Gallup Study Reveals Workplace Disengagement in Thailand

Bangkok, Thailand, May 12, 2005 - In an attempt to boost Thailand's prospects in the world marketplace, the country's prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has emphasized re-invigorating the Thai economy. In 2003, the Thaksin government even enlisted Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, a competitiveness guru, to advise Thailand on improving its ability to win business in the global economy. Since then, Thailand has made some progress; it now ranks 29th in the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) worldwide competitiveness ranking.

One of the major challenges in building a more competitive economy is creating a significant human-capital advantage. This is key to Thailand's "becoming a knowledge-based nation" - a stated goal of the Thaksin government. Achieving this goal requires several important initiatives, including increasing employee productivity, improving employee contributions to profitability, and enhancing how workers are selected and developed and how their talents are used. In effect, the task is to significantly raise the level of engagement and commitment among employees who work in Thailand's many public and private sector enterprises.

But if the Thaksin government is counting on Thai employees to fuel a vibrant, progressive economy, it should be forewarned that these efforts may remain stuck in neutral, especially if employee engagement remains at its present levels. A recent Gallup Organization Employee Engagement Index survey in Thailand revealed that "engaged" employees - who are often a company's most committed and productive workers - make up only 12% of Thailand's employee population.

Not surprisingly, disengagement has a big impact on the Thai economy. Gallup estimates that the lower productivity of actively disengaged workers costs the Thai economy as much as 98.8 billion Thai baht ($2.5 billion U.S.) each year.

In comparison, in its most recent U.S. Employee Engagement Survey, Gallup estimates that the lower productivity of actively disengaged workers costs the U.S. economy about $300 billion U.S. per year ($11.8 trillion Thai baht). Closer to home, a similar Gallup study in Singapore found that 17% of Singaporeans are actively disengaged from their work, costing Singapore $4.9 billion U.S. (193 billion Thai baht) annually.

Benchmarking against the global workplace

How does the level of employee engagement in Thailand compare to those of other countries in which Gallup has conducted surveys? The percentage of employees who are engaged ranges from 29% in the United States to 9% in Japan and Singapore; the percentage of actively disengaged employees ranges from a low of just 6% in Thailand to a high of 31% in France. Only Singapore, however, matches Thailand's level of not-engaged employees (also 82%); these levels are 15 percentage points higher than in Japan, where the percentage of not-engaged employees is 67%. (See graphic "Engagement Index by Country: Asia/Pacific Region.")

With a base of engaged employees to build on, however, Thailand could well enhance its competitiveness - both within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region and worldwide. And boosting employee engagement among not-engaged employees is a good place to start.

But how can Thailand create and sustain the momentum for building engagement? Gallup's research into employee behavior in that country offers some key insights.

Managing for change

Managers must play a key role in the change process. Gallup research shows that managers who engage their employees also significantly enhance their workgroups' success. This remains true whether such business success is measured through sales, revenues, or outcomes such as reduced turnover and enhanced productivity.

But the real agent of change is, and must be, the employee. According to Vibhas Ratanjee, an associate partner with The Gallup Organization's office in Bangkok, "The term 'employee engagement' suggests that employees willingly contribute their energy and ideas, perform at consistently high levels, and are passionately committed to moving their company forward."

For Thai managers, improving employee engagement is a significant challenge. "Thai workplaces have historically followed a traditional production model - a 'top-down' or hierarchical system in which managers treat employees as tools to carry out assigned work," says Verapong Paditporn, managing partner of Gallup Thailand. "As Thailand moves toward a knowledge-based economy, the management emphasis must shift from seeing employees as cogs in a machine to enlisting workers as active contributors."

Managers can play a crucial role in boosting employee engagement by defining the right outcomes for employees, then helping employees to maximize their potential by encouraging them to use their talents to achieve those outcomes. Managers can also take the first step toward a knowledge-based workforce by signaling a change in how they perceive employees' roles, giving employees opportunities to actively participate in their workplace, and involving employees in decision-making, planning, and implementation.

The manager's toolkit

Gallup's research has uncovered strategies that will be crucial to Thai managers' success. Indeed, Gallup has found that 12 key employee expectations form the basis of employee engagement. (See graphic "The 12 Elements of Great Managing.") These 12 items show linkages to a variety of business outcomes, including retention, customer engagement, safety, and productivity. For Thai managers who want to boost engagement in their workgroups, focusing on the following areas is a good place to start:

• Set clear expectations. According to Gallup research, "knowing what is expected" is one of an employee's most basic needs. Employees cannot hope to perform their roles acceptably - let alone at excellence - if they don't know what they're supposed to be doing. Yet, according to the Gallup survey, only 1 in 5 Thai employees can strongly agree that they know what is expected of them at work.

To counteract this, Thai managers must pay greater attention to communicating expectations to employees. The first step is for managers to meet with workers to set key performance indicators for their roles, then actively partner with them to set realistic, achievable goals. Once these expectations are set, managers should check in regularly with employees to review performance and to guide employees in the pursuit of their goals.

• Demonstrate a sense of caring. Great managers genuinely care about the people with whom they work. They treat employees as individuals and help them see the connections between the work they do every day and the organization's mission and business results. But few Thai employees (1 in 5) strongly agree that there is someone at work who cares about them. The situation is worst for government officers: Only 1 in 10 feel cared for in their workplace.

This seems surprising, because traditional Thai values, such as bunkhun (which, broadly stated, means kindness and care, or reciprocity) are deeply embedded in the culture of many organizations, whether private or public, Thai or multinational. Employees, however, crave more from managers than acts of kindness; they want managers to contribute to their professional lives and "set them up for success" by motivating, encouraging, and promoting them based on their talent and contribution to the workplace.

