Let’s pause and really think about this quote from Gallup’s State of The Global Workforce Report for a moment:
‘Low levels of engagement among global workers continue to hinder gains in economic productivity and life quality in much of the world.’
If you’re an HR Professional, a Manager, or someone in a Senior Leadership position, is your view of your role as broad and deep as considering life beyond the balance sheet of your own organisation?
Based on Gallup’s quote (and the full content of the report), it is fair to say that it’s not just the profitability and success of your organisation that hinge on the engagement levels of your employees. The way you engage your employees actually impacts elements as far reaching as the economic productivity of your country, and even the world. Not only that, the ability of HR Professionals, Managers and Leaders to provide great work, great workplaces and inspiration to employees, has significant impacts on the overall quality of life of, well, pretty much everyone that has a job.
According to Gallup’s latest findings, 87% of workers are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” and are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less likely to be productive. The proportion of actively disengaged employees has decreased from 27% to 24%. However, actively disengaged employees continue to outnumber engaged employees by nearly 2-to-1, implying that at the global level, work is more often a source of frustration than one of fulfillment.
It also means countless workplaces worldwide are less productive and less safe than they could be and are less likely to create badly needed new jobs and happy thriving human beings.
Now I’m sure that engagement is an issue that many of us sit and ponder, and scratch our heads over. However, how many of us are really taking as deep a look at how to create better engagement as we could, or should be?
The criteria on which Gallup based its employee engagement (Q12) measure, are universally applicable because they address fundamentally human emotional needs. These needs include respect, positive relationships, and a sense of personal development, amongst others.
The specific questions which Gallup uses to assess employee engagement levels are as follows:
In addition to discovering the essential nature of these 12 areas in terms of measuring engagement, Gallup also found that the order of these elements is just as important. The 12 items above, represent the four stages of a hierarchy that an employee goes through on the path to complete engagement in any given organisation.
Gallup has found that these four stages help management evaluate workgroup performance and concentrate their efforts on areas most relevant to where their team is on the journey to complete engagement.
Reading from this list, it doesn’t seem like engagement should be that difficult, however, if you look at the scoreboard, it is blindingly obvious that many organisations are still getting it wrong. Very, very wrong.
The top performers in Gallup’s Q12 Client Database consistently make employee engagement part of their formal review process, and most use these improvements as a criterion for promotions.
Of course, Gallup has also spent a considerable amount of time researching and assessing what organisations can do to improve engagement. Their recommendations are outlined below:
Still, as organisations, from multinational corporations to small-business startups, seek to benefit from ongoing development in these rapidly changing markets, all of us need to learn how to maintain adaptive, high-productivity workplaces in order to be able to grow our customer bases in widely varying social, cultural, and economic environments.
The next blog will look at how Gallup advises that organisations actively incorporate such processes into everyday business practice. Until then, I would like to pose these questions to our readers and your feedback on this would be greatly appreciated:
In closing for this week, I wonder, what kind of a world, or workplace, do you think would be possible if those who lead were acutely aware of the opportunity they have at their fingertips to make the world a better, happier more productive place for everyone to enjoy? What if HR Professionals, Managers and Leaders everywhere chose to ensure that their organisations didn’t just generate profits and returns to shareholders, but took on changing the world through work. Through engaging in creating inspiring, aligned, valued and appreciated work where the talents, likes and strengths of each and every individual are recognised, harnessed, encouraged and supported?
Not only do the statistics say that your organisation will become more profitable as a result, but the added benefit is that the world will be a better place, filled with happier human beings who enjoy both their work, and their lives.
Credit: The image used in this blog is taken from Galllup's State Of The Global Workforce Report 2013.
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