Keeping younger employees engaged
- In Category Employee Engagement
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One of the most important assets a business can have is an engaged workforce. Especially when the economy has gone to the dogs and that business needs all the help it can get. Gfk Custom Research has just conducted a study of over 30,000 employees across 29 countries and found that workers between the ages of 18 and 29 far less engaged than their older colleagues.
Engagement - it found that only 21 per cent of young workers were highly engaged with their work, compared to 31 per cent of workers in their 60s.
Career Development – 61 per cent of young workers believed that there were career options out there for them, but that these options were with another employer or even in another country. Six in ten were actively looking for a job, or would be in the next six months.
36 per cent of young employees felt that they were forced to settle for a job that they were unhappy with, and 37 per cent said that they were made to choose a different career path due to the economic conditions.
Employer – 39 per cent of younger workers thought that their employer was using the recession as justification for increasing their workload, whereas just 24 per cent of older workers thought so. 34 per cent of younger workers were worried about not having the resources to do their work effectively, compared to 22 per cent of workers in their 60s.
Stress – 40 per cent of younger workers reported that they were frequently stressed at work, with 31 per cent feeling pressured to work longer hours. 39 per cent are unhappy with their work-life balance and 32 per cent felt that work pressure and stress frequently impacted their health.
Perhaps the most concerning thing for Britain is that the level of engaged young workers in the UK is only 12 per cent – placing us as joint ninth worst nation alongside Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania and Sweden.
It’s important for employers to reach out to the younger generation of workers with policies and practices that appeal to them, which may not be quite the same things that enticed previous generations. There’s no longer such a thing as a job for life. Technological changes have resulted in the blurring of work-life boundaries.
The economic crisis has meant many businesses having to cut their costs, resulting in a lower budget for training and rewards, which means that free incentives, such as comprehensive feedback and support, is more important than ever. Unfortunately, managers seem to be struggling with this. A report by Threshold revealed that only 45 per cent of employees with a line manager felt that they were receiving helpful feedback from their manager on a regular basis, with only 44 per cent feeling that the feedback that was provided was helping them do their job better. Out of the sample size of 1,000, 41 per cent of people said that they were given detailed performance feedback by their line managers.
There is clear evidence to show that engaged employees are more productive, and therefore, more profitable for the business they work for. We’ve also found that they are happier and more likely to stay with the company. Businesses that cannot afford to provide younger workers with incentives that will improve their work-life balance, or help develop their skills, must at least get feedback and managerial support right, or risk disengagement and resentment from your employees and a negative impact on your bottom line.