As a hybrid workplace motivational speaker, I would like to encourage you to read the latest Gallup Poll on employee disengagement. The top-line results are disturbing and offer a pessimistic view of the future of work.
Speaking to audiences on the dual concepts of hybrid workplaces and blended workplaces, I have noted a serious trend for the past few years. Research has only verified what has been troubling me for years: younger employees are quietly quitting because they no longer feel engaged.
“The overall decline was especially related to clarity of expectations, opportunities to learn and grow, feeling cared about, and a connection to the organization’s mission or purpose — signaling a growing disconnect between employees and their employers.”
– Gallup Poll 2022
The blame game is counter-productive
Chances are, you were mentored, shown-the-ropes, pushed, corrected, praised or (it happens) made redundant. Most of us came through the process, along with appropriate training, additional credentials and seminars, feeling part of a team. The rite of passage was essential. You became known in the industry and, in fact, the industry might have reached back out to you with opportunities and guidance.
Was it perfect? Hardly. The system could be flawed and unfortunately, biased in many different directions. However, change was coming – often begrudgingly – but good people stood up and change was expected.
Now, in 2022, against the backdrop of a (still) negotiation with the remnants of a pandemic, physical and emotional changes to the work place, a fight for recognition of the marginalized, a need to push for corporate social responsibility, matters of wages and benefits, younger and newer employees are being thrown under the proverbial bus or train or avalanche.
Boomers and Gen-X are chiding Millennials and Gen-Z with “back in the day, we shut up and did our jobs,” while younger employees shout back, “You had mentoring, training, pay, career paths and appreciation. What do we have?”
Facing facts, not sound-bites
This discussion is not a matter of who is right and who is wrong. The outcome of a lack of generational inclusion is to have valuable, smart, caring younger employees, packing up their virtual or in-person offices and quitting. They don’t care – and as a hybrid workplace motivational speaker and consultant I can’t blame them.
Think I am letting opinion cloud my data? Let me share abbreviated information from the Gallup poll:
- The percentage of engaged employees under the age of 35 dropped by 6-percent from 2019 to 2022…actively disengaged employees increased by 6-points.
- Important! Younger workers have dropped 10-percent or more points in the percentage who strongly agree that someone cares about them.
- Fully remote and hybrid young workers dropped 12 points in strong agreement that someone encourages their development.
- Disturbingly, less than four in 10 young remote or hybrid employees clearly know what is expected of them at work.
Each one of the points could be a two-hour seminar and as a hybrid workplace motivational speaker, I am pleased to lead them. In the mean-time, it is critical to state that workplaces are failing each other. They have lost listening skills, compassion, authenticity and have devolved from “we” to “them and us.” Perhaps it is time we become determined to do something.
To contact Mike Hourigan, America’s Hybrid Workplace Motivational Speaker, for an in-person or virtual presentation, please call. Contact Mike today at (704) 875-3030 or fill out the form below.
