Employee engagement dropping, Gallup finds: Expectations, communication, and remote work seen as major factors

Employee engagement dropped in the past two years, after trending up for the past decade, according to a report from Gallup. The polling firm found that employee engagement dropped from 36% of employees who said they were engaged in 2020, to 34% in 2021, down to 32% in 2022.

The ratio of engaged to actively disengaged workers in the U.S. dropped to 1.8-to-1, down from 2.1-to-1 in 2021 and 2.6-to-1 in 2020, the study found. That ratio is the lowest in the U.S. since 2013, the report says. The record high is a ratio of 2.7-to-1 recorded in 2019.

Gallup measures employee engagement through polling random samples of the working population across an entire year, surveying 15,000 full- and part-time employees each quarter. The company then averages responses from all four quarters of the year. The survey considered several factors, including employees’ level of agreement about clarity of expectations, opportunities for development, and their opinions counting at work.

A decline in highly satisfied workers

According to the company’s report, Gallup also found a six-point drop in employees who are extremely satisfied with their company as a place to work. “These are all indications that employees are feeling more disconnected from their employers,” the analysis, written by Jim Harter, says. “Clarity of expectations was lower across many demographic groups including age, gender, managerial status, remote working status, and job types. Other engagement elements were affected differently across demographic groups.”

The data showed that women experienced more of a decline in engagement than men, and that younger workers were affected more than older workers. Engagement among women declined by four points and active disengagement increased by three points. Engagement among men declined by only one point and active disengagement increased by the same amount, Gallup says. For younger workers, engagement for young millennials and Gen Zers (workers under 35) decreased by four points, and active disengagement in this same group increased by four points compared with pre-2020 levels.

Addressing the drop in worker engagement

Gallup notes that some companies seem to have found effective strategies for improving worker engagement. The report says that companies can improve engagement by emphasizing organizational culture and values, embracing flexible work practices, and maintaining strong connections between managers and employees.

Communication is key to helping employees understand expectations from their employers, the data suggests. The report suggested steps such as conducting a “culture audit” to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of a company’s culture, embracing hybrid work for remote-ready workers, and holding at least one meaningful conversation per week between managers and each employee. The most important point, according to Harter, is equipping managers with skills and tools to have those meaningful conversations with employees.

“This is the activity that prevents employees from feeling disconnected from the organization,” Harter writes. “We find this single habit develops high-performance relationships more than any other single leadership activity. Gallup analytics have found managers can be quickly upskilled to have these ongoing strengths-based conversations that bring clarity and purpose to work — which is now deteriorating in U.S. organizations.”

Charlie Schilling, president of the enterprise business and workforce development at Emeritus, a workforce education organization, says clarity on expectations from managers is a top issue in improving employee engagement. “Managers play a significant role in leading, inspiring, and engaging their teams – all the while fostering an environment where employees feel valued and satisfied,” he says. “With the spotlight placed on employee engagement, it is a crucial time for organizations to look to and work alongside managers to develop new methods and approaches toward engaging and driving satisfaction among their employees.”

Remote work flexibility — a way to improve engagement

The Gallup survey found that the largest decline in employee engagement was among workers whose jobs could be done remotely but were working fully on-site. This segment of workers saw a decline of five points in engagement and an increase of seven points in active disengagement, the report says. At the same time, exclusively remote workers saw disengagement increase by four points.

Read more: Empathetic benefits strategies: How to boost employee engagement and retention 

The study says employers must embrace hybrid work for remote-ready employees or face an uphill battle in attracting and retaining top employees. “The right mix of in-person time can result in the highest levels of employee engagement,” Harter says. He suggested on-site days should be announced as Tuesdays through Thursdays, to make sure workers know when they are expected to be at the workplace, but that employers should be flexible and not make it a rigid policy. “Employees need to know which days people are in the office together for the highest collaboration and innovation,” the report says. “Customers and suppliers need to know when people are in the office, too.”