According to the annual Gallup State of the Global Workforce study, less than 15% of employees worldwide are engaged in their jobs. By “engaged,” Gallup means employees who work with passion and feel a profound sense of connection to the company. They drive innovation and move the company forward.
More specifically, 63% percent are Not Engaged and another 24% are Actively Disengaged. Not Engaged means employees who have essentially “checked out.” They’re sleepwalking through their day, putting time – but not energy or passion – into their work. By Actively Disengaged, we’re talking about people who are not just unhappy at work. They’re busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers are trying to accomplish. These are the people who come to work every day actively looking for ways to bring the organization down.
Startling but true, Actively Disengaged employees outnumber Engaged employees by 2-1. That means you have 2 people trying to bring down the organization for every 1 person who’s trying to move it forward. And the middle? They just don’t care. They are ambivalent at best, and they turn a blind eye to both sides.
This is a crisis that is costing billions of dollars in lost productivity, poor quality products and services, mistakes, accidents, employee theft, and turnover. But worst of all, it’s taking a toll on people by eroding their mental and physical wellbeing.
Let’s all agree we have a crisis on our hands. But I would argue it’s not an employee engagement crisis. It’s deeper than that. We have a leadership crisis.