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Worker Engagement Is at Risk. Here’s How to Address That.

Before the pandemic, workforce engagement and overall employee wellbeing were rising globally for nearly a decade — but now, they’re stagnant.

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report reports that just 21% of employees engaged at work and 33% of employees thriving in their overall wellbeing. Further, the report found that 60% of people are emotionally detached at work and 19% are miserable.

“‘Living for the weekend,’ ‘watching the clock tick,’ ‘work is just a paycheck.’ These are the mantras of many workers worldwide. “With only most would say that they don’t find their work meaningful, don’t think their lives are going well or don’t feel hopeful about their future,” states Gallup.

Stress is at an all-time high. Workers are even more stressed than they were in the first year of the pandemic, as they’ve experienced three years of turbulence, including health risks, economic instability, higher costs due to inflation, and the threat of layoffs.

What Poor Engagement Costs Companies

Low engagement costs the world economy $7.8 trillion, due to factors such as lower productivity, attrition, ill health, and more. Manufacturers struggle when they can’t find enough committed workers, as it harms productivity throughput, product quality, customer relationships, and more.

While engagement is a problem worldwide, some regions suffer more than others. In the U.S., 33% of workers are engaged, followed by 27% in South Asia and 24% in Southeast Asia. The bottom there were Australia and New Zealand at 17%, the Middle East and Africa at 15%, and Europe at 14%, states Gallup.

Worker Attrition Still a Sizeable Risk

During the pandemic, workers didn’t hesitate to jump ship for new opportunities, as the large number of unfilled job openings made them feel secure about finding another role. More than 50 million U.S. workers left their jobs during 2022, part of “The Great Resignation” trend that swept the globe.

While down from 2022, quits remain high, clocking in at 3.8 million in April in the U.S.

Trends are similar worldwide.

How to Tackle Low Engagement

It’s clear that the current state of affairs isn’t sustainable. Workers have been through a lot over the past few years, and employers are considering how to reengage them.

One way to improve engagement is to create a new value proposition, with better technology and support.

For manufacturers, QAD Redzone offers an opportunity to reinvent the wheel. As teams adopt the company’s Connected Workforce Solution, they gain a digital identity; trade cumbersome paper-based processes for digital ones; and access communication and collaboration tools that improve collaboration and innovation.

In addition, workers get to act in new ways: sharing ideas with supervisors; blending roles by taking on new duties, such as maintenance; developing their own knowledge sharing content; and leveraging real-time skills matrices and digital learning to gain skills that their company needs.

Manufacturers can reward engagement by using QAD Redzone to offer workers digital high fives and good catches for keeping production on track and solving problems. They can also promote from within, using QAD Redzone to identify emerging leaders.

When companies deploy QAD Redzone across factories and networks, miracles happen.

There’s a real impetus to re-engage workers. Gallup finds that across industries, business units with engaged workers have 23% higher profit compared with those that have miserable workers.

If your firm is struggling with worker hiring, engagement, and attrition, use QAD Redzone to evolve your work culture and the value you provide your talent. Learn more about QAD Redzone by reading our benchmark report. Download the report.