Edelman Strategic Insights Edelman Shanghai - December 2009 What channel do you use most frequently to communicate with employees?Employee Engagement: CSR that matters in China “Employees are typically the last priority for info rmation, not the first. But these are the people who are in the best position to go either on the offensive or defensive for your company–so companies need to tell them first. Transparency is the new green. Say what you’re going to do and say why - then actually do it.”Edelman CEO Richard EdelmanEdelman China’s Employee Engagement practice takes a closer look at how employee engagement fits into the broader operating environment in China today, and examines the issues highlighted by their 2009 Employee Engagement and Internal Communications China Survey. Edelman China’s 2009 employee engagement and internal communications survey highlighted the increasing importance multinationals are placing on strategic employee engagement in their China-based operations. Over 50 percent of companies had a dedicated, full-time internal communications resource, with almost 67 percent based at a local level. Over 80 percent of companies are expecting to increase spending on internal communications and employee engagement activities in the next year. This is chiefly because the timely realization ofcompanies’ ambitious growth targets for the Chinese market is increasingly dependent on successful employee engagement, specifically in terms of attraction and retention of talent and to meet the demands of business expansion. Given this, it is not surprising that the primary objective behind employee engagement initiatives overwhelmingly was to ensure employees understood the company’s mission or vision. Team building and creating the desired internal culture within the organization were also listed as important, as was supporting corporate transformation activities. Close to 100 percent ofrespondents said that their senior leadership was either involved or very involved in employee engagement activities, and they expected this involvement to increase in the next 12 months since employee engagement is seen as a business priority for the organization in China. However, most practitioners continue to follow a more traditional approach to internal communications, with email and the intranet being the most frequently used vehicles, well ahead of in-person, or face-to-face, communication. Of the challenges listed by the respondents, the lack of internal resources was most commonly listed as their primary obstacle. As a result, over 75 percent of companies surveyed use external consultants for a number ofdifferent reasons, including: to provide additional resources, bring an outside perspective to the company’s internal programs, as well as for the benefit of structured methodologies and best practices.
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What channel do you use most frequently to communicate with employees?
Employee Engagement: CSR that matters in China
“Employees are typically the last priority for information, not the first. But these are the people who are in the
best position to go either on the offensive or defensive for your company – so companies need to tell them first.Transparency is the new green. Say what you’re going to do and say why - then actually do it.”
Edelman CEO Richard Edelman
Edelman China’s Employee Engagement practice takes a closer look at how employee engagement fits into the
broader operating environment in China today, and examines the issues highlighted by their 2009 Employee
Engagement and Internal Communications China Survey.
Edelman China’s 2009 employee engagement and internal communications survey highlighted the increasing
importance multinationals are placing on strategic employee engagement in their China-based operations. Over 50
percent of companies had a dedicated, full-time internal communications resource, with almost 67 percent based
at a local level. Over 80 percent of companies are expecting to increase spending on internal communications and
employee engagement activities in the next year. This is chiefly because the timely realization of companies’
ambitious growth targets for the Chinese market is increasingly dependent on successful employee engagement,
specifically in terms of attraction and retention of talent and to meet the demands of business expansion.
Given this, it is not surprising that the primary objective behind employee engagement initiatives overwhelmingly
was to ensure employees understood
the company’s mission or vision. Teambuilding and creating the desired
internal culture within the organization
were also listed as important, as was
supporting corporate transformation
activities. Close to 100 percent of
respondents said that their senior
leadership was either involved or very
involved in employee engagement
activities, and they expected this
involvement to increase in the next 12
months since employee engagement is seen as a business priority for the organization in China. However, most
practitioners continue to follow a more traditional approach to internal communications, with email and the
intranet being the most frequently used vehicles, well ahead of in-person, or face-to-face, communication.
Of the challenges listed by the respondents, the lack of internal resources was most commonly listed as their
primary obstacle. As a result, over 75 percent of companies surveyed use external consultants for a number of
different reasons, including: to provide additional resources, bring an outside perspective to the company’s internal
programs, as well as for the benefit of structured methodologies and best practices.