Pre pandemic, employee engagement, and well-being had been on a steady rise, globally. However, the recent 2022 report from Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace shows that employee engagement and well-being figures have remained stagnant. A quick look at the figures shows that only 21% of employees report being engaged at work, while 60% of workers are disengaged, and 19% of them say they are just plain miserable.

As managers and leaders, we’re always looking for ways to improve the engagement and well-being of our colleagues and employees. The recent popularity of hybrid work has enabled employers to use strategies such as remote working and four-day work weeks. Still, 19% of the workforce report unhappiness, that’s a number that can’t be ignored.

There is no one end-all and be-all reason for disengagement and unhappiness in the workplace. Instead, it is a combination of factors that contribute to dissatisfaction. Let’s take a look at two of the most common factors of employee disengagement:

1. Comms breakdown
Remote working and hybrid work has uncovered a lot of tools that enable digital communication. In fact, digital communication has never been better today than any other point in time. Video communication and collaboration software companies have continually improved, upgraded, and added features to accommodate the new hybrid way of working. In June 2022, Microsoft Teams announced its new round of upgraded features and enhancements. An example of this is the multi-language meeting invite control which enables administrators to display the join information in meeting invitations in up to two languages across all email platforms.

With the wealth of enhancements available on digital communications platforms, there’s still a lot of room for miscommunication and misinterpretation, which 62% of the report respondents say have the most negative effect on their mental health.

Regular and inclusive communication is important now more than ever. Leaders should be mindful of their tone and choice of words during meetings or catch-up calls. If you are working with distributed teams, make sure you schedule video calls (not voice calls) so that people can see your gestures, body language, and facial expression, too.

2. Burnout
Despite great efforts to implement an all-inclusive employee engagement program, employees still feel overwhelmed. That’s because we are experiencing uncertainty on a different level and getting over this kind of adversity requires some creativity.

Leaders are now more aware of the challenges employees face and are more open to having the ‘workplace burnout’ conversation. More vacation time or personal leaves alone won’t help solve the problem, as the problem is tied to a lot of circumstances (social, economic, etc.) as well. This is a challenge that every leader will have to solve via constant trial and error and no solution will be the same for every company. However, awareness and openness to the general discussion is a good starting place to address workplace burnout.

Assess where your organization is right now in terms of employee engagement and take the necessary steps to improve the workplace. After all, it takes good and efficient leadership to bring energy and meaning to work and make the workplace a venue for people to thrive. Remember to work smart and be a blessing to someone today. Stay safe and healthy!

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp