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Comprehensive Report Shows Positive Trends in Employee Engagement
Quantum (News - Alert) Workplace recently released a report on employee engagement that shows improvement in employee engagement across the U.S. The detailed report breaks down engagement by different factors like geographic location, tenure, job title and industry.
The report uses three categories to define engagement: (a) the degree that they speak highly of their employer, (b) how interested they are in continuing to work for their employer and (c) how willing they are to exert extra effort in their jobs.
The level that these three categories applied to employees was used to define a rating scale with four separate ranges. The most engaged employees were defined as ‘engaged’ with a rating of 5-6. The second-highest level of engagement was defined as ‘contributing’, with a rating in the 4-4.9 range. That was followed by ‘disengaged’ employees with a rating of 3-3.9. The least engaged rating, ‘hostile’ had a rating of 1-2.9.
The report compared aggregate engagement levels each year between 2007 and 2013. In 2007, a total of 70.6 percent of employees were engaged, with ratings of 5-6. The low point came in 2010 when 66.7 percent of employees were engaged. Since then the total has risen to 68 percent in 2013. The largest difference over this period falls between the engaged and contributing ranges. The other two ranges showed relatively little change.
The most engaged metro area is in Huntsville, Ala., with 77.6 percent engagement in 2013. Lincoln, Neb. was at the bottom of the list at 57.1 percent. A city must have had at least 70 organizations participate in a local ‘best places to work’ competition to be part of the survey.
As far as industries go, real estate had the highest engagement at 77 percent; public administration was the lowest at 45 percent.
The report also found that men (72 percent) were slightly more engaged than women (69 percent). Men want jobs that are more aligned with their career goals while women want security in their futures and for their employer to invest in their success.
By job title, the most engaged was the executive level at 91 percent, while the least engaged level was the hourly worker at 60 percent.
Some of the conclusions that can be drawn to this are that engagement seems to be directly proportional to how progressive or challenging the work is. Public administration, which scored the lowest, tends to be more monotonous than top scoring sectors like real estate, construction and technology.
The level that a geographic area scored well seemed to be directly related to how well its economy is doing and again, how innovative or stimulating the nature of the work is. This isn’t the first time Huntsville ranked at the top of someone’s list as a place to work. In 2009, the city was ranked number one by Kiplinger for its solid economy in defense contracting and science industries. Austin and San Antonio, also known for technology, consistently rank at the top.
Edited by Adam Brandt