Award Employees

Employee Engagement Lagged in 2011

According to this article on the PRNNewswire, global employee satisfaction lagged in 2011.  Aon Hewitt, the consultancy that specializes in HR services has released data from their 2011 Employee Engagement Database showing that engagement has been lagging for some time now.  Given the state of the economy both here and around the world, these figures are not all that surprising.   

The AON 5700 employee database which represents over five million employees worldwide, reveals … 

“an engagement level of 56 percent for the end of 2011, which is the same as 2010, but lower than 2009 (60 percent) and 2008 (57 percent). Traditionally, engagement levels between 65 percent and 100 percent represent a high-performing culture; 45 percent to 65 percent indicate the workforce is indifferent to organizational success or failure; and anything lower than 45 percent represents a serious or destructive range.” 

It seems that the largest drop in engagement comes from employees’ perceptions of how companies manage performance.  Or in other words, employees think their bosses have not provided the proper level of management that leads to better productivity.  They also don’t do a very good job of connecting the employees performance overall to company goals. 

The report goes on to state that significant numbers of employees are not motivated to work beyond job requirements and are thinking of leaving in the near future.  When measuring satisfaction scores for key drivers of engagement “appropriate recognition beyond pay and benefits for employee contribution” is only 40% globally, 48% in the US, but still the lowest of the drivers analyzed.  Recognition has been on this list for years.  Does that mean that all the money and time spent on employee recognition programs is not producing results?  Some consultants outside of the recognition industry would support this conclusion.  The analysis concludes that … 

“even at the height of the recession, employees felt a greater connection to their work and role in achieving organizational success than they do now.” This is a harsh reality, but also an opportunity for those employers willing to invest in specific areas that will have the largest impact on employee engagement. While there is an expense in doing so, the return on investment can be well worth the effort.” 

From our perspective, the time for rewarding and recognizing employee performance could not be better.  It is one of the easiest and least expensive ways for improving and maintaining employment engagement, and as mentioned the minor expense per employee for doing so can be well worth that expense.