We’re All Disengaged
I write a lot about organizational health - most recently here, but also here (and in a bunch of other posts - feel free to skim the archive). That data on this topic are compelling - but too often ignored.
The Data
Gallup recently released their results from The State of Global Workplace survey - and it’s kind of sad. Notably, 20% of global employees feel lonely. While this data will make all of the RTO excited people happy, I think they’d be jumping to the wrong conclusion. Where I’m seeing many business fail their employees is where they offer remote/hybrid work, but do nothing to improve the experience of working remotely. No travel budget, no opportunities to connect the team. The fully remote organizations I know do really well at connecting people, but hybrid organizations can’t afford both office space and afford to take care of remote employees properly. Something has to change - but I fear it will get worse before it gets better.
It gets worse.
Employee engagement (those who answer questions like, “I know what is expected of me at work”, or “My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.” remains at the 2023 rate of 23%. (more information on the methodology and questions is here)
Not completely surprising, but unfortunate.
When managers are engaged at work, non-managers are also more likely to be engaged
This quote makes logical sense - good managers do the work to help improve employee engagement. But then Gallup drops this truth bomb.
Gallup has found that 70% of the variance in team engagement can be attributed to the manager.
Not only do good managers improve engagement, bad managers decrease it.
The Follow-Up
What frustrates me is that increasing engagement isn’t particularly hard. Make sure people understand why their job is important, care about their career/future, be transparent, and give them feedback. When I ended my last post on engagement, I had asked my writing partner a question that continues to bug me.
I asked ChatGPT why more organizations don’t actively try to improve health. It gave me a long answer that boiled down to laziness and fear, so maybe I’m onto something.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot in the weeks since I wrote that. A lot of organizations still work in some semblance of a command and control structure where the only expectations and accountability of the managers is to make sure the work gets done. Managing via Jira and Excel is a thing, and I know a lot of managers who have advanced far in their careers leveraging these “skills”.
We need to hold managers accountable for creating a culture of engagement, and give them the coaching and training they need to navigate the necessary skills…which may mean we need to re-think which folks we move into management positions. Perhaps there was a time when supervisors needed to focus on getting the work done at all costs, knowledge work requires strongly engaged teams to be successful.
But as I continue to think about it, fear is the word that I keep coming back to. Fear of change, fear, fear of giving feedback and fear of being vulnerable all contribute to the problem. ’m still dumbfounded - the data from multiple studies show the correlation between high engagement and product quality and delivery - but most organizations ignore it. I’m going to have to continue to ponder this.
But let’s go back to Gallup
Things That Made Me Think
The engagement levels noted by Gallup show that the majority of the workforce is either not engaged or actively disengaged, a state that decreases productivity and undermines organizational health. A data point worth calling out is that low engagement costs the global economy a whopping $8.9 trillion annually, approximately 9% of global GDP.
Also interesting (to me, at least) is that the report also highlights regional disparities in engagement levels. For instance, the United States and Canada lead with 33% engagement, whereas Europe lags behind at just 13% - but…another insight from the report is the correlation between labor laws and employee wellbeing. Countries with robust labor protections report higher levels of employee satisfaction and lower stress levels. Having recently managed a large global organization, the latter point makes sense in retrospective, but it certainly made me think.
Moving Forward
As previously discussed, creating a healthy and engaged organization requires a different kind of management. Clear communication, strong connections, feedback, and policies that promote employee wellbeing are critical. Organizations that invest in their health not only achieve better performance but also create a more positive, fulfilling work environment for their employees.
Perhaps the path to a healthier organization lies in recognizing the link between engagement and overall wellbeing. We need organizational strategies that prioritize employee satisfaction and clarity, and we need to kill the silos that hinder progress. It's time for leaders to take action and transform our workplaces into environments where both people and businesses can flourish.
-A 1:1