Engagement. Inclusion. Diversity. These are just some of the buzz words right now surrounding the HR community and almost every organization. What are you doing to positively impact these areas?

Gallup’s latest data show engagement is improving slightly, up to 34%. However, the 10-year average is 30%. Does that number shock you? Does it make you want to take action to fix it? What can be done?

Gallup’s US Employee Engagement Trend

US Employee Engagement Trends

Think about this idea for a minute. If you have 100 employees, 30 of them are engaged. Engagement means they love your company, they live your mission, and they tell everyone how great it is to work for you. They are the ultimate brand ambassadors.

What about the rest of your employees? 50% of them are not engaged. These are the individuals who have “8 years, 4 months, 20 days, 2 hours and 5 seconds until retirement” as a countdown on their computer. They come to work to collect a paycheck, nothing more and nothing less. They are not hurting you, but they are not helping you advance either.

Then there are the actively disengaged. They make up about 20% of your employees. They are the saboteurs. They are the ones that think everything you do is wrong, not good enough, or not what they would do because they obviously know better. They are negating any positive work in the company and the community. Not only are they not working, they are complaining to others and preventing them from being productive and even driving away potential business and other valuable employees.

Let that last part sink in. You may lose valuable employees because the actively disengaged employees sabotage your culture and build a toxic environment. You could even offer the saboteurs a raise or bonus and they are still unhappy because it was not more, or it should have been given sooner.

How are you addressing the 70% of your workforce not living and breathing your mission, vision, and values, but easily could be?

When Should You Consider Assessments for Your Team

Are you in a busy season? Are you currently understaffed? Are you trying to roll out a new product or facility? Are you concerned about your budget?

Sometime in the future is the perfect time to….do anything…?

It is easy to say there will be a perfect time to address employee engagement: when things slow down, after our next big sale, once we fill a position, when we can build it into our budget. The excuses are endless, but they don’t deliver results. We may think some time in the future will be perfect.

Now is the perfect time to invest in your people.

I encourage you to consider shifting your perspective. The sooner you make improvements by investing in your biggest asset – your people – the sooner you will see an improvement in your organization with an increase in employee engagement and productivity leading towards an improved bottom line.

Learn more about building a StrengthsFirst culture.