Gallup’s recent State of the Workplace 2024 report pulls out some troubling insights into the state of our global workplaces. A headline statistic finds that only 23% of the global workforce is engaged. With Europe, including the UK, showing the lowest percentage of engaged employees.
Global employee engagement stagnated and overall employee wellbeing declined, with a worrying trend of loneliness on the rise in younger workers. These are gloomy findings.
More positively however, the report highlights what many leaders and organisations can, and are, doing to increase levels of engagement and help people to thrive in the workplace. Leaders willing to put a positive workplace culture at the heart of business strategy is a good start.
Reading the report made me think about our organisational culture at Unboxed.
I was heartened to find that we are doing many of the things that best practice organisations do to create a strong and resilient culture:
Building wellbeing into our strategy. We want to set people up for success and support them when things go wrong
Focussing on encouraging healthy relationships at all levels with open and transparent communication
Supporting growth and progression
Facilitating high levels of autonomy and ownership
Fostering an environment of consistent and meaningful feedback
Striving to do find meaningful work that aligns with our values and mission
Finding challenging, creative and varied work that uses the range of people’s skills
Encouraging a good work life balance
Gallup found that good relationships are the focus of engagement. Particularly between leadership and team members. When leaders and managers are engaged, team members will be too. This makes it sound easy. It’s hard, especially in a small agency, and we don’t always get it right.
What does engagement mean?
So what does engagement mean and how can it be measured? According to Gallup's finding, employee engagement is a reflection of employees' enthusiasm for their work and their workplace. When their basic needs are met. When they have a chance to contribute. Where there is a sense of belonging. And opportunities to learn and grow.
High levels of autonomy, a sense of purpose, good communication and an emphasis on learning all have a positive impact. High engagement organisations see big benefits. Higher employee wellbeing, lower turnover, less absenteeism and higher productivity. Employees are more committed and advocate for an organisation.
Since the pandemic, we’ve become familiar with the term ‘quiet quitting’. Where engagement needs are not met, employees are psychologically removed from their work, and their workplaces. It’s not productive for business or for the wellbeing of people. Hybrid working is proving to be very positive, particularly for people with caring responsibilities. But it’s also presenting some challenges. It's harder to maintain a sense of belonging when we are together less often. So we have to be creative, adaptable and willing to maintain a sense of belonging for everyone.
Learning and progression
A key element of engagement is learning and growth. We want to feel challenged, have opportunities to learn new skills and develop. Stagnation and coasting is not good for either our personal or professional wellbeing. Our review and progression process is driven by individuals. Setting our own goals and intentions aligned with the business vision gives people ownership of their growth. Feedback from one of our developers highlighted how the emphasis on learning and reflection works for him:
“I’ve found the way Unboxed has done reviews/check-ins really useful compared to past employers. It seems to have the right balance of goal-setting and flexibility for me, and especially the check in felt focussed on reflection and whether anything needs to change rather than a sense of achieving a strict target or not.”
A sense of purpose
The psychiatrist and neurologist Viktor Frankl wrote extensively on the sense of purpose. He viewed it not as a ‘nice to have’, but essential to human survival. A sense of purpose is an essential element of wellbeing. And a central component to a number of well researched models of psychological wellbeing.
Having a sense of purpose refers to aims that are not only meaningful to the self. But of consequence to the wider world, whatever that looks like. Purpose represents intention. It's an abstract concept. But carried out through forms of purposeful engagement and actions. Gallup found that a great job is strongly associated with hope for the future and higher overall life satisfaction.
Doing something you believe in makes all the difference. At Unboxed we work across a range of different complex projects. The NHS, local authorities, government and the private sector all have problems to solve. And an intention to make people's lives better and create meaningful change. Every project also has its challenges where the day-to-day work can be hard and stressful. Clear expectations, the opportunity to be curious and good team relationships supports us to be engaged in our work.
Connecting to something larger than yourself
From Gallup’s research, it’s clear that many employees are struggling to find engagement in their work and workplaces. There may be many reasons. How the organisation works. And individual temperament and characteristics are all factors. People lower in neuroticism and higher in extraversion may find it easier to engage. Workplace culture may be the key to setting the tone for engagement. Engaged leaders, good relationships and connecting to a larger purpose. Factors that build a positive and kind organisational culture, where people feel they have great jobs.