How many times have you heard company leaders proclaim that “our people are our greatest asset”? It’s a frequent refrain that sounds good, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect reality. In fact, when it comes to workforce engagement, our “greatest asset” is under duress and is underperforming as shown in Gallup’s 2017 State of the American Workplace report that reveals “only one-third of U.S. employees are engaged in their work and workplace. And only about 1 in 5 say their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work.”
While the number of engaged employees is the highest it’s been since Gallup began measuring it in 2000, it still remains low. But from a glass-is-half-full perspective, there is a real opportunity to move the needle in an engagement direction for the employees that said they were not engaged in the report. Thus, the “greatest asset” proclamation can be recast to “our engaged people are our greatest asset!”
