Following several years of increases, employee engagement in this country experienced its first decline in 10 years, falling from 36% in 2020 to 34% last year, according to Gallup. And this year, just 32% of employees reported being engaged, while 17% are actively disengaged – a 1% increase from 2021.
This is a real problem, as flagging engagement levels generally signal a rise in the number of employees who aren’t entirely happy with their work lives. The good news is that there are moves you can make to ensure a positive experience for employees, and ultimately, a robust organizational performance.
Employee Engagement
This refers to the extent to which employees are invested in and enthusiastic about their work and find a sense of meaning in what they do. In other words, such engagement is the degree to which your people expend their behavioral, emotional, and cognitive energy toward favorable organizational outcomes.
The Gallup Surveys
Gallup assesses employee engagement by inquiring about factors associated with organizational results, including productivity, profitability, retention, customer service, overall wellbeing, and safety.
The engagement decline began late last year, led by healthcare workers through early this year, largely due to the pandemic. Remote or “hybrid” workers generally had higher levels of engagement than those who exclusivelywent into work, but the drop in the percentage of engaged employees was demonstrable across remote, hybrid, and on-site employees.
The decrease was particularly notable regarding engagement elements having to do with materials and equipment, clarity of expectations, development, recognition, and the company’s mission.
In terms of wellbeing, there was a marked decrease in the percentage of people who strongly agreed that their organization cared about their general wellbeing. Employee engagement is crucial to improving a workforce’s wellbeing since it comprises elements of collaboration, involvement, development, caring, and communication.
What You Can Do to Ensure a Positive Experience for Employees
Again, the employee experience directly affects employee engagement. One effective way to figure out how your people are feeling about their work lives is through employee engagement surveys, which provide actionable feedback. The leading HR consultant Mercer can help you improve the employee experience through an approach that includes “employee listening” as well as the proper methodologies and technology.
Other ways to heighten engagement include:
- Putting organizational values at the core of decisions. Your people want to see that you’re, every day, living out your intended culture and values. You simply must listen to your employees and act in accordance with their work-life needs. This, in turn, builds trust in your leaders.
- Institute flexible work environments while planning for the future of work.Such flexibility can mean different things for employees, depending on the kind ofwork they do and the optimal physical place for them to have excellent individual performance, collaborations with others, and customer value. Thriving organizations accept and embrace flexibility, understand that the future cannot be completely known, and swiftly pivot as changes dictate.
- Keep people informed. Innovative and transparent communication is vital to a positive employee experience, and that means tailoring such communication to reach employees where they are. Virtual town halls, YouTube, an organization application, and podcasts are all ways to pull this off among people in a variety of work-life situations. Local managers are best for keeping people current on goings-on,including organizational changes.
- Emphasize employee wellbeing. Because for many employees, work and life are blended, you should always keep in mind what your people’s lives are like on the job as well as outside work. Think about how financial, social, career, community, and physical wellbeing impact your people, and make sure they have the tools and resources to enhance these crucial components of wellbeing. Don’t forget to acknowledge your employees’ hard work even through simple things such as giving them custom greeting cards. This simple yet effective gesture not only boosts employees’ morale but also establishes a positive atmosphere where their hard work is celebrated.
Ultimately, ensuring a positive experience for employees is not only the right thing to do, but it goes to your bottom line. Don’t wait to act.
We hope you found this blog post on Ensuring a Positive Experience for Employees useful. Be sure to check out our post on Employee Relocation Services at its best for more great tips!
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