

Based on these factors, Daxue Consulting creates questions to determine what really affects employee engagement in the company.

Daxue’s team methods to design employee engagement survey in China

Always-on survey

Always-on survey is an online survey and enables employees to submit suggestions at any time. It allows company to collect much more information in real time and create a complete picture of employee engagement. This method of the employee engagement survey in China provides the company with information to make more informed decisions and quickly identify trends. Always-on surveys significantly increase the number of quality feedback received by employees. This requires a deeper analysis, so this method involves time. When employees regularly share their opinions and ideas, they see this as a dialogue with the organization. Therefore, the company will be able to respond quickly to their problems and act based on the situation. It requires more resources, but the payback and benefits are potentially large.

Pulse survey

“Pulse surveys” mean that they “take the pulse” in an organization or group. This type of surveys is a useful tool for assessing employee engagement progress and warning of potential dangers. The main feature of this type of survey is that they occur at regular or scheduled intervals, or with planned groups. Often, employee engagement pulse surveys are deliberate follow-ups or additions to other surveys of employees. Sometimes these surveys use the results of annual employee engagement surveys or other employee surveys. They are an excellent way to find more specific information or to track areas for addressing the problems.

Conducting pulse surveys monthly or quarterly makes it possible to determine trends in the employee engagement. This is especially useful for understanding the effectiveness of company initiatives and allows to adapt new management methods. One of the most effective methods of the pulse survey involves sending a small part of the questions to each team. Although it may seem difficult to do manually, there are many employee interaction platforms to do surveys, analyzes, and action planning.

eNPS survey

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is one of the methods for assessing employee engagement in companies such as Apple, Rackspace and Verizon. It is based on the concept of Net Promoter Score (NPS). In recent years, the eNPS methodology has become more widespread, which also made it possible to measure the employee engagement.

This survey measures employee loyalty, trust, and satisfaction based on three additional questions. eNPS employee engagement survey in China involves the using of one of two different scales. The first is a scale from -100 to 100, traditionally used in the NPS surveys. The second is the 0-10 scale for asking eNPS questions. Both methods are equally effective, and a combination of them in employee engagement survey in China provides a deep analysis of different aspects.

Advantages of the eNPS method

Using eNPS provides a clear understanding of the level of employee engagement in the organization. However, in order to act based on these findings and improve the results in the future, it is necessary to understand what exactly affects the employee engagement. Therefore, it is important to ask additional questions. For example, the workload of employees, the situation in the office or the level of support from the manager will affect the degree of the employee engagement. After collecting the information, it will be possible to analyze the results and identify the main problems.

How Daxue Consulting uses employee engagement surveys in China to help companies achieve their goals in Chinese market

Studies show that organizations with a high level of employee engagement have 17% higher productivity and 21% higher profitability. Employee engagement survey in China is crucial because it gives employees a chance to submit an open feedback. This is an opportunity to establish two-way communication and involve employees in the process of company management. Besides, it provides them with a voice in front of the management team. Active participation in the planning process allows employees to understand that their opinion matters. After the company evaluates the degree of employee engagement, it is possible to create an action plan to increase engagement.

The information obtained as a result of employee engagement survey in China allows Daxue Consulting to:

• Determine the organization’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of employee engagement
• Set priorities and key tools to succeed in employee engagement
• Define the changes necessary for enhancing employee engagement
• Develop a plan to increase employee engagement in the company in China

Employee engagement survey in China will help the company to identify areas of best practice and thereby improve its performance in the Chinese market.

To measure the engagement of your employees in China, contact our project team at dx@daxueconsulting.com