The ultimate white-collar boxing match: Singapore versus Hong Kong

The debate around whether Singapore or Hong Kong is the best city in Asia to work is long-running, with proponents for each city standing toe-to-toe in the ring. In one corner, we have those in favour of Singapore, waxing lyrical about the food, cleanliness, and safety of the Republic while berating Hong Kong's pollution, grumpy taxi drivers, and lack of personal space.

In Hong Kong's corner, pride is taken in excellent hiking trails, beaches, and cosmopolitan nightlife – lamenting the supposed blandness of Singapore, scarcity of taxis, regularity of afternoon downpours, and the price of a decent bottle of wine. Yet when it comes to sustainable engagement levels – a well-rounded measurement of an employee's connection to an organisation – it transpires that neither Hong Kong nor Singapore attain the global 40% level of highly-engaged employees.

Singapore, though, edges out Hong Kong, with 35% its workforce considered highly engaged versus only 26% in Hong Kong, according to the Towers Watson's 2014 Global Workforce Study. The two largest gaps in Sustainable Engagement between Hong Kong and Singapore relate to the willingness to put in extra effort beyond what is normally expected to help the organisation succeed, with Hong Kong employees scoring 16 percentage points below their Singaporean counterparts.

The second large gap in this area relates to the ability to sustain the level of energy needed throughout the work day, with Hong Kong scoring 13 percentage points below Singapore. As well as suffering in the area of energy levels, Hong Kong employees also appear to be more bothered by excessive pressure on the job than those in Singapore, with 41% of Hong Kong employees agreeing that they are under excessive pressure, versus less than one-third in Singapore.

However, there may be a financial pay-off for this lack of energy and excessive pressure on the job; in Hong Kong, substantially fewer employees worry about their current financial state than in Singapore (35% in Hong Kong versus 45%) and, similarly, when it comes to looking to their future financial state, only 43% of Hong Kong employees worry versus more than half in Singapore.

The factors that drive sustainable engagement differ across the geographies, with empowerment, company image, and immediate manager being important in Hong Kong, versus company goals and objectives, senior leadership, and performance review in Singapore. It is interesting to note that Singapore is generally more in line with global findings, despite workload & work-life balance not being emphasised.

Senior leadership

There is a further category where we see real differences between the cities: senior leadership. Hong Kong employees are considerably less positive about their senior management and leaders than their counterparts in Singapore.

Less than one-quarter of Hong Kong employees assessed their top management as doing a 'good' or 'very good' job, versus 43% of Singaporean employees. A key takeaway for Hong Kong companies, therefore, would be to look at the calibre of its leadership tier and to take targeted action to improve their capabilities and performance.

Pay

We also observe that Hong Kong employees are more favourable about issues of pay equity. This holds true externally: 43% of Hong Kong employees think they are paid fairly compared with people in other companies holding similar jobs, versus 39% in Singapore. It also holds internally: 45% of Hong Kong employees think they are paid fairly compared with people within their company holding similar jobs, versus 40% in Singapore.

However, Hong Kong employees are less impressed with the link between pay and performance. Only 43% of Hong Kong employees, versus 57% in Singapore, believe that people are held accountable for their performance at their organisation.

Finally, 48% of Hong Kong employees agree that high-performing employees in their organisation are rewarded for their performance, versus 55% in Singapore. Hong Kong organisations clearly must clarify and strengthen the link between job performance and pay, ensuring high performers are rewarded accordingly and, importantly, that they are aware of their pay differential.

Career advancement opportunities

It is within the area of career advancement that we see some of the largest positive differences for Hong Kong, compared to Singapore. Only one-third of Hong Kong employees, compared to 45% in Singapore, feel they have to leave their organisation and join another one in order to advance to a job at a higher level.

This might be explained by the fact that 52% of Hong Kong employees, versus only 30% in Singapore, believe that their ability to advance their career has changed for the better over the last 12 months.

The ownership of responsibility for career management is also seen very differently in both markets. 40% of Hong Kong employees agree that their immediate supervisor/manager helps with career planning and decisions, versus only 31% in Singapore.

A key takeaway for Singaporean employers, therefore, might be that joint ownership between employee and manager of career management may serve well to help retain their employees.

Relationship with immediate manager

As we have seen, the relationship with immediate managers is the most important element for retaining Hong Kong employees and we see fairly similar scores across the two geographies in the way these immediate managers are assessed. The exception is the role the immediate manager plays with career planning and career decisions, as mentioned.

While views in Hong Kong and Singapore are similar, perhaps we should spend a moment considering the numbers themselves. Generally, only half of employees are positive about their immediate manager.

Given the relationship of the manager to retention, is this good enough? Focussing on improving manager's skillsets and capabilities may well be a valuable opportunity for companies to improve employee engagement and organisational performance in both geographies.

So, who wins this titanic, white-collar boxing match? It seems both cities are strong contenders, and the ultimate decision would come down to weighing your priorities, not only from a work perspective of course, but also taking into account those taxi rides and the price of a good bottle of wine!