Report Reveals Less Support of Workers Equals Productivity Decline

Only about one in four employees in the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom feel strongly that their organization cares about their wellbeing, according to analytics and advisory firm Gallup. Reported earlier this month, this fraction has been trending down since it peaked at the start of the COIVD-19 pandemic.

These findings have significant implications now that work and life are more blended than ever before—with those who prefer remote work citing reduced commute times, flexibility for their family, and their wellbeing as some of the key reasons.

Gallup also reports that employees who strongly agree that their employer cares about their overall wellbeing have higher customer engagement, profitability, and productivity, as well as lower turnover and fewer safety incidents, compared with those who don’t. They are also:

• Three times more likely to be engaged at work
• 69% less likely to actively search for a new job
• 71% less likely to report experiencing a lot of burnout
• Five times more likely to strongly advocate for their company as a place to work
• Five times more likely to strongly agree that they trust the leadership of their organization
• 36% more likely to be thriving in their overall lives.

Yet, employees’ expectations have fundamentally changed since 2020. At the start of the pandemic, employers responded quickly with plans, communication, and what many employees believed was genuine concern for them. The percentage who felt their organization cared about them nearly doubled, reaching a high of 49% in May 2020. In 2011, only about 21% of U.S. employees strongly agreed that their employer cared about their overall wellbeing. Since 2020, the percentage has plummeted back to roughly 20%.

Declining levels of employee engagement and declining feelings of employees that their employers care about their wellbeing are signs of a growing disconnect between employees and employers. Ultimately, this disconnect has serious implications for customer retention. There has also been a recent decline in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which measures customers’ satisfaction with company products and services and the extent to which they meet or exceed expectations.

Gallup’s recent research indicates that employees are becoming dangerously alienated from their employers. The consequences of employee-employer detachment—and workers feeling their supervisor doesn’t care about their wellbeing—include less commitment and effort from employees to go the extra mile for customers, less loyalty to the organization, and higher turnover.