October 8, 2013 Worldwide, 13% of Employees Are Engaged at Work

Transcription

1 October 8, 2013 Worldwide, 13% of Employees Are Engaged at Work Low workplace engagement offers opportunities to improv e business outcomes by Steve Crabtree WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Only 1 3% of employ ees worldwide are engaged at work, according to Gallup's new 142-country study on the State of the Global Workplace. In other words, about one in eight workers -- roughly 1 80 million employ ees in the countries studied -- are psy chologically committed to their jobs and likely to be making positiv e contributions to their organizations. The bulk of employ ees worldwide -- 63% -- are "not engaged," meaning they lack motiv ation and are less likely to inv est discretionary effort in organizational goals or outcomes. And 24% are "activ ely disengaged," indicating they are unhappy and unproductiv e at work and liable to spread negativ ity to coworkers. In rough numbers, this translates into 900 million not engaged and 340 million activ ely disengaged workers around the globe. The 13% of engaged employ ees in the study has ticked upward from the 11% in Gallup's prev ious global workplace assessment, conducted in Furthermore, the proportion who are "actively disengaged" has dipped from 27 % to 24%. However, low levels of engagement among global workers continue to hinder gains in economic productiv ity and life quality in much of the world. Engaged Workers Most Com m on in U.S. and Canada, Activ ely Disengaged in MENA As in Gallup's previous employ ee study, engagement levels among employ ees vary across different global regions and among countries within those regions. At the regional lev el, Northern America (that is, the U.S. and Canada) hav e the highest proportion of engaged workers, at 29%, followed by Australia and New Zealand, at 24%. 1/6

2 Not all economically developed regions fare as favorably ; across 19 Western European countries, 14% of employ ees are engaged, while a significantly higher 20% are activ ely disengaged. Howev er, the highest proportions of activ ely disengaged workers are found in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and sub-saharan Africa regions, at 35% and 33%, respectiv ely. The findings also rev eal differences among employ ees with different job ty pes and at different education lev els within countries. Recognizing these differences can help managers understand how societal factors could affect workplace characteristics and help them identify specific barriers they must ov ercome to build more engaged workforces. See the full report for results by job ty pe and education level. Regardless of region or industry, businesses seeking to adapt to rapidly changing global economic conditions must learn how to maintain high-productiv ity workplaces and grow their customer bases in widely v ary ing social, cultural, and economic env ironments. Sy stems for reliably measuring and improv ing employ ee engagement across industries and regions worldwide are v ital to that goal. Bottom Line People spend a substantial part of their liv es working, whether in a high-tech startup in Singapore, a financial institution in Australia, or a garment factory in the Dominican Republic. As a result, the quality of their workplace experience is inevitably reflected in the quality of their lives. Gallup's finding that the vast majority of employ ees worldwide report an overall negative experience at work -- and just one in eight are fully inv olv ed in and enthusiastic about their jobs -- is important when considering why the global recov ery remains sluggish, while social unrest abounds in many countries. Business leaders worldwide must raise the bar on employ ee engagement. Increasing workplace engagement is v ital to achiev ing sustainable growth for companies, communities, and countries --- and for putting the global economy back on track to a more prosperous and peaceful future. 2/6

3 For complete data sets or custom research from the more than 150 countries Gallup continually survey s, please contact us. Surv ey Methods For the current workplace study, employ ee engagement results were collected among 7 3,7 52 respondents 18 and older in 141 countries via the Gallup World Poll, and 151,335 U.S. respondents using the Gallup Daily tracking surv ey. Employ ee engagement questions were asked only of those respondents who indicated they were employ ed for an employ er, either full-time or part-time. Country -lev el results are weighted by population size to arriv e at regional and global aggregates. For results based on the total global sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is less than ± 1 percentage point. Country -lev el engagement data are reported only among the 94 countries in which at least 300 employ ed respondents were sampled. The table on page 2 contains those country -lev el results, along with the margin of sampling error associated with each percentage. The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting survey s can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. Gallup measures employ ee engagement based on workers' responses to its Q 1 2 survey, which consists of 1 2 actionable workplace elements with prov en links to performance outcomes. To identify these elements, Gallup spent y ears conducting thousands of interv iews at ev ery lev el of v arious organizations, in most industries, and in several countries. Since Gallup finalized the Q 1 2 question wording in the late 1990s, the survey has been administered to more than 25 million employ ees in 189 different countries and 69 languages. For a listing of the Q 1 2 survey items and more information on how they relate to business performance outcomes, see the full State of the Global Workplace report. For more complete methodology and specific surv ey dates, please rev iew Gallup's Country Data Set details. 3/6

