Worker Engagement Is at Risk. Here’s How to Address That

Before the pandemic, workforce engagement and overall employee wellbeing were rising globally for nearly a decade — but now, they’re stagnant.

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report reports that just 21% of employees engaged at work and 33% of employees thriving in their overall wellbeing. Further, the report found that 60% of people are emotionally detached at work and 19% are miserable.

“‘Living for the weekend,’ ‘watching the clock tick,’ ‘work is just a paycheck.’ These are the mantras of many workers worldwide.

Most workers would say that they don’t find their work meaningful or don’t think their lives are going well or don’t feel hopeful about their future, states Gallup.

Stress is at an all-time high. Workers are even more stressed than they were in the first year of the pandemic, as they’ve experienced three years of turbulence, including health risks, economic instability, higher costs due to inflation, and the threat of layoffs.

So what is the cost of poor engagement for companies?

Low engagement costs the world economy $7.8 trillion, due to factors such as lower productivity, attrition, ill health, and more. Specifically in the manufacturing industry, the sector struggles when they can’t find enough committed workers, and this harms productivity throughput, product quality, customer relationships, and more.

According to Gallup, while engagement is a problem worldwide, some regions suffer more than others. In the U.S. 33% of workers are engaged, followed by 27% in South Asia and 24% in Southeast Asia. In addition, Australia and New Zealand were at 17%, the Middle East and Africa at 15%, and Europe at 14%,

Bottom line – worker attrition is still at a sizable risk. During the pandemic, workers didn’t hesitate to jump ship for new opportunities, as the large number of unfilled job openings made them feel secure about finding another role. More than 50 million U.S. workers left their jobs during 2022, part of “The Great Resignation” trend that swept the globe.

While down from 2022, quits remain high, clocking in at 3.8 million in April in the U.S.
What are the answers and how should companies tackle low engagement?

It’s clear that the current state of affairs isn’t sustainable. Workers have been through a lot over the past few years, and employers are considering how to re engage them.
One way to improve engagement is to create a new value proposition, with better technology and support.

For manufacturers, looking at advanced technologies that can help bring in younger workers and retain them. Creating a digital atmosphere instead of using cumbersome paper-based processes can be an easy solution. Giving workers access to communication and collaboration tools that improve innovation or the ability to share ideas with supervisors can make workers feel more connected and empowered. It can allow them to take on new duties, such as maintenance; developing their own knowledge or learning new real-time skills.

This can help companies to retain talent, and promote from within to identify emerging leaders.

Gallup finds that across industries, business units with engaged workers have 23% higher profit compared with those that have miserable workers. It is important we address workforce issues now, to establish and build new workplace cultures and demonstrate how we value employees.

Claudine Bianchi

Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at QAD Redzone.

Claudine Bianchi is a SVP of Global Marketing at QAD Redzone. She is a highly regarded, full-stack, battle-tested, globally minded, data-driven and results-oriented senior executive with 25+ years of management experience in B2B technology marketing.