Why Employee Engagement Is At A 10 Year Low And How To Fix It

Gallup recently announced its employee engagement measure has fallen to its lowest level in 10 years. We define employee engagement as the emotional connection an employee feels towards their organization, influencing their levels of personal satisfaction and effort in work related activities. If this is at its lowest level in 10 years we have a problem. If we want to fix it, we need to start with how we got here.

Underlying causes of low engagement

The Gallup survey describes it well:

“People of all ages come to work seeking role clarity, strong relationships and opportunities for development, but managers, combined, are progressively failing to meet these basic needs. However, managers themselves are faring no better than those they manage, with only 31% engaged.”

Only 46% of survey participants clearly knew what is expected of them. A reduction of 10% in the past four years. Providing clarity of what is expected of each team member is one of the most valuable things any leader can do. It isn’t difficult but it takes time and attention. When leaders are overwhelmed, they rush from task to task and don’t do a good job of this. This leads them to closely manage their team members and their tasks, requiring more time, leading to greater overwhelm. And the cycle goes on…

Be A Coach

The second underlying cause is the style of management. People want to feel supported, and this is exactly what a good coach does. They clearly explain what is required and what success looks like. They then get out of the way and empower and support the person to do great work. The alternative to this is command and control, directing not only what needs to get done but how to do it. Again, this takes more work and time, and leads to greater levels of overwhelm.

Good coaches stand out. They are the leaders people want to work for. In every organization, you will see these people magnets and I bet their levels of employee engagement are in contrast very high. There is some good news in all of this. Every leader and manager can learn how to be a good coach who creates clear expectations and an environment where people thrive. It takes work but as I see it, there really isn’t a satisfactory alternative.