The Enormous Cost of Unhappy Employees

Employee engagement has been a hot topic for several years now, but what does it really mean and how do you know if your employees are engaged at work? And, Inc. repots, why does it matter?

Gallup's State of the Global Workplace reported on employee engagement in more than 140 countries and divided employees into 3 categories:

• "Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.
• Not Engaged employees are essentially "checked out." They're sleepwalking through their workday, putting time--but not energy or passion--into their work.
• Actively Disengaged employees aren't just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish."

It's easy for us to think the problem lies with others, but the statistics give us a disturbing truth. Through their research, Gallup found that 87% of workers worldwide and 70% of employees in the USA (84% in Canada, 83% in the UK) are either not engaged or actively disengaged. That means that only 30% of US workers are driving their organizations forward.

If you're one of that 30% (or 16% worldwide), you know how frustrating it is when the majority of your coworkers are less committed to their jobs. In companies with low engagement, this frustration often causes swift turnover of top talent, since these people quickly realize they're carrying the weight alone.

The costs of low engagement aren't limited to turnover and recruitment. Gallup found that actively disengaged employees cost the US $450,000,000,000--$550,000,000,000 (that's hundreds of billions of dollars) per year; that number doesn't even take into account the "not engaged" employees. (Hello, Congress? We've found a way to fix the economy....)

On the other hand, organizations with high employee engagement have significant bonuses in addition to happy employees. The stock value has higher earnings per share, and they experience 22% higher profitability, 21% higher productivity, 10% higher customer engagement, 25-65% lower turnover, 37% lower absenteeism, 28% lower shrinkage (theft), and 48% lower staff safety incidents.

If you're concerned that your employees may be among the 84% globally who aren't engaged at work, an easy, evidence-based way to find out is to ask them 12 questions, Gallup's Q12 survey. (If you want Gallup to tabulate them for you and give you pretty charts and graphs, they'll be happy to do that.)

If you want to start boosting engagement without asking those questions first, Gallup gave three main ways, based on their research:

1. Hire talent--the right people for the right jobs;
2. Nurture their skills--it builds their sense of purpose as well as abilities;
3. Enhance their wellbeing--in body, mind, emotion, and sense of meaning.

You may not be ready yet to offer nap pods, treadmill desks, and free healthy food to your employees, but every journey to boost employee engagement begins with a single thought.