Gallup defines employee engagement as 'the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace'.
The business benefits of high engagement levels are obvious and well-quantified (e.g., The MacLeod Report). Gallup's figures show that when comparing top- and bottom-quartile business units and teams, the top-quartile enjoyed the following differences in business outcomes:*
<81% absenteeism
<18% staff turnover
<28% theft
<41% quality (defects)
>23% profitability
However, Gallup's annual survey reveals that only 23% of employees worldwide and 33% in the U.S. fall in the "engaged" category.*
Low engagement is costing the global economy a staggering $8.8 trillion, equivalent to 9% of global GDP.**
What about the UK? Bad news: "Nearly 90% of UK employees are disengaged from their job and are either quiet or loud quitting. With just 10% of workers feeling engaged or thriving in the workplace. The UK is ranked 33rd on Gallup’s table of employee engagement in European countries."***
The good news is that there are several engagement drivers that leaders can employ to deliver sustained improvement including purpose, development, an empathetic manager, ongoing conversations and a focus on strengths. However, one of Gallup's biggest findings was that "the manager or team leader alone accounts for 70% of the variance in team engagement."*
The most common mistake is to approach engagement as a sporadic exercise in making their employees feel happy (usually when a survey is coming up!).
In the Aspire MCL Model for developing organisational health (which empowers engagement), developing inspiring leaders is the first step. The second is to build consistently high-performing teams. Getting those 2 elements right is fundamental to creating a healthy business with high levels of engagement. The other steps are to gain clarity around mission, vision, values and strategy, to repeatedly communicate that clarity, and to take firm steps to embed it, e.g., by recruiting and promoting in line with clear and agreed priorities (incl. longer-term).
Although UK engagement levels are depressingly low, it does mean there are opportunities for businesses to develop a sustainable competitive advantage by investing in developing organisational health because it is both so powerful and so rare.
Contact Aspire MCL today and take the first step to realising YOUR business potential:
+44(0)20 3904 7501
Comentários