Another year, another employee engagement poll by Gallup, another round of teeth gnashing. Despite small gains in 2014, a great majority of employees are still not engaged. On average, only 31.5% of your employees are engaged, 51% of them are not engaged, and 17.5% are creating real trouble by being actively disengaged.
The economy has improved, employment is up and consumer confidence is better than it was. Of course the higher on the totem pole you are, the more you’re feeling the uptick. Perhaps that’s why managers, executives and officers had the highest levels of engagement in 2014, at 38.4%, outpacing every other job category that Gallup tracked, and seeing the greatest gains in engagement from 2013. Among the generations, “traditionalists” are the most engaged (at 42.2%) while Millennials are the least engaged, at 28.9%, possibly because they’re still not finding the jobs they’d like after graduating from college.
Employees in manufacturing or production jobs are the least engaged, at an average of 23% engagement, with employees in transportation and service roles not performing much better.
So what exactly does it mean to be engaged with your job? Gallup defines it as being involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to your work and workplace.
“Many organizations increasingly assess their managers on engagement metrics and expect them to maintain employees' engagement levels,” the report notes. “Employee engagement levels might be rising to some degree because managers increasingly see engaging employees as a natural part of their duties. Managers are giving engagement more attention than they have in the past, potentially leading to higher engagement percentages.”
Others, like Josh Bersin of Bersin by Deloitte, think that this sort of theory is part of the problem. Traditional engagement surveys like Gallup’s lead us to view engagement as an annual HR exercise instead of a continuous, holistic part of one’s business strategy.
“I would suggest that using the word ‘engagement’ often limits our thinking,” writes Bersin. “It assumes that our job is to reach out and ‘engage’ people, rather than to build an organization that is exciting, fulfilling, meaningful, and fun. Plus we aren’t just looking to get people ‘engaged’, we want them to be ‘married.’ That is, fully committed.”
One company that truly understands this is consumer-products giant Unilever, whose employee engagement scores have risen 12% since the company began tying its business strategy to having a positive impact on the environment and public health. Not too long ago, the company wasn’t even on the radar screen in the U.S., according to its CEO. Now it’s number three on LinkedIn’s list of the “most sought-after employers in the world,” right after Google and Apple.
Last year, the company saw a 65% rise in job applications from American college students compared to 2013. The same Millennials who are the least engaged group at their jobs across America are dying to work for Unilever. And there’s an excellent chance that this is directly tied to the fact that Millennials, more than any other group, want to contribute something to the world and be proud of their employer. A company like Unilever that is so ambitious about giving back that its CEO describes it as “the world’s biggest NGO” is catnip to Millennials.
It’s inspiring to look at Unilever’s example as a guide for what happens when your organization makes giving back a central part of its DNA. Unilever measures and reports its progress based on three objectives for 2020: helping more than a billion people across the globe improve their health and well-being; halving the environmental footprint of its products; and sourcing 100% of its agricultural raw materials sustainably while enhancing the livelihoods of those working across its supply chain. And far from detracting from its bottom line, Unilever is making these goals feed into it - with a commitment to double the size of its business to about $100 billion, much of this from emerging markets.
You don’t have to be a corporate giant with a titanic sense of purpose like Unilever to rethink employee engagement from the ground up. Rather than propping up your CSR with empty sloganeering, checkbook philanthropy and one annual day of volunteering, consider setting ambitious goals and making sure your employees are at the heart of your philanthropy. This is one of the keys to true, sustainable employee engagement that will yield results far beyond short-term carrots and management tricks.
Also read:
Disrupting Business for Social Responsibility
All Fun and Games: Welcome to Camp Corporate Philanthropy
The 50 Companies That Crush Corporate Philanthropy