In 2023, global employee engagement stagnated, and overall employee wellbeing declined. While both measures are at or near record highs, their lack of improvement is notable, as they follow multiple years of steady gains. The result is that the majority of the world’s employees continue to struggle at work and in life, with direct consequences for organizational productivity.
Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy US$8.9 trillion, or 9% of global GDP.
What can leaders do to improve the health and productivity of the world’s workforce?
Globally, one in five employees report experiencing loneliness a lot the previous day. This percentage is higher for employees under 35 and lower for those over age 35. Fully remote employees report significantly higher levels of loneliness (25%) than those who work fully on-site (16%). Social isolation and chronic loneliness have devastating effects on physical and mental health.
Harvard Professor and Gallup Senior Scientist Lisa Berkman and her colleagues studied the relationship between social and community ties and mortality rates over a nine-year span. The risk of mortality among people who lacked community and social ties was two times greater than that of people who had many social contacts. These differences were independent of physical health, socioeconomic status and health practices. Work itself decreases loneliness. In general, working adults are less lonely (20%) than those who are unemployed (32%), and this remains true across age groups. Work interactions do not necessarily need to be in person to provide a benefit. A Gallup study found that all forms of social time (phone, video, texting, etc.) are associated with a better mood. That said, technological interactions such as messaging have thresholds – moods drop after moderate amounts.
This finding aligns with the findings of the State of the Global Workplace that working on-site is associated with lower reported loneliness. Globally, employee wellbeing declined in 2023 from 35% to 34%. Gallup’s wellbeing item measures overall life evaluation, combining present and future self-reflection. The decline in 2023 was felt by younger workers under 35. The happiness gap between younger and older age groups is generalized outside of work. This year’s World Happiness Report (which reports on the world’s total population) found that people born before 1965 (baby boomers and their predecessors) have life evaluations about one-quarter of a point higher than those born after 1980 (millennials and Gen Z). Although generational divides are often exaggerated, this divergence should be on leaders’ radar. Given that many leaders are older, they may not see the present and the future in the same way as their youngest employees. A decade ago, younger workers had consistently higher life evaluations than older workers; therefore, the difference in perspective is unlikely to be a product only of life stage.
Not all mental health issues are related to work, but work is a factor in life evaluations and daily emotions. Employees who dislike their jobs tend to have high levels of daily stress and worry, as well as elevated levels of all other negative emotions. On many wellbeing items (stress, anger, worry, loneliness), being actively disengaged at work is equivalent to or worse than being unemployed. In contrast, when employees find their work and work relationships meaningful, employment is associated with high levels of daily enjoyment and low levels of all negative daily emotions. Notably, half of employees who are engaged at work are thriving in life overall. For employers, addressing mental health requires support for thriving in life and engagement at work. Employers should provide appropriate benefits and flexibility to support employee wellbeing without neglecting their greatest lever on employee life evaluation: building productive, high-performing teams.
What initiatives are you implementing to improve Employee Experience?
