Managing Staff Engagement
This post isn’t about math, but staff engagement can actually be explained in a simple equation: Increased employee engagement yields increased individual investment in the job, resulting in higher employee performance levels.
Tip: A big reason for the drop is that employees report they don’t understand what is expected of them. In other words, lack of feedback.
So how is engagement trending? According to Gallup research, “In 2023, employees in the U.S. continued to feel more detached from their employers, with less clear expectations, lower levels of satisfaction with their organization, and less connection to its mission or purpose than they did four years ago. They are also less likely to feel someone at work cares about them as a person.”
SLIPPING STATS
Satisfaction was much higher in the first half of 2023 than in the second, and that downward trend doesn’t appear to be changing so far this year.
How does this compare to previous years? Here’s a several-year look at the ratios of disengagement to engagement, as calculated by Gallup research.
At a ratio of 2.7-to-1, 2019 saw a record high for active employee disengagement.
• 2019: 2.7-to-1…the record high for active disengagement.
• 2022: 1.8-to-1…a big improvement in terms of engagement.
• 2023: 2.1-to-1…an increase in active disengagement from the previous year.
What does this mean? As summarized by Gallup, “Employees still feel more detached from –
and less satisfied with – their organizations.” Among other things, this means that employees are less likely to feel a connection to their employer’s mission. They are also less likely to feel their employer or manager cares about them as an individual.
A SIMPLE SOLUTION
A big reason for the drop is that employees say they don’t understand what is expected of them. In other words, lack of feedback.
The solution? It’s pretty simple. According to Gallup, “A manager having one meaningful conversation per week with each team member develops high-performance relationships more than any other leadership activity.”
What have you done in your business to build employee engagement? Tell us about it and share in the conversation on Facebook here.
Erinn Morgan
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