December 22, 2003

Uninspired, disengaged...

Great Britain's Workforce Lacks Inspiration

According to Gallup

More than 80% of British workers lack any real commitment to their jobs, and a quarter of those are "actively disengaged," or truly disaffected with their workplaces....

Why are so many British employees disengaged? Poor management is the problem, according to the Employee Engagement Index survey. Workers say they don’t know what is expected of them, their managers don’t care about them as people, their jobs aren’t a good fit for their talents, and their views count for little. The survey also found that employees feel they are far more productive if their supervisor focuses on their strengths and positive characteristics rather than their weaknesses.

Another worrying trend: Employees who have been with their companies for a long time are more likely than those with shorter tenures to be "not engaged" or "actively disengaged." So human assets that should increase in value with training and development instead depreciate as managers and companies fail to maximize this investment.

Gallup have been producing these findings in the USA for some time. They come as little surprise. I think they are a sad measure of the failure of marketing to create genuine engagement for stakeholders in organisations. What hope is there of a brand engaging customers if it can't engage it's own workers?

Posted by Johnnie Moore at 11:59 in Branding
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mrG says

I have often said that it is time we treated employees more like graduate students and less like kindergarten students. In my recent bout of job hunting desperation, I got to see the worst of the worst of the humiliations they call "job interviews", but admittedly, there were some pleasant surprises.

One in the latter category was a discount department store: for a lowly stock clerk job. They didn't demand psychological profiling or pretend that you needed vast committment and qualifications, all they really wanted was a short simple form that asks only your contact information, your daily availability, and the most wonderful question, "What would you like to do?" I didn't get the job (or any reason why not), but the process felt more like a request for my help than a preamble on a contract to sell my soul.

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