It is mid-year and businesses across the globe are reviewing their books, revenue-target, strategy optimisation, performance outcomes, customer acquisition cost, working capital, etc. and deciding on the next line of action for the next half of the year; but very few track the single variable that determines whether all those numbers move in the right direction over time – the health of their workforce’s engagement.
This is not an HR conversation (most business leaders would say it is); It is a business performance conversation. If you are leading an organisation with a projection to scale, this belongs on your executive agenda.
The strategic cost of getting this wrong
Before making the case for what a healthy organizational pulse looks like, it is worth being precise about what the absence of one actually costs.
Gallup’s most recent State of the Global Workplace report puts the productivity cost of disengaged employees at about $10 trillion annually across the global economy, equivalent to 9 percent of global GDP. The report reveals that 80 percent of the global workforce is currently either not engaged or actively disengaged.
