A later than usual post from me this week (a Sunday Special), because I’ve been reading a report released on Thursday from the US-based advisory firm Gallup.
It’s called “State of the Global Workforce – The Voice of the World’s Employees” and weighs in at a bicep-building 150 pages.
Gallup produces the report once a year. It contains the results of surveying almost 130,000 employees from around the world 🌏
This year’s headlines?
👉 A whopping 77% – almost 8 out of every 10 workers – are not engaged at work.
👉 The loss in productivity caused by this worker malaise? $8.9 trillion (USD not AUD) worldwide. I don’t know about you but I find it hard to get my head around what a billion is, let alone a trillion. Safe to say the monetary cost of this disengagement is huge. But money isn’t the real issue here.
👉 People’s mental health is rapidly declining. 41% of employees are experiencing “a lot of stress.” Those who work in companies with bad managers? They are 60% more likely to be stressed than when good managers are around.
Put simply: modern-day work, isn’t working.
And yet (he says, searching for an upbeat message in all this, while listening to some soothing background music) I believe the bulk of this gigantic problem is fixable.
How?
Firstly, we need to start talking about it openly vs. ignoring it, or pretending it doesn’t exist “at my workplace.” I workshop this stuff regularly with clients, actively discussing how we can make work better, for everyone. It doesn’t take long to get to the crux of the real problem and achieve amazing results.
Secondly, honing in on the bad manager issue identified by Gallup, if you know HOW to manage staff – the right way – your team won’t be part of that hugely awful 77% statistic. Nor will your business be losing any of the money that makes up that $8.9 trillion. Instead, your team (and you, importantly) will be part of the positive 23%: those that turn up to work each day and bring their very best to the job. Which means you will get the results and outcomes that matter, with a fabulous culture and less stress all round.
If this is something that concerns you – and these staggering numbers should probably concern us all – then let’s rectify the problem. You, me, us … everyone deserves better than this. Our starting point is simple. We need to create:
Good managers.
↳ Good managers listen.
↳ Good managers know their staff.
↳ Good managers are happy to be challenged.
↳ Good managers understand how to give quality feedback.
↳ Good managers aren’t afraid to make mistakes and nor are their team.
↳ Good managers have the hard conversations needed to protect good culture.
If you want more information on how to be a great manager, get in touch and let’s start the conversation.
Gallup’s article with links to the full reports: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/645416/key-insights-global-workplace.aspx
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