Employee Engagement Crisis: Engagement at a 10-Year Low

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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CRISIS: WE’VE JUST HIT A 10-YEAR LOW

Employee engagement is in desperate need of revival—and employers should be alarmed. Recent Gallup research shows that only 31% of employees are actively engaged, while 17% are actively disengaged. That’s a lot of employees sleepwalking their way through the workday (and costing you more than you think.)

Why should we care, if not simply for the happiness of our (suffering) coworkers? Companies with highly engaged employees see 23% higher profitability and 18% greater productivity than those with low engagement.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Organizations collectively lose trillions annually in productivity due to disengaged employees. 

That’s a tangible impact that can be felt across the organization, all the way from the C-suite to the compensation that hits employees’ bank accounts each month!

Inside this edition…

• Data deep dive—discover the biggest drivers of disengagement and their impact on productivity

• A tragic casualty of the employee engagement crisis, our fundamental sense of belonging at work

• How Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and Mastercard are combatting the crisis

• A Fortune 500 company’s mission to redefine engagement at work (and what you can learn from it)

• Practical strategies to measure and track engagement

Plus: Your free Employee Engagement cheat sheet bundle download 🎁

🗞️ In case you missed it: From DEI to WFH, President Trump signed a slew of executive orders on his first day in office that will have far-reaching effects on the workforce.

Read on to learn how to combat the engagement crisis and rebuild your workforce’s motivation.

SPREAD FOR YOU
📢  EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CRISIS

We all have a collective role to play in this engagement crisis. Discover just how bad the crisis has become, and what we can all do to bring ourselves out of it.

Employee engagement is a key indicator of organizational success. When you have engaged employees, your organization can foster more productive, committed, and loyal workers. Things we all want, right? Right?? 

Yet today, engagement levels are at a historic low…

What’s causing engagement’s steep decline?

While there are many factors at play here (with many of them putting downward pressure on engagement and morale since well before Covid) three key causes stand out as adding to the post-Covid engagement crisis:

• Hybrid and remote work have their advantages, but employees are saying they fail to deliver on one key aspect—connection, leading to a decreased sense of belonging and increased feelings of disconnection and isolation. At the same time, RTO mandates for employees who are used to working from home can lower engagement, too. Later, we explore proven solutions for building meaningful connections in any workplace.

• Economic uncertainty leads to job uncertainty and diminished trust in the organization. The high cost of living in the U.S.—from skyrocketing grocery bills to healthcare costs—compared to other countries is causing Americans to feel the economic strain more than ever. 

• Rising burnout—especially for younger workers—negatively impacts well-being and satisfaction. Lack of action from an organization only intensifies these feelings.

Research from Gallup uncovers more clues as to what could be causing the crisis, revealing that just 46% of employees clearly know what is expected of them at work, down 10 points from a high of 56% in March 2020. Additionally, only 39% of employees strongly believe someone at work cares about them, down from 47% in 2020—revealing an even more tragic casualty of the employee engagement crisis, our fundamental sense of belonging at work.

So how can HR leaders turn the crisis from a reason to panic into an opportunity for re-engagement and realignment? Continue reading to learn more...

HR HURDLES
COMBATTING THE CRISIS: 3 PROVEN STRATEGIES

How Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and Mastercard are combatting the crisis (and how you can too!)

There's no silver bullet solution to the engagement crisis. However, leading organizations have identified proven strategies that consistently drive meaningful change. By focusing on three key areas—leadership clarity, belonging, and development—companies are successfully reversing the downward engagement trend.

In this section, we reveal how to achieve sustained cultural transformation that will pay dividends for many years to come—long after contemporary challenges pass.

3 Proven Strategies to Combat Disengagement

🔎 Create Clarity Through Strong Leadership

Leaders set the tone for engagement. Clearly defining expectations, aligning on goals, and offering regular feedback, can reignite a sense of purpose for employees. Microsoft’s comprehensive internal communications strategy ensures that leaders have their finger on the pulse of the organization to fully align with workforce needs, creating a culture of open communication. 

👐 Build a Culture of Belonging

Employees need to feel valued and connected to be fully engaged with their work. Simple initiatives such as virtual team-building or structured mentorship programs can help improve belonging and combat the isolation of hybrid or remote work. Employee Inclusion Networks and diverse leadership development opportunities, such as those offered at Coca-Cola, can help create meaningful connections that build belonging across the organization.

🎯 Prioritize Career Development

Employees crave growth opportunities, especially in an unstable market. But only 30% of employees strongly agree that someone at work encourages their development, a 16.6% drop from March 2020. Investing in personalized learning plans and career pathways can provide a sense of stability and purpose. Companies like Mastercard introduced a talent marketplace to upskill their workforce via mentorship opportunities, volunteering, and more—gaining $21 million value through increased productivity. 

