Engaged employees are inspired, productive, and motivated. They love what they do, try hard, and care about your company and its direction. According to Gallup, 34% of US employees were engaged in late 2021. Those lucky organizations with higher employee engagement rates are 21% more profitable and 17% more productive than other businesses.
According to Gallup, 7 in 10 employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work in the US. Worse, Gallup estimates disengaged employees cost the US economy ~$500 billion yearly in lost productivity. Yikes.
Disengaged employees, on the other hand, are often disconnected, unmotivated, antagonistic, unproductive, late, and/or absent. They may be challenging to work with (cue the eye roll at your last email) and spend more time scrolling through social media than doing their jobs. But disengaged employees take work to spot. They may be doing just the bare minimum and not taking on extra initiatives.
Gallup finds that it takes more than a 20% pay raise to lure most employees away from a manager who engages them and next to nothing to poach most disengaged workers.
This article explains why and what you can do to engage them in work.