Introduction
The road to recovery from the recession that characterised the Zimbabwean economy between 2001 and 2009 is proving to be long, winding and bumpy.
Driven by recovery in domestic demand and government consumption, the World Bank estimates that real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 20.1% in 2009-2011i. This growth was fueled by strong growth in mining (107%), agriculture (35%) and services (51%). Growth in the manufacturing sector (22%) was less aggressive.
In 2012 and 2013, economic growth slowed down. The growth figures for 2012 and 2013 were estimated at 4.4%iii and 3.4%iv respectively.
On July 31, 2013 Zimbabwe held harmonized elections. President Robert Mugabe won the election with 61.09% of the total votes cast, and his party Zanu PF won two thirds majority, with 160 seats in the House of Assembly out of 210 seats. Government proceeded to launch the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset) as the economic blueprint for the period October 2013 – December 2018.
Undoubtedly government faces formidable challenges as it attempts to resuscitate the economy.
In a recent statement, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) claimed that as many as 300 employees are losing their jobs every week.
The Zimbabwe Independent recently quoted a July 2013 National Social Security Authority (NSSA) Harare Regional Employer Closures and Registrations Report for the period July 2011 to July 2013 that showed that 711 companies in Harare closed down, rendering 8 336 individuals jobless.
The African Development Bank through its country profile on Zimbabwe argues “The economy continues to experience structural challenges emanating from the limited sources and high cost of capital; uncertainties arising from policy inconsistencies, especially with respect to economic empowerment and indigenisation regulations; dilapidated infrastructure and obsolete technologies.” It continues “The poor performance of domestic revenue inflows against the background of rising recurrent expenditures will continue to constrain the fiscal space. With the continued use of the multi-currency regime, monetary policy is not expected to change significantly.”
Whilst employees would have hoped for quicker results – increase in income, increase in employment opportunities and more secure jobs, the reality appears to be very been far from this.
Interestingly however, defying this gloomy outlook, employee engagement went on to increase on a year on year basis.
Executive Summary
The Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd 2013 Employee Engagement Trends Report is the result of surveying 4,115 Zimbabwean employees about their levels of Engagement and work experiences.
The following report explores five key areas:
1. Benchmarking Employee Engagement
Fewer employees are engaged today (60.59%) than in 2011 (64.26%), when employee engagement peaked. Interestingly, the 2011 peak coincided with the peak recovery in the economy.
Comparatively, Zimbabwe continues to have a significantly higher percentage of Aligned Skeptics when compared to Europe. 38% of Zimbabwe’s workforce are Aligned Skeptics, compared to only 12% of Europe’s workforce. As this report will show, we have consistently observed this trend since 2010.
2. Shifts in Employee Engagement Drivers
a. Zimbabwean employees rate remuneration and rewards slightly higher (1.19%) compared to 2012. Although slightly higher, these extrinsic (functional) motivators that have traditionally been seen to drive work performance have not reached satisfactory levels. Our assessment suggests that low perceptions of remuneration and rewards continue to negatively affect engagement levels.
b. Engagement levels continue to be dampened by poor communication in organisations. Compared to 2012, 0.81% less employees seem to believe that they are informed about matters that affect them or that management keeps them informed about developments in the organisation. Fewer employees also seem to believe that they have opportunity to air their concerns and that communication in their organisations is two way.
c. Employees feel more positive about leadership in their organisations. In particular they feel that their leaders are capable of running their organisations. More employees seem to believe their leaders lead by example as well as adhere to sound corporate governance.
3. Three theories on current trends in Employee Engagement
Industrial Psychology Consultants attributes this increase to a combination of three theories: relativity at play, employee coping mechanisms, and sampling methodology of this survey.
4. Determining if Employee Engagement Measurement is still relevant
In spite of this unexpected upswing, measuring employee engagement will continue to be the most reliable metric of any company’s overall climate and health. Business leaders should begin taking steps now to ensure that this trend will hold in their organisation.
Business leaders should also begin to assess how they can link employee engagement to other key drivers of the business such as labour productivity, customer satisfaction, revenue growth, cost management and profitability.
5. Recommendations for Improving Engagement
Based on this, three recommendations are offered on actions leaders can take to foster Employee Engagement within their organisations.
The Winners
2013 ZIMBABWE BEST EMPLOYERS PRIVATE SECTOR
1. Seed Co Zimbabwe (Pvt) Limited.
2. Propak Hessian (Private) Limited
3. Brands Africa (Pvt) Ltd
4. NicozDiamond Insurance Limited
5. BDO Zimbabwe Chartered Accountants
6. Ecobank
7. Securico Security Services
2013 ZIMBABWE BEST EMPLOYERS NGO SECTOR
1. Catholic Relief Services
2.Transparency International Zimbabwe
3. World Vision Zimbabwe
No comments:
Post a Comment