Managers used to, and still do, worry about how the big resignation will affect their employees. But in 2023, employers may be spending time worrying about mass turnover.
Engagement among U.S. employees has played a central role in the remote workplace for the past few years. Even before the pandemic, a strong company culture that made employees feel connected was a priority for employees. In the era of working from home, this challenge has become more important and difficult at the same time.
A 2022 study found that feeling disconnected from their employer was the top reason employees wanted to change jobs. Last year’s CEO attributed remote work to young employees feeling isolated from their companies and colleagues.
Whatever the reason, the reality is that employee engagement in the U.S. is at its lowest level in a decade, according to a Gallup report released Wednesday, saying employees are more isolated than ever. I feel it and managers struggle to keep their employees connected.
Employees who are away from work are at risk of mental health issues and missed career development opportunities, the report found. For businesses, on the other hand, demotivated employees can mean more resignations and lost productivity.
increase in withdrawal
How disillusioned employees have been in the last year with the advent of extreme burnout at work and the emergence of “quiet retirements” where employees do the bare minimum and reduce the overall effort and time they spend on the job. It was all about trying to accept jobs.
According to the report, only 32% of employees said they were engaged in their jobs last year, up from a high of 36% in 2020. The drop comes after his decade of improved worker engagement, and the current ratio of engaged workers to those who are not actively engaged is now at its lowest since 2013. It is a dot. Approximately 15,000 full-time and part-time US employees.
“Actively demotivated” employees now make up 18% of the workforce, up from 16% in 2021, while the remaining 50% rely on quiet retirement.
Engagement is declining across the workforce, while some feel more isolated than others. Younger millennials and Gen Z workers under the age of 35 are away from work at significantly higher rates than their older peers, but women report being away from work more than men. Among job titles, managers are the employees who are most disillusioned with their role, which is understandable given that these positions had the highest rates of stress and burnout last year.
It was already well known that young people were increasingly dissatisfied with their jobs. More than half of Gen Z and younger millennials reported not feeling engaged in his Gallup poll in November. This is mainly because they do not feel a close relationship with their colleagues or employers.
Meanwhile, even before the pandemic, women were more demotivated at work than men. The involvement of women in the workplace has been hampered by the limited opportunities for career growth for women and fear of raising workplace concerns to managers.
What Can Employers Do?
In a Gallup report this week, employees cited unclear expectations, company ties and lack of career development opportunities as the top factors leading to poor engagement.
For managers, addressing these issues starts with clearer communication. Today’s employees are more invested in their company’s values and work-life balance than ever before, so management needs to communicate corporate culture and strategy more transparently and consistently, and check it more regularly. Measure employee happiness (through weekly employee satisfaction surveys, for example).
Employee satisfaction issues could be amplified by the physical distancing constraints of remote work, according to the report, but returning employees to the office has been a major concern for many leading CEOs over the past year. may not be the panacea advertised by
The reasons behind the drop in engagement were shared “regardless of location (including fully remote employees),” the report said. A fully remote worker is more likely to quit quietly, but the biggest decline in worker engagement is that he was able to work remotely for at least a few days but had to be in the office five days a week. was actually observed in one employee.
According to the report, a priority for managers should be more transparent communication and consistent interactions with employees, especially those who are prone to turnover.
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