The Highs and Lows of Employee Engagement

The BRIC block – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – have been all over the media for a few years now for the strength and rapid growth of their economies and the perceived threat that holds for “old” economic strongholds in the U.S. and Europe. Now Brazil and India add another strength – their ability to engage and motivate their teams.

Kenexa recently announced these two nations to have highest levels of employee engagement anywhere in the world with India leading the charge at 73% of engagement and Brazil close behind with 65%.

On the other end of the spectrum is Germany, which has consistently low levels of engagement. Not only did Germany score poorly in engagement for 2008 (13% engaged, 67% not engaged, 20% actively disengaged), but also showing similar scores since 2001. What does this mean in real euros?

“Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employees cost the German economy between 81.2 billion and 109 billion euros per year in lost productivity alone. This does not include additional costs to the economy due to absenteeism, lack of innovation and customer orientation, high turnover, and negative word-of-mouth. … Germany is positioned well for future growth -- but its high percentage of actively disengaged workers is putting its current and future economic stability at risk.”

In both the high and low engagement countries, a critical area reported by employees is need for motivation and recognition of contributions. Do you need to increase productivity and customer focus while reducing absenteeism and employee turnover? Research points to simple appreciation as the answer. Be sure to take our weekly poll.