Are your employees actively engaged in contributing to your company’s goals? Results from a recent study conducted by Aon Hewitt show that employee satisfaction, or engagement, continues to linger at its lowest level since 2008.
For the first nine months of 2011, the global employee engagement level sat unchanged from 2010 at 56 percent, down from 60 percent in 2009 and 57 percent in 2008.
The findings are compiled from the company’s “Employee Engagement Database,” which includes more than 5,700 employers comprising approximately five million employees worldwide.
Reasons for Low Engagement Levels According to the Aon Hewitt analysis, the most significant decrease in employee engagement this year resulted from employees’ dissatisfaction with their company’s management of employee performance. In particular, employees do not believe management is sufficiently improving productivity, nor do they feel their individual performance is adequately tied to the overall goals of the company.
How to increase employee engagement although these findings may seem discouraging to employers, they also point to a variety of motivators that can help to boost employee satisfaction, including:
- Acknowledging and rewarding employee contributions and providing regular, constructive feedback
- Providing training programs and mentoring to enhance skills development, learning and career growth
- Informing employees of the company’s goals in relation to their job performance
- Improving leadership to help increase employee performance
To read more about the Aon Hewitt findings related to employee engagement levels, you may view the press release. Our section on Employee Retention has more ideas on ways to increase employee engagement and satisfaction.