(The Gallup report has just been released with some amazing insights.)
Globally, employee engagement decreased by 2 points, from 22% in 2019 to 20% in 2020, following a steady rise over the last decade. Not surprising given COVID, working from home, homeschooling and other major disruptions. This can have serious consequences with major losses in productivity that business today can ill afford.
Australian employers can rest easy in the knowledge that the country is perming to the global average.
Is that really good enough?
When you delve further into the report you see that Australia has the highest level of employees thriving. In contrast to many other countries in the world, 57% of Australian employees see themselves as thriving. This is the key metric you need to build engagement, obviously, it is much harder to engage with those that are fearful, angry or sad. This provides a golden opportunity for Australian employers.
In the USA & Canada where 56% of employees similarly describe themselves as thriving, we see much high engagement levels, at 34%, which is a 14% improvement on the Australian region. So, not only is the timing right it would appear that Australian employers have been missing out on a golden opportunity when compared to their USA & Canadian counterparts.
Why bother?
Business units with high employee engagement achieve higher productivity, higher customer loyalty/ engagement, better safety, lower turnover and higher profitability, among other positive business outcomes, according to a Gallup study of more than 100,000 business units. ( Gallup report, 2021)
How can you go about it?
5 factors to consider:-
Career Wellbeing – you like what you do every day.
Social Wellbeing – you have meaningful friendships in your life.
Financial Wellbeing – you manage your money well.
Physical Wellbeing – you have the energy to get things done.
Community wellbeing – you like where you live.
How can this translate into today’s workplaces?
As an employer by developing your employees you build engagement
- 94% of employees said they would stay at a company longer if they were offered opportunities to learn and grow (Source)
- 67% of businesses reported an increase in productivity due to mentoring (Source)
Creating family-friendly policy’s & helping to build support networks that encourage friendships at work
Providing financial advice, services & education
Encouraging exercise & making it easy to access healthy foods.
Celebrating & supporting those who give back to the community.
One of the cheapest & most effective ways to build employee engagement is to implement a mentoring program.
It works to:-
- supporting & encouraging your employees,
- develop your leadership team
- improves networking & camaraderie
- gives all participants a sense of being valued.
67% of businesses reported an increase in productivity due to mentoring (Source).
One final thought to becoming an employer of choice, according to the Gallup report, “Successful corporations of the future not only will generate profits but also will generate thriving employees who are capable of weathering crises.”
So we leave you with the question, are you doing enough to building engagement for your employees?
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