Sixty-three percent of U.S. workers are not fully engaged at the workplace and are struggling to cope with work situations that fail to offer adequate support, according to the new Global Workforce Study by Towers Watson, a global professional services company.
Based on this finding, it suggests respondents are having trouble maintaining a positive connection that leads to consistent productivity, which comes after nearly a decade of pressure to do more with less and take on the challenges of global competition, better technology and the continuous need for strict cost management.
"When workers are not fully engaged, it leads to greater performance risk for employers," says Julie Gebauer, managing director of talent and rewards at Towers Watson. "It makes companies more vulnerable to lower productivity, higher inefficiency, weaker customer service, and greater rates of absenteeism and turnover. Without attention and interventions aimed at improving on-the-job support for employees and creating a sense of attachment to the organization, this trend could worsen — and directly affect business outcomes. Companies have known for years that employee engagement is important to business performance.
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"We're now seeing — in part because of the tough business climate — that engagement is quite fragile and will not be sustained over time without careful attention to very specific elements in the work environment."
The study also finds that 37 percent of respondents are highly engaged across three elements of sustainable engagement. Only 27 percent of respondents are considered unsupported, which means they are traditionally engaged but do not have the enablement or energy required for sustainable engagement. Another 13 percent of respondents are detached and feel enabled or energized but are not willing to put forth the effort while 23 percent of respondents are completely disengaged after scoring less than favorable scores among all three elements of sustainable engagement.
"Many companies are still operating in a traditional mode with processes and programs designed for an era that has effectively disappeared," says Laura Sejen, global practice leader of rewards at Towers Watson. "Employers need to consider the dramatic changes occurring in the employment relationship, and they need to address the elements creating this situation. The consequences of maintaining the status quo may be more problematic than before, given the level and pace of change."
Among the respondents, 43 percent say their supervisors sufficiently removed obstacles to improve job performance, and 26 percent say managements helped employees regarding decisions that impact them.
Forty-eight percent of respondents believe they have a reasonable amount of work while 40 percent of unsupported respondents say there are enough employees to finish jobs correctly. The highly engaged respondents come in at least 30 percentage points higher in these areas.
Of the detached respondents, only 25 percent say they have trust and confidence in their senior teams, representing a decline of 52 percentage point from 77 percent of the highly engaged respondents. Another 26 percent of detached respondents believe senior leaderships has sincere interest in employees' well-being while 71 percent of highly engaged respondents feel the same way.
"There is a real imperative for change right now," Gebauer says. "The risks of continuing to manage with traditional practices are just too great from a performance perspective. And everyone in an organization has a role to play in helping close gaps in employees' feelings of enablement and energy — from executives, to supervisors, to human resources, to employees themselves. By taking actions to address identified gaps, organizations will be able to move some of the unsupported and detached to engaged — and likely experience a measurable and positive impact on financial performance."
Forty-seven percent of respondents say there are no substantial obstacles to performing their jobs, but 53 percent say their employers make it difficult to strike a balance between their work and personal lives. While 30 percent of respondents say they face excessive pressure, 47 percent of respondents reporting not having enough time to manage the people aspects within their positions.
Regarding advancement, 32 percent of respondents say their employers perform well in this area, and 37 percent of respondents say senior management is effective at developing future leaders.
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