In 2012, Gallup, a company that is widely known for conducting surveys, undertook a major research project in the area of employee engagement. Their report, released in 2013, is called The State of the Global Workplace.

In this research, Gallup interviewed more than 25 million employees in hundreds of companies across 142 countries. The findings revealed an important perspective on Canadian workplaces.

First, and close to home, were the North American results: Less than a 1/3 of all employees in the U.S., are engaged at work. In Canada it’s half of that—just 16% of employees are engaged in their work.

Frankly, it’s alarming that 84% of Canadian employees fall into the disengaged bucket—those doing the bare minimum, adding little or no insight—or creativity—to a project and, in turn, they contribute to a level of morale that is mediocre, at best. Included in this bucket are the actively disengaged employees—those who are much like the disengaged employee, but are vocal about it. They share their dismay and have a negative effect on morale.

The bottom line is disengaged employees equal poor financial performance for companies.

The research tells us that companies with engaged employees have profits that are 22% higher than their counterparts, where employees aren’t as interested. From a business perspective, think about how much more could be achieved if we improved employee engagement. Imagine the advantages businesses could gain over their competitors if their employees were engaged. Imagine the increases in sales, profits, and market share. With a more engaged workforce businesses could be doing better, without any capital investment or any other additional costs. Businesses could truly be getting more, for less.

My next blog will focus on managers and their role in driving employee engagement, and in particular, what great managers already know about employee engagement.