Why Looking After Your Managers Is the Smartest Investment
Only 20% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. Managers drive 70% of how engaged a team feels, which makes looking after them the wisest investment a business can make.
I’ve always believed passion is an output. You can’t force your staff to have it, and you can’t insist that they care.
Gallup’s latest numbers prove it: Only 20% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. That’s the lowest level since 2020, and it’s the first time global engagement has fallen two years in a row. The price tag is roughly $10 trillion in lost productivity.
Managers are drivers of engagement. They contribute 70% to how engaged the team feels. Yet, for these very leaders who drive engagement, their own engagement dropped by 5% over the last year.
So when the people leading teams are running on empty, everyone around them feels the impact.
The good news is that globally, the stats say that 79% of managers are indeed engaged. Which brings me to the conclusion that commitment and thus engagement comes from within.
Leaders are the ones who develop the environment where engagement thrives across the company. When they work to eliminate those aspects of work that wear people down, it allows their teams to feel safe to speak up and try new things.
Looking after your managers is the wisest investment into your business. They carry the weight of everyone else’s engagement across your company.
As we keep building MPI, this principle is central to how we lead.
If you lead people, I’d love to hear what’s helped get your team passionate about the work they do.