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Employees aren’t engaged—and they haven’t been for awhile.
Only 31% of US employees were engaged in Q3, according to a recent Gallup report. That’s up slightly from 30% in Q1, Gallup reported, when engagement was at its lowest level since 2013.
People leaders looking to increase engagement may want to focus on leaders. Some 41% of leaders disengaged at work, according to a recent survey from employee recognition software company Nectar. And 33% of employees said their managers directly impact their engagement.
“It’s so important to focus efforts on those middle management layers and different team managers to make sure that they’re highly engaged,” Cassidy Gonzalez, Nectar’s SVP of people and culture, told HR Brew. “A manager that’s disengaged…and not being helpful, these employees are left floundering. They don’t know how to thrive because there’s no direction showing them how to do it,” she later added.
There’s a relationship between leaders’ engagement and effectiveness, Gonzalez said. She recommended having “skip-level meetings,” when leaders meet with employees typically two rungs down the corporate hierarchy to discuss what might be missing at the level between them. This can help leaders improve how they manage their direct reports.
People leaders can also create a channel for managers to network with and mentor each other. Whether it’s in a Slack channel or an in-person meeting, Gonzalez said managers doing so can help leaders have a “well-rounded view” of the organization and avoid existing in a vacuum.
Gonzalez also suggested people leaders offer basic managerial learning and development opportunities. At Nectar, she launched a biweekly training program to teach managers basic management principles. Even if someone’s been a leader for a while, there’s always something new to learn.
The bottom line: Managers could use “a little bit more attention, a little more love,” she added. “They need to know they matter as a middle manager…Give them the proper resources, the proper training, [and] have things that are engaging for that middle level.”
