O Canada! Employees Are Reporting It’s Cold There

A new study by The Conference Board of Canada reports that only 27 percent of employees in Canada are engaged and employee engagement scores have remained stagnant since 2010.

“Despite evidence of employee engagement’s impact on business outcomes, workplace engagement has remained stubbornly low and relatively unchanged over the last five years,” said Ruth Wright, Director, Leadership and Human Resources Research, The Conference Board of Canada. “Organizations need to understand why engagement is so important and which workplace factors can increase it.”

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

• Confidence in senior leadership is the most influential factor driving employee engagement; it also has the lowest approval rating.
• Relationships with managers is the second most influential driver.
• Employee demographics play a large role in employee engagement; long tenured employees and technical professionals tend to be less engaged than new employees and those in non-technical roles.

The report identifies best practices for improving employee engagement, which align with the four-step process outlined in my book, If Not You, Who? Cracking the Code of Employee Disengagement.

However, the issue is not the absence of a solution, but rather the lack of commitment on the part of senior leaders to engage in employee engagement.  How do we change this?  By sharing with leaders the compelling data that shows a direct correlation between employee engagement and profitable revenue growth, and hoping they see the light.  I understand that hope is not a strategy, but from my experience working alongside CEOs, right know, that’s all we have.