Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1101 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here.
This blogpost is based on Gallup® ‘State of the Global Workplace 2025 – Understanding Employees, Informing Leaders’ Report. Link at the end
Preamble
[Quote] Last year, global employee engagement fell, costing the world economy $438 billion is lost productivity. The primary cause was a drop in manager engagement. [Unquote]Since COVID19 pandemic, managers have been constantly under pressure from the executive to meet tough or even impossible demands. They are also under pressure from their staff for the same reason. What is being seen now is the fallout from this long stress. It cannot be overemphasized that managers’ engagement affects team, which then affects productivity, business performance, and ultimately GDP growth.
I present the highlights of the report here. The situation is not looking good, and urgent steps are needed to stop and reverse the process.
Global Employee Engagement 2024
During last year, global employee engagement fell from 23% to 21%.
During the last twelve years, engagement has fallen only twice; in 2020 and 2024. Two-percentage point drop of 2024 corresponds to the same number during 2020 lockdowns.
As we drill down further, we find that managers’ engagement fell from 30% to 27%, while individual staff engagement remained flat at 18%. Furthermore, among young managers under 35, engagement fell by five percentage points, while female manager engagement dropped by seven percentage points.
Organizational Challenges
In the last five years, all organizations have experienced disruption at every level. For example:
- Post-pandemic retirements and turnover
- A hiring boom followed by bust
- Rapid restructuring of teams and departments
- Shrinking of budgets
- Disruptions in supply chain
- Changes in customer expectations
- Digital transformation and onslaught of AI
- Changes in employee expectations
Criticality of Managers’ Engagement
Managers are the key person who instill, promote, and maintain engagement in staff. Engaged employees are more productive at work, they are absent less and produce more. They build better customer relations and close more sales deals.
If managers are disengaged, their teams are too. This relationship is so strong that it shows up in country-level data. This relationship is so strong that it even shows up is country-level data.
If manager engagement continues to decline, it will not stop with managers, and it will not stop with engagement. The overall productivity of the world’s workplace is at risk.
Global Ranking
Employee Engagement
- Engaged 21%
- Not Engaged 62%
- Actively Disengaged 17%
Life Evaluation
- Thriving 33%
- Struggling 58%
- Suffering 9%
Daily Emotions
- Stress 40%
- Anger 21%
- Sadness 23%
- Loneliness 22%
Job Market
- Job Climate 51%
- Intent to Leave 50%
Regional Ranking – Gallup divides world into 10 regions. I shall present only regions representing Top, middle, and bottom. South Asia is repeated as it is our region.
Employee Engagement
- US & Canada / LATAM/Caribbean 31%
- South Asia (Pak) 26%
- MENA 14%
- Europe 13%
Life Evaluation – Thriving
- Australia New Zealand 56%
- Southeast Asia 36%
- South Asia 15%
Life Evaluation – Daily Stress
- North America 50%
- South Asia 38%
- Post-Soviet Eurasia 21%
Life Evaluation – Daily Anger
- South Asia 34%
- East Asia 17%
- LATAM/ Caribbean 14%
Life Evaluation – Daily Sadness
- South Asia 39%
- North America 22%
- East Asia 14%
Life Evaluation – Daily Loneliness
- South Asia 29%
- East Asia 15%
- Europe 12%
Job Climate
- Australia New Zealand 72%
- South Asia 50%
- Middle East North Africa 34%
Intent to Leave
- Sub-Saharan Africa 72%
- South Asia 50%
- Europe 30%
Our Region – South Asia
Country – Pakistan
- Employee Engagement 03%
- Life Evaluation 11%
- Daily Stress 35%
- Daily Anger 34%
- Daily Sadness 41%
- Daily Loneliness 31%
- Job Climate 18%
- Intent to Leave 58%
Country – India
- Employee Engagement 30%
- Life Evaluation 17%
- Daily Stress 30%
- Daily Anger 34%
- Daily Sadness 39%
- Daily Loneliness 29%
- Job Climate 56%
- Intent to Leave 49%
Country – Bangladesh
- Employee Engagement 27%
- Life Evaluation 04%
- Daily Stress 38%
- Daily Anger 26%
- Daily Sadness 43%
- Daily Loneliness 27%
- Job Climate 34%
- Intent to Leave 67%
Country – Sri Lanka
- Employee Engagement 24%
- Life Evaluation 10%
- Daily Stress 62%
- Daily Anger 34%
- Daily Sadness 36%
- Daily Loneliness 24%
- Job Climate 45%
- Intent to Leave 44%
Sum Up
The global situation is on the decline. The regions vary significantly but the decline is everywhere.
Pakistan situation needs urgent attention because we are losing on every count. With an extremely low employee engagement of 3%, how can our businesses flourish, how can our education system deliver, how can our services sector provide service, and how can we hope to raise our GDP. We can safely assume that engagement in government offices will be even lower where most people are actively disengaged.
Are the policy makers, people at the helm, and powers-to-be listening?
Concluded.
Disclaimers: Pictures in these blogs are taken from free resources at Pexels, Pixabay, Unsplash, and Google. Credit is given where available. If a copyright claim is lodged, we shall remove the picture with appropriate regrets.
For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, any claim is lodged, it will be acknowledged and recognized duly.
Reference:
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
