Rapidly changing work and workplaces. Productivity languishing below optimum levels. Staff engagement well below where it should be. Ongoing recruitment and retention challenges. All this has been building over the last couple of years; it would appear that organisations have never had it so tough. There have been plenty of tough times before, of course, but we have been witnessing something of a ‘perfect storm’ in recent months, where a whole range of issues and developments, as well as advancements and opportunities, have come together to push these challenges up the management agenda. But there are things we can do to make the workplace a better experience for everybody.
At the same time, the bad news just keeps on coming. The results of the 2017 Gallup State of the Global Workplace survey are currently being trailed ahead of publication of the full report late in November. The headline findings are worrying indeed. Gallup summarises the situation this way: “Only 15 per cent of employees worldwide are engaged at work. This represents a major barrier to productivity for organisations everywhere – and suggests a staggering waste of human potential.”
The bottom-line for Gallup is this: organizations that simply continue to do what they’ve done in the past are unlikely to produce any different outcome. Whether you subscribe to measuring engagement or not, change is required.