Want to have a productive business? Employee motivation is key.
Focus on keeping employees engaged and happy
If you or your employees are unmotivated at work, you’re not alone.
Nearly 70% of employees in the U.S. are in the same boat.
Less than one-third, or 31.5%, of employees report being engaged at the office, research firm Gallup found in its latest engagement study based on daily tracking interviews of 80,837 employees from January 2014 to December 2014. As of November, the year-to-date average for 2015 stood insignificantly better at 31.9%.
Managers, executives and officers were the most engaged in 2014 at 38.4%, while manufacturing or production workers had the lowest levels of engagement at 23%.
Gallup defines engaged employees are “those who are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace.”
Generation Gap
The study shows a huge gap in engagement between generations:
- Millennials, many of which are paying college loans for less-useful-than-expected degrees being the least engaged generation at 28.9%,
- Traditionalists, born before 1945, were the most enthusiastic and engaged group at 42.2%.
Employee engagement strongly connects to business outcomes that are essential to an organization’s financial success, including:
- Productivity
- Profitability
- Customer engagement
- Innovation
- Growth
- Revenue
In other words, disengaged employees are more likely to be unproductive, not to mention unhappy, and employers of disengaged employees are in trouble.
Attracting, engaging and retaining top talent has never been more challenging
U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics shows that the average person holds 11.3 jobs during his or her working years. And that number is poised to continue to rise, particularly among disenchanted Millennials.
An engaged workforce not only makes good financial sense, but it’s also one less corporate-size headache.
Speaking of headaches, the leading factor influencing employee engagement is the relationship between employees and their managers. A bad or ineffective manager can ruin your business.
“Here’s something they’ll probably never teach you in business school: The single biggest decision you make in your job – bigger than all of the rest – is who you name manager,” says Gallup CEO Jim Clifton. “When you name the wrong person manager, nothing fixes that bad decision. Not compensation, not benefits–nothing.”
YOU CAN ENGAGE YOUR EMPLOYEES AND KEEP THEM HAPPY.
If you have disengaged employees, do not despair. There are ways to improve employee motivation and engagement in your organization and benefit from happy, productive workers.
To get you started in this challenging but rewarding process, we’ve created a valuable guide designed to help you attract, engage and retain top talent: “HOW TO ENGAGE EMPLOYEES AND KEEP THEM HAPPY.”
