Gallup Report - Some Revealing Data Around Improving Employee Well-Being and Engagement

A motivated and engaged manager is the key to a motivated and engaged team. This insight was highlighted in Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, which delves into workers’ mental health and overall well-being. This finding is certainly encouraging for companies where managers are already engaged. However, the broader workplace scenario isn’t as positive.

Gallup’s findings show that global employee engagement remained stagnant in 2023, while overall well-being among workers declined. Only 23% of employees reported being engaged with their jobs—unchanged from the previous year—while 62% described themselves as “not engaged,” a figure that has risen by three points since 2022. Moreover, 41% of employees reported feeling “a lot of stress,” and 20% experienced daily loneliness.

Younger workers are particularly affected by this trend. Among employees under 35, 22% reported daily loneliness, compared to 19% among older employees. The data also showed that those working remotely were more likely to feel lonely (25%) than those working on-site (16%). Additionally, workers in South Asia reported the highest loneliness levels, with 29% feeling this way.

The impact of these findings is substantial. Beyond the human cost, Gallup estimates that low employee engagement is draining $8.9 trillion from the global economy, accounting for 9% of global GDP.

So, what can companies do to boost employee health and productivity while fostering a more engaged workforce? To explore effective strategies and insights from Gallup, keep reading.

Strategies for Boosting Employee Engagement: Empower Your Managers

Being a manager has always been challenging, and the pandemic has only made it tougher. Managers are now grappling with the complexities of leading remote and hybrid teams while also addressing a growing number of employees facing mental health challenges. The need for managers to inspire and engage their teams is more crucial than ever.

Gallup’s research indicates that only three out of 10 managers worldwide are engaged in their roles, meaning they feel involved and enthusiastic about their work. This low engagement among managers directly impacts their ability to engage and support their employees.

This issue is particularly pronounced in countries like France, the U.K., and Germany, where overall engagement levels are low (13%), and there is a prevailing “work-to-live” culture. In contrast, engagement levels are highest in the United States and Canada (33%), where there is more of a “live-to-work” mentality.

Gallup’s decades of research into effective management reveal that great managers share certain qualities: they build ongoing relationships with their employees based on respect, positivity, and recognition of individual strengths. They also help employees find meaning and fulfillment in their work.

However, managers themselves are feeling the strain. While they report higher levels of thriving—likely due to better pay and social status—they also experience significant stress and loneliness, comparable to nonmanagers. Additionally, managers are more likely than nonmanagers to report feeling daily anger, sadness, and worry, and are also more likely to be considering a job change.

To increase workplace engagement, Gallup suggests prioritizing initiatives that streamline managers’ roles and make their work more engaging, and fulfilling.

Learning from Best-Practice Organizations: Inspiring and Engaging Managers

Top-performing organizations across different industries and regions, show that 75% of managers and 70% of nonmanagers are engaged.

What’s even more encouraging is that many of these organizations didn’t start with high engagement levels. Instead, their leadership made a deliberate effort over several years to improve engagement. Here’s how they achieved this:

Focus on Hiring and Developing Managers:

Leading organizations prioritize hiring managers with a natural talent for engaging their teams. They also train these managers to be effective coaches, providing regular, meaningful feedback to help employees enhance their performance.

Integrating Engagement into the Employee and Manager Lifecycle:

These companies made engagement a core business strategy, influencing their hiring, onboarding, coaching, and talent development processes. Engagement was also a key component in performance management, goal setting, team meetings, and manager-employee interactions. Essentially, they cultivated a culture of engagement.

Emphasizing Well-Being:

Best-practice organizations consistently and visibly supported employee well-being. Many employed well-being counselors or coaches, and offered programs that extended beyond physical health to include financial literacy, mental health webinars, and community volunteerism.

Conclusion: The Ripple Effect of Employee Engagement

The most promising takeaway from the Gallup report is that when organizations increase employee engagement, they see tangible business benefits.

Companies with highly engaged teams experience:

78% lower absenteeism

17% higher sales productivity

23% greater profitability

They also have significantly lower employee turnover

But beyond the numbers, one statistic stands out: employees at highly engaged organizations are 68% more likely to experience well-being. As Gallup notes, having a great job gives people hope—a priceless value that can’t be easily quantified, but is invaluable to employees.