Is Employee Wellbeing in Decline?

Overall employee wellbeing declined in 2023, according to Gallup’s annual State of the Global Workplace report.

Its index measuring employees’ mental health wellbeing saw a marginal decline, with the percentage of employees who are ‘thriving’ reducing from 35% to 34%. The decline was felt by more keenly among workers under 35, with the equivalent measurement reducing from 35% to 31%.

However, the Gallup survey also found that employees are as engaged at work now as they were in the previous year. It said: “Notably, engagement is driven more by having great managers at the business-unit level than by macroeconomic factors such as countries’ labour policies and the vibrancy of their job markets.”

It found that the percentage of engaged employees globally – those who feel involved in and enthusiastic about their work – remains at 23%, matching the record high recorded in 2022. It said: “But most employees are not engaged 62% show up, do the bare minimum and are uninspired by their work, while 15% are actively disengaged.”

It also found that those employees not engaged, or actively disengaged, account for $8.9 trillion in lost productivity worldwide.

Gallup’s analysis – of more than 183,000 businesses across 53 industries and 90 countries – also found that that teams in the top quartile of employee engagement achieve 23% higher profitability than those in the bottom quartile. This is because they are better at retaining top talent, serving customers, achieving higher-quality output and accomplishing numerous other outcomes that lead to profit. Organisations that reach world-class levels of employee engagement steadily improve the effectiveness of management at all levels.

The report added: “But no organisation operates in a vacuum, unaffected by macroeconomic trends and government policies outside of their control. The interplay of micro- and macro-level factors is important for leaders to reflect on as they navigate the constantly changing workplace.”