This article is part of a recurring series highlighting recent talent mobility industry reports. If you would like the WERC editorial team to consider covering a specific industry report, email mobility@worldwideerc.org.
Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report highlights the state of mental health of today’s workforce and stresses the need to address a “global deterioration of mental health.” The report includes data from about 128,000 employed adults in more than 160 countries and areas around the world.
Globally, Gallup found that 20% of employees feel daily loneliness. Fully remote employees report higher levels of loneliness (25%) than those who work fully on-site (16%). Notably, the report highlighted that people born before 1965 (baby boomers and their predecessors) have life evaluations about one-quarter of a point higher than those born after 1980 (millennials and Gen Z). A decade ago, younger workers had consistently higher life evaluations than older workers.
The state of loneliness is just one of the challenges facing businesses today. Globally, employee well-being declined in 2023, from 35% to 34%. Gallup’s well-being item measures overall life evaluation, combining present and future self-reflection.
The decline in 2023 was felt by younger workers under 35. Around 62% of employees globally are not engaged at work, Gallup found, whereas another 15% are actively disengaged. These two groups of employees together are costing the global economy $8.9 trillion, or 9% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), annually.
On the other hand, workers in the top quartile for employee engagement were 78% less likely to experience absenteeism than employers in the bottom quartile. Companies with highly engaged employees also saw 21% lower turnover in high-turnover industries like retail, and 51% less turnover in low-turnover organizations. They also saw a 23% increase in profitability, a 68% increase in employee well-being, and a 22% increase in participation in the organization.
Not All Countries Are Equal
In countries with a favorable job market, Gallup found there was lower active disengagement since employees have the freedom to remove themselves from work situations they deem negative. The report also found that labor rights laws were associated with overall better mental well-being, especially laws pertaining to fair wages, safe work, family responsibilities, and maternity.
Interestingly, Gallup found that employee engagement has a closer association to future life evaluation than the presence of labor laws. “When employees are engaged at work, they have significantly higher hope for their future lives overall,” the report states. “This optimism exists in low labor rights countries and higher labor rights countries at similar levels. We can reasonably characterize the data this way: a great job is strongly associated with hope for the future.”
This may help explain the differences found between Western Europe and the United States. Western European countries have some of the strongest labor laws in the world and the lowest employee engagement. The United States ranks lower on labor protections but has much higher employee engagement than Western Europe.
Even among countries with similar levels of labor protections, the employee work experience varies significantly. For example, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are in the top quartile of countries on the Labor Rights Index while also having close-to-average employee engagement. Germany, France, and the United Kingdom are also in the top quartile for labor laws but have below-average employee engagement.
Leading by Example
The low rate of engagement is not just a characteristic of rank-and-file employees but also of managers. Just three in 10 managers globally are engaged in their jobs. While this may seem low, it compares to just 23% for overall employee engagement. This could be easily explainable: Managers are more likely to experience higher pay and have a higher social status compared to non-managers. “They are also more likely to feel their opinions count, to feel connected to their organization, and to have manager peers they can rely on for support,” the report suggests. Nevertheless, managers are more likely to be stressed, angry, sad, and lonely compared to non-managers, Gallup found. They are also more likely to be looking to leave their current job.
Because managers often provide emotional support to employees, a manager who is not happy, whether in life or at work, and/or not engaged at work, is unlikely to motivate their team and give employees the emotional support they may need. In fact, Gallup’s data show that more highly engaged managers have more engaged teams. The report found that 70% of the variance in team engagement can be attributed to the manager. So, while economic prosperity and labor protections have a strong correlation to better wellness at work, engagement is more closely tied to interpersonal relationships with one’s manager.
Happy Worker, Happy Company
Gallup found that decreasing the number of disengaged workers drives positive outcomes within organizations. In a 2024 meta-analysis, the largest study of its kind that includes data from more than 183,000 business units across 53 industries and 90 countries, Gallup found that high-engagement business units are likely to see significantly higher employee well-being—as well as higher productivity, profitability, and sales—than low-engagement teams.
More specifically, Gallup found that the top quarter of business units and teams in terms of engagement experienced 78% less absenteeism, 21% less turnover in high turnover organizations and 51% less in low-turnover organizations, and 26% less shrinkage, compared to the lowest quarter. They also saw a 10% boost in customer loyalty/engagement, 17% increase in productivity, and 13% increase in productivity, as well as 23% higher profitability, 68% increase in employee well-being, and 22% increase in organizational citizenship.
Best Practices for Keeping Managers and Employees Engaged
Leaders who build strong and resilient cultures focus on these things to keep employees engaged:
- They put a high priority on manager hiring and development. The survey results demonstrate that the manager-employee relationship is the “locus of employee engagement and a central factor in thriving in life overall,” Gallup says. “The best organizations hire managers with a talent for engaging their teams, and they train their managers into effective coaches who consistently deliver meaningful individual feedback that inspires better future performance.”
- They integrate engagement into every stage of their employee and manager life cycle. “They make engagement a business strategy that informs how they hire, onboard, coach, and develop talent,” Gallup says. “They also integrate it into performance management, goal setting, team meetings, and manager-employee conversations. In other words, they make it part of their culture. It’s simply the way they do business.”
- They emphasize well-being at work and in life. “They make their support for employee well-being visible and consistent,” Gallup says. “Many organizations employ well-being teams with well-being counselors or coaches. They also go beyond physical health to include financial literacy and planning support, as well as events like webinars on mental health and encouraging community volunteerism.”
Moving Forward
There are many things weighing on people’s minds today, wherever they live. Their sense of isolation is growing, while well-being is shrinking. Economics are playing a big role in the lack of wellness expressed by many of today’s workers, and often this pessimism turns toward their employers. They may feel unappreciated at work, adding to their sense of loneliness, and underpaid, adding to monetary concerns. This could translate into a lack of engagement, or worse, active disengagement.
Team managers are not immune; they too live in a troubled world and have their complaints. Stopping short of solving all the world’s woes, what can an organization do to boost their employees’ well-being and level of engagement? The three steps outlined above is a good start, and clearly there is a problem that needs addressing. A failure to do so not only hurts the employees but also the organizations they work for.