USA 
United Kingdom
4.8 million fewer employees were highly engaged in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the end of 2023, continuing a downward spiral of employee engagement in the US.
The latest figures from Gallup’s Employee Engagement report reveal engagement has dropped to its lowest level in more than a decade, since January 2023.
The percentage of actively disengaged employees also grew from an average of 16% across 2023 to 17% in January 2024.
It’s disappointing news for HR professionals after employee engagement levels began to pick up in 2023 following a downward trajectory from 2020 to 2022. Employee engagement, per Gallup’s research, reached a record high of 36% in 2020.
The most frustrating part for those concerned with engaging their workforce? It’s the same headaches cropping up that have dominated the HR headlines since 2020.
Pesky Gen Z, at it again…
A closer look at the findings shows specific groups of employees are driving the decline in employee engagement.
Engagement dropped by five points for employees under the age of 35 and by six points for Gen Z employees. Gallup finds this is due to such workers feeling increasingly disconnected from their organization’s cultures.
Gen Z is presenting a tricky challenge for HR to rise to, with unprecedented expectations for the employee-employer relationship. “They are much more vocal about what they want in their employment,” Dan Black, EY’s Global Talent Attraction Leader tells HR Grapevine in an upcoming podcast episode. “I think employers need to be creating more internal opportunities, and that does not have to be wholesale job changes or job title changes, but different experiences whether they be secondments or rotational programs.”
Black adds that Gen Z is “hungry for learning new things, doing new things, trying new things, [and] upskilling.”
Listening to the voice of Gen Z employees and offering constructive avenues to fulfil their wishes, rather than dismissing them as ‘difficult,’ can help employers to improve engagement from this tough-to-engage group.
Gen Z and remote worker frustrations are part of a much bigger problem
Whilst it can be easy to point the finger of blame at them for dragging down engagement, Gen Z frustrations are symptomatic of a bigger problem plaguing HR professionals.
Take, for example, other groups that have seen notable drops in engagement. Employees who could do their job remotely but work exclusively on-site have seen engagement fall by six points, and employees who solely work from home by five.
The main takeaway here is not that one out of remote, in-office, or hybrid work is better than the other. We should know at this point that it will depend on individual preferences, job descriptions, team dynamics, and company cultures.
Instead, it’s a sign of a much wider issue: Too many employers do not give employees a say in how they would like to work, or the support to make it happen.
Adam Hickman PhD, VP of Learning, Organization, and Cast Development, at Partners, a Walt Disney Company Affiliate, reflected on Gallup’s findings in a post on LinkedIn: “Leaders and managers must care about the person they have hired and ensure they are aligned to their work in a way that they have the opportunity to do what they do best each day and recognize them for their efforts.”
“It's the difference between being a boss and being a coach. The workplace of this era requires coaches...not bosses,” he adds.
Gallup’s research shows that top-performing organizations across different industries and geographies are bucking this trend. These outliers have achieved 70% engaged employees and a ratio of 14 engaged to every actively disengaged employee, more than seven times the US average.
How did they do it? By intentionally planning a work environment and culture of flexibility, support, and trust. They equip employees with coaching managers who offer support and embrace individual preferences.
Why does it matter? Because engagement yields performance.
So long as employers deny employees individual support – whatever their generation, work style, career ambitions, and so on – the US will continue to see engagement fall.
Countless studies tie engagement to better performance, be it productivity, customer service, safety incidents, quality of work, profitability, or any other measure you use.
“I do not expect this to change until leaders at all levels see engagement as the number one predictor of performance. I do not understand why this is at all confusing or even a discussion point. Engagement yields performance,” writes Hickman.
If you want your organization to become an outlier in employee engagement, retention, and performance, the answer is clear: Create a flexible culture where individual preferences for employee experience are heard, supported, and delivered.
Bill Fotsch