An engaged partner devotes him or herself to a loving relationship for life. In the workplace, too, in a sense we look for engaged employees. According to Mr. Ken Chenault, Chairman & CEO of American Express - "We define 'engaged employees' as those who feel consistently motivated to go above and beyond expectations and are committed to staying with the company over the longer term."

The issue of employee engagement was discussed at the Talent Management Summit hosted by A-Performers.com on 12th December 2006 at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. Packed with more than 100 human resources personnel, three esteemed senior level professionals were invited to share their views and strategies on talent management, including Ms. Florence Chow, Vice President of Human Resources, East Asia, American Express International Inc.; Ms. Vivian Hung, Principal Consultant and Organisation Solution Leader, Watson Wyatt; and Dr. Frankie Lam, Managing Director of HR-TotalSolution.

Engaged employees fall in love with their companies
"Talent management and marriage are similar as both are 'people businesses'," says Ms. Florence Chow. In her speech "The American Express Employee Engagement Journey ", she emphasises that there is a direct correlation between engaged employees and financial results. "Employee engagement, both rationally and emotionally, can increase productivity and customer satisfaction, all of which lead to better financial results and average shareholder return," she says.

Engaged employees are also the ones who feel proud and excited towards their company and work; after all, they love the company. Ms. Chow says strong employee engagement can also help build a stronger employer brand, which is good for talent retention and acquisition.

How to make it happen? Ms. Chow points to the integration of an organisation's culture, values, and leadership competencies to drive employee engagement. She says that American Express, which is highly valued as a preferred employer for its leading American brand image, competitive compensation as well as training opportunities, is instilled with a people-oriented company culture, respect and recognition, open communications, and many other positive attributes.

Insufficient engagement levels in greater China
Her view is shared by Ms. Vivian Hung who believes that employee engagement is the focus of current best practices in talent management. This is highlighted by employee commitment, alignment and enablement. In her presentation of the survey - "WorkGreaterChina : An Employee Attitudes Survey in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - Commitment and Beyond ", Ms. Hung points out that the level of employee engagement in greater China is generally less favorable than the Asia-Pacific norm.

"The survey identifies key drivers for employee engagement like job satisfaction, leadership and communication, which are the top three factors in Hong Kong and Taiwan," says Ms. Hung. "On the mainland, however, communication comes first, followed by leadership and job satisfaction."

In view of this, Ms. Hung adds that managers in China must develop creative 'people strategies' to address their employee concerns and build a workplace of choice by providing challenging work, supporting staff development, rewarding staff contributions, and offering other propositions valued by employees. "On the other hand, employees should also behave consistently with company values while developing and applying skills that will help the company succeed," she says. "It should be a strategic partnership between employers and employees on an equal footing, similar to an ideal marriage."

Talent management from top to bottom
In his interactive and exciting presentation - "Talent Management - Making the Bottom Line Impact! ", Dr. Frankie Lam introduces a high impact, practical model starting from the notion of understanding the strategic direction and critical success factors for companies. Given this scenario, he cites the next step as determining critical organisational capabilities, assessing and prioritising key capability requirements, determining strategic talent priorities and a strategic framework, creating strategies and support plans for meeting capability gaps, followed by execution and results measurements to complete the model.

In another management development model, Dr. Lam identifies four types of employees with respect to different levels of competency and performance. These are the key performer, the contributor, the bottom 10-15% under performers and those high competency employees who may not be in the right positions. A series of action strategies like performance improvement plans, coaching sessions, talent development plans, replacement and acquisition, and succession plans have to be developed and executed respectively for different categories of employees.

Those who attended the Summit were captivated by all the insightful presentations. Among them was Ms. Carman Chik, Human Resources Manager for the Urban Group. She said that the event was very beneficial to her in terms of sharing information and networking. "I found, in particular, the presentation by Dr. Lam to be truly inspiring and I thought the models he introduced will help me tackle upcoming challenges and issues I face regularly in the workplace."