Engaged employees are more actively involved in their work, pay attention and effectively tackle challenges to reach their goals. Also, they are resilient, find their work meaningful, work longer hours and are more immune to stress.
Everybody wants their employees to be engaged. However, there is a problem. Only 32% of the UK’s labour force is engaged. Interestingly, managers and executives are the most engaged.
Maybe this is related to age as employee engagement increases with it. Millennials are the least engaged (28.9%), while people in their fifties and older are much more engaged (37%).
Engagement directly impacts critical business outcomes like absenteeism and turnover. Research amongst teachers shows that engaged teachers take 10 sick days a year. Non-engaged teachers (let’s call them ‘neutral’) take 11 sick days. However, actively disengaged teachers take 20(!) sick days a year (Gallup, 2014). This is cause for concern since only 30% of teachers are engaged.
Some additional numbers: Engaged workers are absent less often (-37%). They are involved in fewer incidents (-49%) and quality defects (-41%). At the same time, they show 10% higher customer ratings, 21% higher productivity ratings and 22% higher profitability ratings.
For further guidance on how to engage your workforce, please contact your Heads HR Consultant on 0161 850 4343.
