Your organization might want to take a different approach altogether. The important thing is to shift your attention away from those fickle engagement numbers and focus on how people experience your organization day by day. This means moving away from putting people into outdated workplaces, and redesigning workplaces and practices around your employees.
Gallup measures employee engagement by asking random samples of the working population about specific workplace elements that link to many organizational outcomes, including profitability, productivity, customer service, retention, safety and overall wellbeing. The current survey was of a random sample of 14,705 U.S. full- and part-time employees.
Why the Millions We Spend on Employee Engagement Buy Us So Little
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Line chart displaying the employee engagement trend in the U.S. -- in 2022 so far, engagement continues its downward trend, now at 32% engaged and 17% actively disengaged, an engagement decline of two points from the 2021 average.
The decline began in late 2021: The 32% of engaged employees in early 2022 is equivalent to the percentage in the second half of 2021. The engagement elements that declined the most from early 2021 to 2022 were employees' level of agreement that they have clear expectations, the right materials and equipment, the opportunity to do what they do best every day, and a connection to the mission or purpose of their organization. Gallup also found an eight-point decline in the percentage of employees who are extremely satisfied with their organization as a place to work.
Remote jobs: Employees who work exclusively remote or hybrid tend to have higher levels of engagement (37% engaged in both groups) than those who work exclusively on-site (29% engaged). This difference is approximately the same for those in remote-capable jobs and all jobs, including those that are not remote capable. Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the decline in the percentage of engaged employees was evident across all three groups -- exclusively remote, hybrid and exclusively on-site -- but highest for employees who are exclusively remote. The decline was especially evident on engagement elements relating to clarity of expectations, materials and equipment, recognition, development, and connection to the organization's mission or purpose.
Wellbeing: Gallup recently reported a sharp drop in the percentage of employees who strongly agree that their employer cares about their overall wellbeing. Employee engagement is foundational to improving the wellbeing and resilience of a workforce because it contains elements of communication, caring, development, involvement and collaboration. These elements set the stage for developing trust -- which opens the door for addressing overall wellbeing.
The good news is this: While only 32% of U.S. employees overall are engaged, there are organizations that have more than doubled this percentage. Gallup's Exceptional Workplace Award winners averaged 70% employee engagement even during a highly disruptive 2021. Here's what they do differently:
With the spread of COVID-19 stabilizing in the U.S., organizational leaders may have an opportunity to put new plans in motion for the foreseeable future. How they display their organizational values through these decisions and practices -- especially through their managers -- will differentiate them from other organizations. Getting the basics of employee engagement right is a critical first step in building a resilient culture and an employment brand that attracts stars.
Results for this Gallup poll are based on self-administered web surveys conducted during February 2022, with a random sample of 14,705 adults working full time and part time for organizations in the United States, aged 18 and older, who are members of the Gallup Panel. Gallup uses probability-based, random sampling methods to recruit its Panel members.Gallup weighted the obtained samples to correct for nonresponse. Nonresponse adjustments were made by adjusting the sample to match the national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education and region. Demographic weighting targets were based on the most recent Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older U.S. population.For results based on the overall sample of U.S. adults, the margin of sampling error is 1.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. const methodologyBodyID = document.querySelector('.c-methodology__body').id; document.querySelector('#methodologyLink').href = `#$methodologyBodyID`;console.log(methodologyBodyID); INDICATORS Employee Engagement Explore global, regional, and U.S. employee engagement data and learn how to engage employees in your organization. Deep Dive What Is Employee Engagement, Really? Discover the true drivers of engagement, team activity ideas and the best survey questions. //// Get the insights you need to create an exceptional workplace.
Based on over 50 years of employee engagement research, Gallup knows that engaged employees produce better business outcomes than other employees -- across industry, company size and nationality, and in good economic times and bad.
Asking, "Why is employee engagement important?" is a vital question for leaders to consider. Because without employee engagement, there's no team engagement, making it more difficult to improve business outcomes.
When Gallup analyzed the differences in performance among business/work units, the benefits of employee engagement were clear. When comparing employee engagement levels, Gallup found that top- and bottom-quartile business units and teams had the following differences in business outcomes*:
Leaders make engagement metrics far too complicated by focusing on predictors that often are outside of managers' control and typically don't relate to meeting employees' core psychological needs at work.
Managers can take charge of engagement by asking and evaluating their employees' responses to these 12 employee engagement questions to create a structure for their interactions with employees -- casual conversations, meeting agendas, performance evaluations and team goal setting.
When people get to do what they do best every day at work, the organizations they work for get a boost in employee attraction, engagement and retention. Successful managers get to know their employees as individuals and give them opportunities to apply the best of their natural selves -- their talents. They talk to each employee about their unique value and make adjustments to align work, when possible, with team members' talents. The best managers know where their employees excel and position them so they are engaged and provide maximum value to the organization.
Example: An employee who logs in for a few hours longer to get a project over the finish line, or who spends more time on the phone with a client who needs help -- because they're committed to their organization's "client first" values. They build up their coworkers and have strong relationships within the organization.
Not engaged employees are psychologically unattached to their work and company. Because their engagement needs are not being fully met, they're putting time -- but not energy or passion -- into their work.
Example: This employee spends their time talking negatively about coworkers, current projects, leaders, etc. They may be searching for other employment opportunities in their spare time and do not plan to stay at their current job much longer.
Naturally, each employee's engagement influences their employee experience during the engage stage of the employee life cycle. However, employee engagement also influences (and is influenced by) aspects of every other stage.
Therefore, the biggest difference between the employee experience and employee engagement isn't actually a difference -- it's more of a distinction. Developing employee engagement must be the main focus of managers within every single stage of the employee life cycle, all of which directly influences the employee experience.
Current employees' engagement influences the quality of potential job candidates -- 71% of employees use or have used referrals from an organization's current employees to learn about job opportunities.
Laying the foundation for engagement during onboarding requires thoughtfully planned conversations about what motivates employees and what development needs they have. Employees who strongly agree they have a clear plan for their professional development are 3.5 times more likely to strongly agree that their onboarding process was exceptional.
Organizations that make employee engagement a central part of their corporate strategy take a different approach. They incorporate aspects of engagement into all elements of their employee experience so that each feeds into and amplifies the other.
For Departments and Organizations Learn about our employee engagement solutions and customized plans for organizations. Connect with a Gallup expert to talk through your employee engagement goals, access to our platform -- Gallup Access (home to the Q12 survey) -- and discover how a partnership with us could look.
Managers account for at least 70% of variance in employee engagement scores across business units, Gallup estimates. This variation is in turn responsible for severely low worldwide employee engagement. Gallup reported in two large-scale studies in 2012 that only 30% of U.S. employees are engaged at work, and a staggeringly low 13% worldwide are engaged. Worse, over the past 12 years, these low numbers have barely budged, meaning that the vast majority of employees worldwide are failing to develop and contribute at work.
Gallup has studied performance at hundreds of organizations and measured the engagement of 27 million employees and more than 2.5 million work units over the past two decades. No matter the industry, size, or location, we find executives struggling to unlock the mystery of why performance varies from one workgroup to the next. Performance metrics fluctuate widely and unnecessarily in most companies, in no small part from the lack of consistency in how people are managed. This "noise" frustrates leaders because unpredictability causes great inefficiencies in execution. 2ff7e9595c
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