• Help employees realize their potential. About a third of Thai employees feel that they have an opportunity to do what they do best each day at work. This is a solid percentage, considering that few employees know what is expected of them at work or feel that someone at work cares about them.

Managers can help more employees do what they do best by nurturing their development. Traditionally, most managers (in Thailand and elsewhere in the world) have focused on fixing people's weaknesses. Gallup's research shows that employees are most productive when their managers help them discover and develop their talents while providing support, guidance, and partnership to help them manage around their weaknesses.

• Recognize exceptional work. Fewer than 2 in 10 Thai employees feel that someone has recognized them for their efforts in the past week. For female employees, the percentage is particularly low: While a quarter of male employees say they had received recognition for their efforts, fewer than 1 in 10 women workers say they had received recognition for their work.

About one quarter of state enterprise employees feel that they do not receive much recognition at work. Employee recognition in state enterprises is low when compared to the recognition levels of private sector or government employees. Although very few employees (1 in 20) from state enterprises felt that they were receiving recognition for their work, about 6 in 10 still feel that someone at work cares about them. To increase employee engagement and productivity, managers could add recognition to the caring culture they are building in their workgroups.

• Give employees regular feedback about their progress. Only 1 in 5 of Thai employees felt that someone at work had spoken with them about their progress in the past 6 months. Gallup research indicates that employees are not necessarily referring to formal activities like performance appraisals and review meetings. Rather than just going through a checklist of goals met and unmet once a year during a performance appraisal, employees need a more frequent dialogue about how they are doing.
  
  
• Encourage teamwork. According to the Employee Engagement Index survey, about half of the employees in Thailand report that they have a "best friend" at work, while more than a third say that their organization's mission or purpose makes them feel their job is important. These two survey items are strong indicators of the strength of teamwork in the workplace.

High levels of teamwork are perhaps unique to the cultural ethos of Thai workplaces, which include values such as greang jai (which, in broad terms, refers to an attitude in which individuals restrain their own interests or desires in an effort to benefit others, even at the cost of their own discomfort). As Ratanjee notes, "Strong friendships with coworkers could help mitigate the effects of an unsupportive manager. However, they could also lead to an unspoken but profound "us versus them" mindset that could polarize managers and employees."

Other insights from the Thailand Employee Engagement Index survey

• The loyalty "disadvantage."Loyalty levels are the highest for government employees and employees of state enterprises. When asked to rate their level of agreement with the statement "I plan to be with my current company one year from now," 72% of government employees and 96% of state employees strongly agree. In contrast, only half of private sector employees strongly agree that they plan to be with their current company in the next year. And about 2 in 10 actively disengaged employees plan to be with their organization in the next year. According to Paditporn, "These 'loyal' employees may continue go to their workplaces, but they may not be productive and profitable contributors."
  
  
• Engagement comparisons by type of employee and location: State enterprises have higher levels of employee engagement when compared to the private sector and the government (where employee engagement levels are about the same). When examining engagement levels by location, the survey found that the most disengaged employees come from the Bangkok metropolitan area, the reservoir of the largest and most important workforce in the country.
  
  
• Gender: There is no clear difference between employee engagement levels of Thai men and women. This is in contrast to Gallup's U.S. research, which concludes that women tend to find more fulfillment in their jobs and are more engaged than men are.
  
  However, Gallup did observe a difference between employees who are single and those who are married: Married employees tend to have a higher level of engagement than those who are single. This suggests that these employees have arrived at a stage where they are more settled in both their personal and professional lives. Another difference related to gender is that female managers or supervisors tend to have a higher percentage of actively disengaged workers than male managers do.
  
  
• The age factor:In general, older employees are more engaged than younger employees. Employees over the age of 45 are more engaged than employees who are 35 and younger.

This finding suggests that Thai employees need to do more to understand and improve engagement among younger employees as they enter the workforce, because engagement during these years has a bearing on their future engagement and productivity. The need for an infusion of younger talent with fresh, innovative ideas has been widely acknowledged by the private and the public sector alike.

• The economy: The economic outlook of Thai employees can best be described as "cautious optimism." More than 4 in 10 respondents rated the economic conditions as "only fair"; 40% said the economic conditions were "good," while only 2% believed that economic conditions were "excellent." This cautious attitude is also reflected in the respondents overall sense of well-being: Only a third of employees believed that the conditions of their lives were good.

There are signs of change, however. Most respondents also believed that the economy is on an upswing compared to earlier years: 62% felt that the economic conditions in Thailand were getting better. Significantly, the more engaged employees were, the more likely they were to be optimistic about the country's economic condition.

The way forward

Enhancing employee productivity and profitability will be crucial to Thailand's bid to enhance its strength in the Asia-Pacific region. Broad economic and business strategies are in place to help Thailand improve its position in the region, and the economy is gearing up. But will Thailand be successful in its quest to maximize human potential? The answer lies with the countries' employees and managers.

As Ratanjee notes, "Successfully bridging the gap between the workplace realities of today's Thailand and the demands of growing Thailand's economy will require more than the collective leadership acumen and vision of government leaders and their advisers As Thailand moves forward, corporate leaders, managers, and employees will share the responsibility for making the dreams and aspirations of a nation real."

Thailand's success - or failure - in moving to a knowledge-based economy will depend on whether its employees can rise to the challenge and become active participants and co-creators in building the country's economic growth.

Results of this survey on perceptions about work life in Thailand are based on a nationally representative sample of 1,600 Thai citizens and permanent residents between the ages of 18 and 65 who are currently employed full time. This Gallup Poll was conducted using in-person interviews in November 2004. For results based on samples of this size, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects could be ±3 percentage points. For findings based on subgroups, the sampling error would be greater.