Want to boost productivity? Engage your workforce

MOST business leaders implicitly understand that employee engagement is an important driver of performance and productivity, and is an invaluable contribution to reaching an organisation's full potential. Getting the formula for engagement right gets employees excited to come to work with the energy they need.

For Singapore, improving employee engagement continues to represent a significant opportunity - not just for businesses but also for the economy. As then Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam had noted in his 2014 Budget speech: "Raising productivity is at the centre of our economic agenda."

With this multi-year, multi-pronged undertaking, policymakers are shifting their focus to more progressive areas, such as digitisation and the development of stronger human capital. As Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reiterated recently in a National Day dinner speech: Productivity is imperative to the economy, and even though we are starting to see a slight improvement in the area of productivity among Singaporeans, there is much to be done.