【正文】 on at 32 percent. The consequences of such poor results were felt in other measures of HR, including employee turnover reaching an unprecedented 31 percent by the end of 2020. The resulting direct costs to the business (recruitment, legal and exit costs) were over 163。600,000 by 2020 year end. In January 2020 with the arrival of a new Korean CEO and shortly after a new British MD, HR was challenged to develop an employee engagement strategy to improve employee morale and address the high levels of employee turnover. Objectives: setting the engagement objectives for Kia Motors Therefore HR agreed with the board some ambitious objectives to address the challenges the organization was experiencing. These were: Increase the average score across the five direct line manager indicators by 10 percent. The indicators are the support managers provide, their munication, the quality of feedback to their direct reports at appraisals, the recognition of work well done and the respect between manager and employee. Seek an increase in the employee survey results on the 12 key engagement indicators. Aim to reduce the level of employee turnover within Kia Motors, whic h was 31 percent at the end of 2020. Look to reduce the employee costs of recruitment and exiting of employees within the organization on an annual basis by 10 percent. Strategy: being a true employer of choice The strategy agreed with the board for HR was to develop the employer brand as a true “employer of choice.” Since the UK automotive market was very petitive with a relatively limited pool of talent, it was critical for Kia to be seen as an attractive employer if it was to attract and retain talent to the brand. An HR strategy was put in place with the aim to achieve as a marker of progress the Investors In People award by the end of 2020. Longer term the aim was for Kia Motors UK to be seen as not just an employer of choice in the UK automotive industry but also more widely on a national basis as an employer brand. The focus for HR was on improving “employee engagement,” which was about creating an “emotional connection” with employees so that they are passionate and “l(fā)ive” the brand. At Kia Motors, employee engagement consists of three parts – the belief (mental), the feeling the brand generates (emotion) and, most importantly, the generation of discretionary effort (behavior). The strategy was developed after triangulating three sources, our e mployee satisfaction survey results, parison of the results with certain petitor panies, which was accessed via automotive working groups and a review of secondary data on best practice in employee engagement. The strategy was focused on three distinct but connected themes: leadership, internal munications and employee development, based on research conducted into the drivers of employee engagement – see Figure 1. Tactics: introducing the Kia Motors Engagement model The employee engagement strategy consisted of five interventions that were distinct but interconnected for symbiosis and greater impact – see Figure 2. Action: interventions to improve employee engagement 1. Leadership development Based on the research on employee engagement, the organization knew that senior and middle management were the key drivers in building engagement in the workforce. So a significant focus was on developing the people management skills of Kia39。s law – when a measure bees a target, it ceases to be a good measure, . the incentive itself distorts the behavior making the measure itself an unsatisfactory way of assessing performance. Given the economic experience of the credit crunch and allegations directed at the banking and finance industries, Kia believes it was very much ahead of the curve in eradicating the bonus culture. It also pletely rewrote the employee handbook and all HR policies and procedures to ensure they were aligned with the cultural values. Other changes made included improvin