According to the Global Workforce Study 2010 conducted by Towers Watson, a leading global professional services consultancy company, about 54 percent of office employees working in the private sector in Saudi Arabia and other GCC states failed to engage with or be inspired by their managers. The findings of the study, presented at a recent media event in Riyadh, said that managerial positions – filled by foreign workers in Saudi Arabia for the past several years – has now started facing the challenge of preparing individuals from their own workforce as future managers. The Global Workforce Study (GWS) is a biennial survey of employee attitudes and workplace trends. The 2010 study polled 1,353 respondents from across the GCC, representing sectors including; Banking and Finance, Energy and Utility, Retail, Construction and Mining, Real Estate and others. Towers Watson shared insights from the research and presented a model on how managers can use human resources in the post-recession business environment. The speakers emphasized challenges that Saudi managers are facing, and discussed what they could do to engage and inspire their colleagues. Speaking on the occasion, Stephen Harding, Director of Organizational Surveys and Insights at Towers Watson and co-author of the recently published book “Manager Redefined: the Competitive Advantage in the Middle of Your Organization” said a manager's role in retaining and engaging the workforce is significant, particularly in the GCC region “due to the shortage of highly skilled talent pool”. “While we found that competitive base pay is one of the top attractions for an employee to join an organization, career development and empowerment are the top drivers of employee retention and engagement,” Harding explained. The Global Workforce Study 2010 also revealed that only 42 percent of employees surveyed felt that senior management is sincerely interested in their well-being and less than 50 percent think that senior management is committed to developing critical talent. Broadly speaking, 76 percent of survey respondents in the GCC states wanted better communication and reward by their management and less than 50 percent employees surveyed felt that senior management has effectively led them through the economic crisis. Tower Watson's study explains that “employee engagement” is the rational and emotional connection an employee has to the organization, combined with his or her willingness to invest extra effort. To attract, and more importantly, retain and engage employees, Harding and Tom Davenport, co-author of the book, said that managers must work coherently on points such as an employee's personal development. Managements must create person-specific opportunities for employees to grow professionally and invest their energy and talent in the company's success. Other tips points include “energizing change”: looking ahead and outside the boundaries of the manager's own unit and organization to anticipate and respond to environmental shifts, and to plan for and create future success for employees and the enterprise. Building trust is also imperative. Managers must “have the self-awareness and intellectual honesty to solicit and respond to employee input about jobs and work environment and consistently demonstrate concern for employee well-being”. They must also “reward each employee's investment of their effort with an individually targeted portfolio of financial and non-financial, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards”. “The best managers do their work offstage and out of the limelight, creating an environment of success that reinforces employee autonomy and control,” remarked Davenport. In the GCC states the top five things an employee looks for before joining an organization include competitive basic salary; opportunities to advance in career; opportunities to learn new skills; reputation of the organization; and lastly, the organization's financial strength.
