According to a new report from Kincentric, employee engagement continues to decrease along with retention as burnout remains a persistent concern. Specifically, the results show employees' engagement rates peaked at 73% in Q2 2020, before falling to 67% by Q4. After maintaining rates ranging from 65%-69% in 2021, employee engagement fell to the lowest level at 62% in Q1 of this year. Overall, many workers are concerned about a lack of support, with only 50% of employees feeling their organisation has enough staff to get the work done. 

Leaders with vision are more important than ever, and employees reported 8x higher engagement when senior leaders made them feel excited about the future. However, only 59% of respondents say they feel recognised for their efforts and just 54% believe they have future career opportunities at their company. 

“While there are indicators of decreasing levels of employee engagement in the data, we have also identified areas of tremendous potential for organisations to build employee-centric systems, structures and processes that will meet the needs of the transformed workplace. These challenges present an era of opportunity for organisational leadership and the Human Resources function as drastic changes in ways of working can impact company performance,” said Jeff Jolton, Managing Director, Research and Insights at Kincentric. 

There have been unprecedented disruptions in the last few years and with this uncertainty comes the opportunity for leaders to redesign the future of work in a way that’s engaging and exciting for their teams.