The Costs of Worker Disengagement

Gallup Organization recently conducted a poll on worker engagement and disengagement in the workplace. Very interesting results. How much is worker disengagement impacting the productivity of companies in your community. Moreover, how much is this problem impacting your own organization's productivity? Read on.

Negative workplace relationships may be a big part of why so many American employees are not engaged with their jobs. The Gallup Management Journal's semi-annual Employee Engagement Index puts the current percentage of truly "engaged" employees at 29%. A slim majority, 54%, falls into the "not engaged" category, while 17% of employees are "actively disengaged."

To probe the impact of workplace relationships, the Gallup Management Journal surveyed 1,003 employees nationwide. Respondents were asked a variety of questions about their relationships at work. Gallup examined responses to see which questions differed most between engaged employees and those who were not engaged or actively disengaged.

Among the findings: Engaged employees are much more likely than others to say that their organization "encourages close friendships at work." Eighty-two percent of engaged employees showed agreement by rating the statement a 4 or 5 (on a 1-5 scale where 5 is "Strongly Agree"), compared to 53% of those who are not engaged and just 17% in the actively disengaged group. This connection shouldn't come as a surprise, considering several of the 12 items used to gauge engagement test for positive relationships (one statement is "I have a best friend at work.") -- but even taking that into account, the correlation is very high. (See "Item 10: I Have a Best Friend at Work" in See Also.)

Perhaps more telling is the fact that 51% of employees who strongly agree that their organization encourages close friendships at work (who rate this statement a 5 on the 5-point scale) are extremely satisfied with their place of employment, compared to just 19% of employees who disagree with that statement (by choosing a 1 or 2).

In fact, responses to all of the relationship questions in this survey differ significantly by respondents' engagement level. "Our favorite moments, jobs, groups, and teams revolve around friendships with other people," says Tom Rath, Gallup's global practice leader for strengths-based development, who is currently working on a book describing the importance of workplace friendships. "But we spend very little time identifying and developing friendships at work. In fact, our latest data suggest maxims like 'familiarity breeds contempt' may have weakened employee productivity in the 20th century."

More here.