A Management Crisis
Most companies promote the stated value that reads something like, “Our people are our most valued resource.” Curiously, according to a Gallup Poll on worker engagement, “Findings indicate that 70 percent of American workers are ‘not engaged’ or ‘actively disengaged,’ and are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less likely to be productive.”
Of that 70 percent, “Fifty-two percent of workers are not engaged, and worse, another 18 percent are actively disengaged in their work.” These numbers tell us that less than one third of Americans are engaged at work. Clearly, despite a company’s posted value, something isn’t working.
You may be wondering if it’s any better outside the United States, but instead the numbers only worsen: on average, only 13% of workers are engaged while 63% are not engaged and 24% are actively disengaged.
Why? If companies understand that people are the key to their success, what is happening that the majority of employees don’t want to be there? In fact, the most commonly sited reason for employee disengagement is their relationship with their direct manager or supervisor.
Poorly managed workgroups are an average 50 percent less productive and 44 percent less profitable than well-managed groups. As reported in another Gallup poll: "People leave managers, not companies...in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue."
Without a doubt, the financial and productivity costs for an organization with even a handful of disengaged or weak managers are tremendous.