Is low employee engagement sabotaging your business growth? Probably.

Gallup's 'State of the global workplace' 2022 report shows that only 9% of the U.K.'s workforce is engaged in what they do.

The rest are either disengaged or highly disengaged in their work.

What does this mean in practice?

First off, it means that the large majority of employees turn up to work and sleep walk through the day. They'll do what needs to be done and nothing more. They won't look for opportunities, they won't come up with new ideas, they won't try and improve the way the business works. They're putting time - but not energy or passion - into their work. They've essentially checked out.

For the highly disengaged employees (around 1/5th of the workforce, according to Gallup) they do less than expected. They're not just unhappy at work, they're busy acting out their unhappiness and they're undermining what their co-workers accomplish.

Both of these groups are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less likely to be be productive.

It also means that only 9% of people are engaged - they're turning up to their job to do more than is expected, wanting to go above and beyond. These engaged employees are emotionally invested and focused on creating value for their organisations every day.

It's these employees who are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and who contribute to the organisation in a positive manner.

They're the ones most likely to drive innovation, growth and revenue that businesses today so desperately need.

It's these engaged workers who build new products and services, generate new ideas and create new customers. These engaged colleagues work with passion and feel a profound connection to the company. They move the organisation forward.

I think we all know which we want more of in business, don't we?

And what does this mean for your business?

If your business was a ship, taking these Gallup averages on board (sorry 😬), only 9% of your people are rowing, trying to get your company to where it wants to be, to hit your KPIs, hit your targets and succeed in your mission.

Meanwhile, the large majority of your people are on the boat but just watching the view and taking up space.

And around 20% are proactively sabotaging your efforts. They've each thrown in anchors and are slowing the boat down.

To use another analogy, it's like driving with the handbrake on. You might eventually get to where you want to be, but it'll be a lot slower, more painful and far more costly than it needs to be. (Did I mention that for every disengaged employee you have, 34% of their salary is wasted?)

Of course, we're using Gallup's averages. Your company stats might look very different - you might have far higher engagement scores, with the large majority of your people rowing their socks off to hit your KPIs and complete your company mission.

But if you don't know your engagement score, chances are it's a lot lower than you think and Gallup's averages aren't far off. Which means that not only do you have the majority of your people onboard your ship weighing it down or even slowing it down, you're emptying large bags of cash over the side, too.

The first step?

Know exactly where you're at with your employee engagement score.

This in itself can feel like a minefield, but it's very simple.

We'll conduct a free, two-minute anonymous survey so you can see exactly how your boat is shaping up. We can analyse the results and set out exactly you should do to get your people all working together towards one common purpose. We'll tell you how you can turn your disengaged people into engaged, productive and happy crew mates, who are profit centres for your business and have them love what they do.

And if you're happy with the survey results and feel like nothing needs to be done? That's cool too. It's a no-cost, no-obligation survey so we'll wish you on your merry way, cruising off into the sunset.

But don't do nothing. Let us help you find out what your engagement score is so you know what you're dealing with. Stop chucking cash off the side of your boat.

To set up a discovery call and find out more about our free, bespoke engagement survey, email rachael@engageandgrowcentralmids.co.uk