Employee Engagement Falls Off the Cliff

Back in January of this year we posted in this blog about the apparent effect of the economic downturn on employee engagement. Our engagement measurement parter, Quantum Workplace, had seen some early warning signs of the negative impact and were some of the first to report on this disturbing trend.

Well, the early warning signs have proven to be worse than anyone would have predicted. After all, for years, employee engagement scores have been slowly trending up. Even with the recent recession, many were predicting only a flattening of engagement- after all people should be thankful they remain employed and stay engaged and hard-working to make sure they don't end up on the employment line.

A recently published study by Watson and Wyatt and WorldatWork show us clearly how bad things have gotten. They have reported the single largest drop in reported employee engagement scores in the short history that these scores have been tracked. In their study, overall employee engagement has dropped 9% year over year. Most alarmingly, top performers showed the most dramatic drops, with scores 20 -40% lower on questions regarding their faith in senior management and their opinion of their employers recent changes to pay and benefits and the effects on productivity and customer service.

For details on the new survey findings, visit: watsonwyatt.com/StrategicRewards2009

For information on the 5 strategies you can adopt now to avoid this alarming trend, visit our January blog post: http://www.leadershipbeyondlimits.com/2009/01/how-to-gain-ground-in-economic-downturn.html Here you will find a link to a webinar and whitepaper that outlines how smart organizations are bucking this negative trend.