The chance for feedback

Lindall West

Head of People and Performance, Asia, Westpac Institutional Bank

At Westpac, an important part of the employee calendar is when all staff participate in the Staff Perspectives Survey. This offers specific and formal feedback on how we are doing from the perspective of our employees. Last year, we had a participation rate of 87% in Asia, which means our employees value the opportunity feel that their feedback is acted upon.

Last year, we also included a cultural diagnostic tool, allowing us to understand the current culture of the organisation as well as the desired culture from our employees. We had good alignment between the current and desired culture.

The key measurement is our Employee Engagement result, embedded in every people manager’s performance scorecard. The result has an impact on each staff member’s bonus payment at year-end. Westpac Asia scored 80%, 5% higher than in 2008 and only 1% behind the average for global high-performing companies. Off the back of the results, we also run focus groups to test our various programs and tools.

Anshuman Ray

Director – HR, Synopsys Inc.

At Synopsys, we encourage employees to reach out to the senior leadership team and communicate their views, opinions, questions and suggestions through the “Exec-Connect Portal”. The questions, along with answers from leaders, are published online and all employees can access this.

Another avenue to ask questions and offer suggestions to the CEO, Chief Operating Officer and other senior executives is during the annual “Kick-Off” ceremony. There is a live webcast across all regions and one can get instant responses from senior executives as well.

HR also facilitates the Global Employee Survey. Participation levels and a summary of responses are published through the company intranet. Action planning, based on this feedback, is then pursued diligently with the results of that action also published.

The outcome of our efforts is an open, participative, inclusive and productive culture that is reflected by very good employee engagement scores (against internal and external benchmarks).

Leow Yuen Fong

Senior VP, Human Capital Management, NETS

At NETS, we believe there needs to be open and regular communication between management and staff. If you don’t provide staff with avenues to express their views, this can lead to gossiping or, worse, an environment where employees feel frustrated and ineffectual.

Our annual Employee Engagement Survey allows staff to share their views anonymously without fear of recrimination. 94% of our staff have responded to the survey this year.

We also run an annual staff forum, where leaders share company directions and business goals with employees. Throughout the year, we conduct closed-door sessions with management which allow staff to seek clarifications on sensitive issues or be updated on current business issues.

Small groups of employees are also invited to dialogue sessions with our CEO.

We believe these activities have created an open culture at NETS where employees can voice their opinions and, more importantly, know their opinions count.