In early 2011 BlessingWhite published a comprehensive report examining the dynamics of employee engagement around the world. The report generated a lot of interest with and an update to that report based on data collected over the summer and autumn of 2012 has been completed. The Employee Engagement Report research update reflects online survey responses of over 7,000 individuals from around the world.
Key Findings
- Stable or rising engagement levels in regions around the world.
- “Intent to stay,” a main predictor of future turnover, remains stable.
- While engagement and intent to stay are directly correlated, the specific dynamics of retention appear to vary significantly from one region of the world to the next.
- The dynamics of tenure, level and age remain the same – as people grow more experienced and vested in their work, or more senior in the organisation, engagement increases.
- While gender is not a significant factor of engagement in western economies, large gaps in engagement levels between men and women are apparent in India, the Persian Gulf and South America.
- When it comes to drivers of engagement, clarity on the organisation’s priorities, getting feedback, having opportunities to use skills, and career development remain at the top of the list for a majority of employees. What these factors mean in practice, however, can be deeply personal.
- Globally, a greater percentage of the workforce trust senior leaders and managers. Trust in managers remains predictably higher than trust in executives.
Recommendations
Following on from the 2011 report, and based on these more recent observations, recommendations include:
- Organisations gain a firm grasp on how engagement can drive their business results in very specific terms, and adopt a common definition of engagement which makes it something tangible to business outcomes.
- Senior leaders renew efforts to provide alignment to business strategy by increasing communication and clarity, as well as providing an inspiring vision for the future.
- Engagement initiatives focus on equipping every level of the workforce, clarifying who is accountable for what and how best to contribute to a culture of employee engagement.
- Development efforts focus on “career” as a way of aligning long-term employee aspirations with the organisation’s talent needs of tomorrow.
- That managers address disengagement decisively without letting the Disengaged monopolise their efforts.
The full paper is available for download here
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