The latest insights from Gallup’s “State of the Global Workplace 2024” report are here, and they offer a rather sombre deep dive into the current state of employee experiences worldwide. The findings continue to reinforce some of what we already know:
- Global employee engagement is low (23%) and has stagnated
- And while this is obviously bad news for employees, it’s also bad news for economies: Gallup estimates low employee engagement costs the global economy 8.9 trillion U.S. dollars, or 9% of global GDP.
- Companies with high engagement outperform those with low engagement on pretty much every critical business outcome – the business case continues to stack up
- Managers make the biggest difference; Gallup argue that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement.
So far, so depressing… but it gets worse. In this latest report there is an increased focus on wellbeing with some concerning findings coming through:
- 20% of the world’s employees experience daily loneliness
- And this is slightly higher for employees under 35 (22%)
- And fully remote employees report significantly higher levels of loneliness (25%) than those who work fully on-site (16%).
However, the good news is that the findings demonstrate loud and clear that focusing on delivering a great experience that unlock engagement can make all the difference.
Let’s look at negative experiences first.
The findings show that stress, anger, loneliness, worry and sadness are all higher in those who are not engaged or actively disengaged. In fact you’re more likely to be stressed and angry if you are actively disengaged, than if you are unemployed.
And when we look at positive experiences those who are engaged are much more likely to be thriving and report enjoyment in their lives. The bottom line is that a good experience at work that unlocks engagement can make a significant positive difference to our overall life experiences.
The latest Gallup report makes for a sobering read. And if I’m honest, a frustrating one as well. The evidence proves yet again that designing great experiences that deliver engagement are good news for everyone, not just employees for businesses and economies as well. And we also know what we need to do: focus on managers and leaders, provide opportunities for meaningful work, don’t make assumptions about what good looks like for your people. And we know what not to do: understand the shiny apps and cool perks will not be enough. So why are only 23% of people around the world engaged? And why are we struggling to improve this?
I’ve got some thoughts on this, but I would love to hear yours.
And if you want to chat through ideas to improve EX and engagement in your organisation get in touch – we have over 15 years of experience that has made a demonstrable difference to EX and engagement at work.
