Disappointing news about employee engagement from Gallup

Two of the chapters, “U.S. Workers: Increasingly Confident and Ready to Leave” and “The Competitive Advantage of Engaging Employees,” should be required reading for all leaders as well as HR folks.

Let’s look at the chapter on U.S. workers first. According to Gallup, “51 percent of U.S. employees say they are actively looking for a new job or watching for openings.” Think about that for a minute. A little more than half of your employees have at least one foot out the door.

Optimism about the job market is high for good reason-hiring is up. Gallup measures job creation and reports on it in its Job Creation Index. In 2012 the Gallup Job Creation Index averaged +18. For the first three quarters of 2016 it averaged +32. So employees have a deservedly high level of confidence that when they leave, they can find a good replacement job fairly quickly. It’s no wonder that many employees have a “grass is greener” outlook.

And, of course, all of these reasons tie into your HR strategies, policies and plans. Your approach to employee engagement should tie into the reasons for employee resignations.