A new report from HR and talent advisory firm Kincentric on employee engagement based on input from 12 million employees in more than 125 countries reveals that both employee attrition and manager burnout are showing no signs of slowing down.
The report notes that while employee engagement levels year-over-year appear relatively stable, engagement has varied greatly from quarter to quarter, reflecting the turbulence of the world events that have had a significant impact on workers around the globe.
“The last few years have seen an unprecedented amount of disruption, from the ongoing pandemic to global social unrest; to that end, we’ve also seen a huge shift in how, when and where people work,” said Jeff Jolton, managing director of research and insights at Kincentric. “This report outlines the specific changes unfolding in real-time, on a global scale.”
The report finds that employees’ engagement rates peaked at 73 per cent in the second quarter 2020, before falling to 67 per cent by Q4. After maintaining rates ranging from 65 – 69 per cent in 2021, employee engagement fell to 62 per cent in Q1 of this year.
“Notably, workers’ desire to stay within their current organization continues to decrease, indicating that turnover may remain a persistent challenge – and middle managers are feeling more pressure than ever, with a 10-point decline in work-life balance compared to 2019,” Kincentric said.
Other key results from the global study include:
- Concern about lack of support: Only 50 per cent of employees feel their organization has sufficient staffing to get work done.
- A compelling vision of the future is a game changer: Employees reported eight times higher engagement when senior leaders made them feel excited about the future.
- Employees want to know how they fit in. As employees deal with a changing environment, they want to better understand where they fit into the future of the organization. However only 59 per cent feel recognized for their efforts and just 54 per cent believe they have future career opportunities at their company.
The findings also reveal that no one thing alone makes for a great work experience, rather, it is the culmination of multiple and simultaneous active employee experience initiatives. These include recognition, career development, caring leadership and communicating a vision that enables an organization to successfully engage and retain its employees
“Now is the time for business and HR leaders to assess, determine the right steps to take for their culture, and ultimately empower and inspire their people,” said Jolton.
“While there are indicators of decreasing levels of employee engagement in the data, we have also identified areas of tremendous potential for organizations to build employee-centric systems, structures, and processes that will meet the needs of the transformed workplace.”