All teams need a strong leader. At a time when employee engagement is at historic lows, local governments must take action to better engage managers – to ensure the retention and productivity of not just team leaders, but of all staff.
Employee engagement refers to the degree to which workers are connected, committed and enthusiastic about their work and the organisation they work for.
In the annual State of the Global Workforce (SOGW) report, undertaken by Gallup, employees across the world were found to be less engaged at work than they were the previous year, with 23 per cent of workers reporting feeling engaged in 2023 and only 21 per cent reporting the same in 2024.
In the past 12 years of SOGW reports, employee engagement has fallen only twice, with the previous time being an equal two per cent drop during the year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When employees are disengaged from their work, they are less productive and more likely to be absent. As a result, even a small percentage change in engagement can have enormous impacts on economies, with Gallup estimating that the total reduction in productivity over 2023-2024 was equal to a loss of $682 billion.
Managers at the forefront
Of all the categories of workers reflected in the SOGW report, managers experienced the most significant decline in engagement, showing a reduction from 30 per cent to 27 per cent.
In particular, young managers (those 35 and under) experienced a drop of five per cent, while female managers saw a drop of seven per cent.
In a post-pandemic era, organisations of all kinds have experienced significant new challenges and obstacles. From shifts in the workforce, restructuring of departments and teams, rising costs, interrupted supply chains, new expectations from both workers and customers, and rapid advancements in digital and AI technologies, the average organisation has been disrupted at every level.
Managers are at the forefront of it all. At a time when executives seem further from their employees than ever, managers and team leaders are required to hold down the fort and keep workers engaged and focused in the workplace.
The SOGW report outlines a significant relationship between the engagement of employees and that of their managers, going so far as to say that 70 per cent of an individual’s engagement is attributable to their manager.
If this trend of falling manager engagement continues, the repercussions for the wider workforce could be dire.
Engagement in ANZ
While employee engagement fell globally on average, in Australia and New Zealand the number of employees who felt engaged by their workplace actually rose from 22 per cent to 23 per cent. Despite this small increase, the data shows that 65 per cent of workers in the ANZ region were not engaged with their work and 12 per cent reported being actively disengaged.
In addition, while engagement rose, employee life evaluations – a measure of how workers feel about their lives overall – fell harshly. The number of workers reporting that their lives were ‘thriving’ dropped from 60 to 56 per cent.
This is representative of a historic and continued drop over the past several years.
While still high by global standards, the Australia and New Zealand region is now performing far below its historical average. Based on respondents’ dissatisfaction with their quality of life and income, the SOGW report has posited that it’s likely that housing costs and inflation are playing a significant role in these results.
Additionally, since employees spend most of their lives working, it is also expected that a major contributing factor is how engaged employees are at work.
Half of employees who are engaged report that they are thriving in life overall, compared with only a third of employees who are not engaged.
Those who report being engaged are also less likely to say that they experience daily negative emotions like stress, anger or sadness. When considered together, the decline in manager engagement and employee life evaluation paint a clear picture of a deteriorating workplace environment.
On the surface, the outlook is bleak. The data shows a global and local workforce fallen into a steep decline. But the SOGW data shows that there is an opportunity for a major productivity boom if organisations seize the moment and take serious actions to boost engagement in their workplaces.
A light through the tunnel
To turn the corner on this global issue, Gallup has created three major actions for leaders to take:
1. Ensure all managers receive training
According to Gallup’s data, only 44 per cent of managers say that they have received management training.
This represents a major opportunity for organisations to boost the productivity and effectiveness of their managers by providing basic role training.
Half as many managers who receive training are actively disengaged as those who are not trained, suggesting that even simple training in the responsibilities of a role can stop a manager from feeling overwhelmed or ill-equipped.
2. Teach managers effective coaching techniques
Some managers are passionate about supporting individuals and guiding teams. But that is not often the case. Many managers enter their roles by being competent in their respective field, but that doesn’t always equal effective management skills.
Luckily, effective coaching strategies can be taught. Gallup found that a manager who participated in a training course focused on management best practices experienced up to 22 per cent higher engagement than those without such training.
Further, the teams led by those participants saw engagement rise by up to 18 per cent, and manager performance metrics improved between 20 to 28 per cent.
3. Increase manager wellbeing through ongoing development
Gallup reports that managers who receive training improve their ‘thriving’ levels from 28 per cent to 34 per cent.
However, if managers have training and someone in their workplace actively encourages their development, manager thriving increases even further to 50 per cent.
This wellbeing improvement can have a flow-on effect, wherein engaged and well-trained managers have a more positive impact on their teams.
Active investment in manager engagement and wellbeing could be the turning point for the steady decline of workplace productivity. By investing in training and redefining the expectations and support for the manager role, organisations can create workplaces that help managers thrive and, by extension, boost the productivity and engagement of their entire staff.
