This month, Quantum Workplace launched its 2015 Employee Engagement Trends Report. Quantum examined employee engagement trends on a general, regional, organisational, industrial, personal demographic and professional demographic level. The results are based on the responses from more than 440.000 employees at nearly 5.500 organizations. Check out the summary here!
General employee engagement trends
Despite the improving economy, employee engagement levels declined in 2014 across organizations of all sizes and in more than 75 per cent of the markets measured. Engagement levels dipped to its lowest point in eight years, with 65.9 per cent of employees engaged. This relates to the uncertainty that exists amongst employees around three themes:
- Commitment to valuing employees
- Benefits and compensations
- Global information
The three top engagement drivers are:
- Confidence in leadership
- Commitment to valuing employees
- Positive outlook on the future
Regional employee engagement trends
All respondents are American citizens. The West region is the only region that showed an increase in engaged employees from 2013 to 2014. The Northeast, Midwest, and South all experience decreases in engagement employees by at least 2.4 per cent, while the number of engaged employees in the West increased by almost 1 per cent.
The top three cites with most engagement employees are:
- Nashville, 75.2%
- Sacramento, 72,7%
- Huntsville, 71.9%
Organisational employee engagement trends
The organisations surveyed in 2014 represented a wide variety of sizes, ranging from fewer than 20 employees to more than 5,000. The past eight years of analysis have consistently shown that employee engagement steadily declines as the organization size increases. In 2014, 70 per cent of employees at companies with a small size were engaged, while this was only 59 per cent at the larger organizations. Medium-sized organizations experienced the greatest engagement decline between 2013 and 2014 (a 5 per cent drop).
Industrial employee engagement trends
Quantum represented seventeen industries in the analysis, which demonstrated great variance in employee engagement. Organizations in industries experiencing low engagement levels would be wise to look outside their industry and gain ideas from organizations in high-performing industries.
The top three performing industries:
- Management of Enterprises, 74.5%
- Real Estate, 73,1%
- Construction, 72%
The bottom three performing industries:
- Public Administration, 48,2%
- Manufacturing, 53,9%
- Nonprofit, 57,6%
Personal demographic employee engagement trends
Men had higher engagement levels than women (71 versus 68 per cent). This is likely due to a higher level of uncertainty among women, mainly in the category of feeling valued. In addition, young employees entering the workforce are most engaged, but as employees get older, engagement dips before rising back up. Finally, employees with advanced degrees are more engaged.
Professional demographic employee engagement trends
Both the least and most tenured employees are more likely to be engaged, compared to employees who have been at an organization for three to nine years. Other results that are found:
- Leadership effectiveness is a top driver in every department
- Professional development engages new employees
- Middle-tenured employees are unsure they’re valued
- Higher position level leads to higher engagement
- Positive outlook on future engages executives
- Investments in employee success is a driver for lower position levels
- Job satisfaction increases engagement for executives
Conclusion
Uncertainty has proven to be a big factor to decrease employee engagement. There is a huge opportunity for organizations to further prevent declines, for instance by collecting employee feedback and measuring engagement, providing peer-to-peer recognition, and communicating important messages in real-time. How are you dealing with uncertainty among your employees?
Check out the full report for all details about this year’s employee engagement trends.