4 4/6

5 Ba ck to Top 5/6

6 Copy r ig h t Ga llu p, In c. A ll r ig h ts r eser v ed. Ga llu p, In c. m a in ta in s sev er a l r eg ister ed a n d u n r eg ister ed tr a dem a r ks th a t in clu de bu t m a y n ot be lim ited to: A 8, A ccou n ta bility In dex, Bu sin ess Im pa ct A n a ly sis, BE1 0, CE1 1, CE1 1 A cceler a tor, Clifton Str en g th sex plor er, Clifton Str en g th sfin der, Cu stom er En g a g em en t In dex, Cu stom er En g a g em en t Ma n a g em en t, Dr. Ga llu p Por tr a it, Em ploy ee En g a g em en t In dex, En etr ix, En g a g em en t Cr ea tion In dex, Follow Th is Pa th, Ga llu p, Ga llu p Br a in, Ga llu p Bu sin ess Jou r n a l, GBJ, Ga llu p Con su ltin g, Ga llu p-hea lth w a y s Well-Bein g In dex, Ga llu p Ma n a g em en t Jou r n a l, GMJ, Ga llu p Pa n el, Ga llu p Pr ess, Ga llu p Tu esda y Br iefin g, Ga llu p Un iv er sity, Ga llu p Wor ld New s, Hu m a n Sig m a, Hu m a n Sig m a A cceler a tor, ICE1 1, I1 0, L3, ME2 5, Nu r sein sig h t, Nu r sestr en g th s, Pa tien t Qu a lity Sy stem, Per for m a n ce Optim iza tion, Pow er of 2, Pr in cipa lin sig h t, Q1 2, Q1 2 A cceler a tor, Q1 2 A dv a n ta g e, Selection Resea r ch, In c., SE2 5, SF3 4, SRI, Sou l of th e City, Str en g th s Spotlig h t, Str en g th s-ba sed Sellin g, Sta tsh ot, Str en g th scoa ch, Str en g th sex plor er, Str en g th sfin der, Str en g th sin sig h t, Str en g th squ est, Su ppor tin sig h t, TX(R+E+R)=P3, Tea ch er In sig h t, Th e Ga llu p Pa th, Th e Ga llu p Poll, Th e Ga llu p Sch ool, V a n ta g epoin t, V a r sity Ma n a g em en t, Wellbein g Fin der, A ch iev er, A ctiv a tor, A da pta bility, A n a ly tica l, A r r a n g er, Belief, Com m a n d, Com m u n ica tion, Com petition, Con n ectedn ess, Con sisten cy, Con tex t, Deliber a tiv e, Dev eloper, Disciplin e, Em pa th y, Fa ir n ess, Focu s, Fu tu r istic, Ha r m on y, Idea tion, In clu der, In div idu a liza tion, In pu t, In tellection, Lea r n er, Ma x im izer, Positiv ity, Rela tor, Respon sibility, Restor a tiv e, Self-A ssu r a n ce, Sig n ifica n ce, Str a teg ic, a n d Woo. A ll oth er tr a dem a r ks a r e th e pr oper ty of th eir r espectiv e ow n er s. Th ese m a ter ia ls a r e pr ov ided for n on com m er cia l, per son a l u se on ly. Repr odu ction pr oh ibited w ith ou t th e ex pr ess per m ission of Ga llu p, In c. 6/6