Indian workers choose managers' values over their organisations': Report

High performing managers have a key role to play in driving employee engagement, and companies need to harness this to build a strong culture based on corporate values, says a survey.

According to the Kelly Services APAC Workforce Insights survey, 64 per cent of respondents in India said workers favour their managers' personal values over the broader values of their organisations when choosing whether to stay or seek opportunities elsewhere.

"While we have always understood values at work are important, this study shows personal values of high performing managers to be significant in employee engagement. Thus, it makes sense for organisations to choose leaders with high personal value quotient to run business," Kelly Services India Managing Director Thammaiah B N said.

While respondents from across Asia Pacific favoured their managers' values over their organisations', there was a large variance in levels of agreement across the region.

Around 68 per cent of respondents from Indonesia said that workers are likely to base their decision-making on their managers' values, while for Malaysia the figure stood at 62 per cent, Singapore (61 per cent) and Hong Kong (61 per cent).

Less than half of respondents from Australia (49 per cent) and New Zealand (40 per cent) agreed.

Across the APAC region, employees in the banking and financial services, legal, and high tech/IT industries placed greatest emphasis on the values of its managers.

Kelly undertook the quantitative research with hiring managers and candidates across Asia Pacific to explore the workforce trends that are likely to be impacting employers in 2018 and beyond.

The data and insights in this report were based on the responses of 9,295 hiring managers and candidates.

The report has insights from Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.