Is inflation the root cause of employee disengagement?

Some people believe that motivation and inspiration are the keys to employee engagement. I'm not so sure...

According to the research experts Willis Towers Watson, the #1 differentiator of high-performance companies, and the #1 global driver of sustainable engagement are leaders in who motivate and inspire employees with their VISION of the future, who act with integrity and display a genuine concern for employee wellbeing.

"Willis Towers Watson has one of the largest databases of employee engagement data. Each year, the company surveys more than 500 companies and nearly 10 million employees and has been doing this for more than 50 years. This means they can correlate employee feedback data against many long term business results (over a billion surveys)" - Josh Bersin. Pretty compelling stuff, right?

What about companies who are not considered "high-performance"?

My thesis for improving employee engagement and creating future leaders at work starts with a clear VISION for your future and assuming the IDENTITY of the type of person you aspire to be, then create SOCIAL PROOF as the evidence you need to stay engaged and motivated at work. As an Ironman triathlete, I learned this process over a decade ago, but it has only been in the last few years that I fully understood the implications of this thesis in business.

The problem is, and I would be happy to debate this point in the comments below, is that we can't talk about VISION or IDENTITY until SOCIAL PROOF clearly demonstrates that essential employee basic needs are being met reasonibly well. If your basic needs are not being met at work, how can you possibly feel engaged or fulfilled at work?

If only 34% of employees are engaged at work, how do we motivate the others?

Giving people a VISION they can believe in is a great starting point for any aspiring leader. Training employees to assume the IDENTITY of the type of person they aspire to be is a great aspirational goal too, but if there's no SOCIAL PROOF that basic needs aren't being met, there's going to be no hero's welcome when your employee returns home at the end of the day, and that's the problem that leads to disengaged or actively disengaged employees.

For many people entering the working world after college and university, basic human needs are not being met. SOCIAL PROOF (their paycheck) is telling them that inflation has not kept pace with wages. If you're wondering why employees in their 20's and 30's have more mental health issues and are more disengaged at work, you could blame cell phones, dopamine or entitled behavior, or you could ask yourself this question...

 Are you paying your employees enough to survive and potentially thrive?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs haven’t changed so put yourself in your employees’ shoes. If you're not seeing the SOCIAL PROOF that you're getting ahead in life, how do you ever expect to be engaged at work? You will always be looking for the next company who is willing to pay you a little more so that you feel like you're making progress. Without the SOCIAL PROOF that you are moving forward in life, disengagement is inevitable.

30 years ago, my wife and I could afford to build our first home at 23 years old for $130k right out of college with a 13k deposit. A starting salary with a college education was 30k - 40k. Despite our early career struggles, with each paycheck, we felt like we were making progress and moving forward in life. 15 years later we sold that home for 200k and today, 15 years after that, the same 30 year old home (featured at the top of this article) is worth 450k but starting wages have only increased to between 35k and 45k. I majored in Marketing, not Economics, but these numbers don't add up to having healthy, happy employees.

Employee engagement can only start to improve when basic needs have been met. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs still hold true today. Inflation has out paced wages and that's the GIGANTIC PROBLEM in the room that most businesses aren't willing to solve.

While the #1 global driver of sustainable engagement in HIGH-PERFORMING companies may be leaders who motivate and inspire employees with their VISION of the future, who act with integrity and display a genuine concern for employee wellbeing...

The #1 global driver of sustainable employee engagement for every other company starts with paying their employees a living wage.

Do you agree? Have we created a future where basic human needs such as home ownership is out of reach for our kids creating all kinds of mental health struggles, disengagement and dissatisfaction at work?

Happy to engage with you in the comments below.