High Performance Culture Can't Be Faked: A 4-part series on how leaders can rally from the recent Gallup results
Gallup’s recent results may have you believe the return to office is killing morale…but that is just masking a larger problem. A disengaged workforce is driven by poor company culture. And having to commute and sit at a desk from 9am-5pm is likely not the root cause.
Employee engagement is at a 10-year low. Just 31% of employees are engaged, down from a peak of 36% during 2020. Each point change represents approximately 1.6 million U.S. employees, meaning the decline since 2020 equates to about 8 million fewer engaged employees.
Let’s pause and reframe this. If profits were down 10 years in a row, leaders would be ringing alarm bells if they still had their jobs (which they very likely would not). So why is it acceptable for employee engagement and culture?
While the debate often centers around remote work vs. return to office, the real conversation is that companies don’t have the culture they thought they did. The fancy cafeterias, plush offices, swag, and VIP events were nice when times were good, but when COVID, recession, inflation, “you name it” crept in, they weren’t enough to keep employees engaged.
Among the 12 engagement elements that Gallup measures, those that saw the most significant declines in 2024 align with SKOR’s 3C’s.
Cohesion: Strong relationships driven from shared connection to the organization’s mission and common beliefs in their approach to work. Currently, 39% of employees feel strongly that someone cares about them, a drop from 47% in March 2020.
Clarity: Alignment on goals and expectations. Just 46% of employees clearly know what is expected of them at work, down 10 points from a high of 56% in March 2020.
Courage: A culture of continuous learning and being empowered to do their best work. Only 30% strongly agree that someone at work encourages their development, down from 36% in March 2020.
At SKOR, we can help identify the root causes of poor culture and what your organization can do to address them and get your people on the path to high performance. Our 3 C’s framework—Cohesion, Clarity, and Courage—addresses the key drivers of engagement. Watch this video clip to see how these elements shape a thriving workplace culture.
Each week for the rest of February, we will unpack one of these elements and share best practices from industries doing it well and projects you can implement to improve.