Next up let's explore how leading organizations are leveraging data-driven HR practices to segment, track, analyze, and continuously improve their engagement initiatives.

DATA-DRIVEN HR
TRACKING AND MEASURING ENGAGEMENT

”You can’t manage what you can’t measure”—so we’re here to help with the latest in employee engagement segmentation!

While many leaders intuitively understand its importance, measuring and categorizing engagement levels can be challenging. Gallup’s Four Levels of Engagement offers a framework for segmenting employees by engagement. Let's explore how it can help you improve workforce engagement—the four levels of engagement are:

• Engaged: Highly involved and enthusiastic about their work.

• Not Engaged: Present but uninspired.

• Actively Disengaged: Disconnected and potentially harmful to the organization.

• Newly Engaged: On the journey toward higher engagement.

To measure these levels effectively, organizations should focus on key metrics, including:

• Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS): Gauges employees’ willingness to recommend the organization.

• Productivity Levels: Measures how employees perform essential duties such as task completion and output quality.

• Pulse Surveys: Provides regular snapshots of employee sentiment and engagement levels.

These metrics—combined with qualitative feedback—can give an overview of overall engagement and the effectiveness of implemented strategies. But remember: engagement isn't a destination but a continuous journey that requires ongoing attention, measurement, and adaptation.

SUCCESS STORIES
MICROSOFT’S MISSION TO REDEFINE & REIMAGINE ENGAGEMENT

When Microsoft faced the challenge of low engagement and a stagnant organizational culture, they didn’t just adjust their engagement strategies, they reimagined what it means to be “engaged” at work. 

Instead of measuring engagement, Microsoft set the bar higher by measuring “thriving”—defined as “to be energized and empowered to do meaningful work.”

Measuring how employees were thriving at work revealed some stand-out trends: 

• Cultural shift: Thriving employees talked about a collaborative, inclusive culture that prioritized autonomy. But non-thriving employees reported the opposite: feelings of exclusion, rigid hierarchies, collaboration challenges, and a lack of agency. 

• Importance of leadership: Thriving employees were satisfied with their managers, demonstrating the importance of leaders for engagement, including managers’ effectiveness, level of support, and respect for employees. 

• Work-life balance: Work-life balance and thriving are connected, but not the same. Microsoft found that some thriving employees had lower work-life balance and vice-versa. Although a healthy amount of collaboration is undoubtedly positive, too much collaboration can lead to lower levels of work-life balance. 

Microsoft's revolutionary approach teaches us a crucial broader lesson: sometimes breaking free from the “traditional” approach reveals deeper truths about what truly drives workplace satisfaction & growth. 

But knowing where you want to go is only half the battle—you need a practical roadmap to get there. That's why we've created a comprehensive Employee Experience Metrics Cheat Sheet Bundle to help you measure, track, and improve engagement in your organization. Find your copy at the end of this email! 🎁

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🗞️ IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

As a new president of the U.S. enters office, big changes are coming—and they’ll have far-reaching effects on the workplace and beyond.

No More WFH For Federal Workers (!?)

On his first day in office, President Trump issued an order for all federal workers to end all work-from-home arrangements, requiring them to go back to full-time in-person work. But federal unions aren’t going back without a fight. Read more →

Federal DEI Programs Gutted by Trump

Another first-day order from President Trump cut federal DEI programs, calling them “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.” The cuts come as major orgs—from Amazon to Walmart—roll back on DEI efforts amidst ongoing backlash. Read more →

Apple Doubling Down on DEI

Despite so many orgs pulling back on DEI efforts, Apple is standing firm in its DEI efforts. Despite a shareholder proposal to shut down DEI programs, investors were urged to vote against the proposal, with the board of directors calling it an “inappropriate” attempt to micromanage Apple’s strategy. Read more →

Measuring organization-wide engagement can be overwhelming. Uncomplicate it with our Employee Experience Metrics Cheat Sheet Bundle below 🎁

YOUR FREE DOWNLOAD
DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCE: EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE METRICS CHEAT SHEET BUNDLE

When your to-do list is a mile long, measuring employee experience can feel like a complex, daunting task. 

This downloadable HR cheat sheet bundle gives you the key metrics you need to track at every stage of the employee journey.

This bundle includes: 

• The Employee Experience Metrics Cheat Sheet

• The People Experience Flywheel

• The Onboarding Experience Cheat Sheet

📥 Download your copy now

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