SA employees 'actively disengaged'

Low productivity, strikes and other labour problems in South Africa are a symptom of the country having one of the lowest percentages of “engaged” employees in the world, according to the latest Gallup “State of the Global Workplace: Employee Engagement Insights for Business Leaders Worldwide” report. Just 9% of South African employees are seen as “actively engaged” in the workplace by the report. Globally some 13% of employees across 142 countries worldwide are engaged in their jobs — that is, they are emotionally invested in and focused on creating value for their organisations every day. Actively disengaged workers — those who are negative and potentially hostile to their organisations — continue to outnumber engaged employees at a rate of nearly 2-1 around the world. Companies and countries which engage their workers will be better placed to compete for the US140 trillion worth of new customers predicted to be added to the global economy over the next 30 years, according to Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of Gallup. In his foreword Clifton says competing for the new customers will be the “World Cup” for world economic dominance. “The winners will enjoy thriving economies and workplaces. The losers will face unrest and revolution.” Developing countries face similar challenges when it comes to engaging their workforces. Actively disengaged employees significantly outnumber engaged employees in Mexico, South Africa, Hungary, and Turkey “An important part of the ongoing development of these countries will be a shift toward workplace conditions that use employees’ individual strengths to empower them to make positive change in their organisations. “This in turn will help employees provide better services to their customers,” says the report. In South Africa, “only among the most highly educated Africans and those in professional job categories is the proportion of engaged employees similar to the proportion of actively disengaged employees."