Today's Edition
A.SREENIVASA REDDY (ABU DHABI)
Employees that are not actively engaged or disengaged cost the global economy $8.9 trillion, or approximately nine percent of the global GDP, according to an estimate by Gallup, a renowned US advisory company.
The US company, which is globally known for its public opinion polls, released its State of the Globalworkplace-2024 report, shining light on the state of employee engagement in the workplace.
It arrived at its conclusions after a meta analysis of more than 183,000 business units across 53 industries in 90 countries.
Employee engagement levels remain unchanged from the previous year.
Twenty-three percent of employees globally feel involved and enthusiastic about their work, matching the record high reported in the 2022 Gallup report. However, most employees are either not engaged (62 percent) or actively disengaged (15 percent).
The UAE fared well on the engagement metric, with 29 percent of employees saying they are engaged.
This figure is above the global average, and is highest in the region. In countries like Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt, employee engagement is below 10 percent.
The Gallup meta analysis concludes that teams in the top quartile of employee engagement achieve 23 percent higher profitability than those in the bottom quartile.
This is because these firms are better at retaining top talent, serving customers, and achieving higher-quality output.
More than half of employees worldwide reported that it is a good time to find a job, up slightly from last year, with considerable variance across countries.
Gallup found lower levels of active disengagement in countries where respondents report it is a good time to find a job.
Other published research supports this association between poor job markets and disengagement.
But surprisingly, only around 40 percent of respondants in the UAE reported that they are looking for another job, which is smaller than the global average and other countries in the region.
When asked if it is good time or bad time to find another job, overwhelmingly, 69 percent of the UAE residents said that it is good time to find another job, attesting to the sound economic situation in the country.
Gallup research has shown that the relationship between employee engagement and business performance is somewhat stronger during economic recessions.
This is likely because engaged employees double down in their efforts during tough times, while those who are uninspired feel they are victims of circumstances and have no agency to make things better.
Business units with more engaged employees are more resilient in turbulent and uncertain environments.
Globally, one in five employees report experiencing loneliness, according to Gallup’s report.
Loneliness is more prevalent among employees younger than 35 than it is for those aged 35 and older.
The phenomenon is evenly distributed along gender lines, with 20 percent of both employed men and employed women reporting feelings of loneliness.
Job levels also seemed to have little association with loneliness.
In this year’s report, 41% of employees reported experiencing “a lot of stress”. Yet, stress levels vary significantly depending on how organisations are run.
Those who work in companies with bad management practices (actively disengaged) are nearly 60 percent more likely to be stressed than people working in environments with good management practices (engaged).
In fact, experiencing “a lot of stress” is reported approximately 30 percent more frequently by employees working under bad management compared to unemployed individuals.
Only 33 percent of employees in the UAE said that they were stressed, a low proportion compared to other countries both in the region and globally.
