In a nutshell: Do you feel a lack of enthusiasm for your job, or struggle with motivation and focus at work? If you do, then you're in the majority. A recent poll of the US workforce found that employee engagement in Q3 fell to its lowest level since 2011. Much of the decline came from remote and hybrid employees across the country, especially those in organizations that have adopted AI.
Gallup began tracking employee engagement in 2000, when 26% of employees in the US said they were engaged. That figure stayed steady between 26% and 30% through 2013, then climbed to a peak of 36% in 2020.
But engagement has fallen since the start of the decade. It stood at 29% last quarter, the lowest level in 15 years. It's also two percentage points lower than the previous quarter.
Gallup writes that each percentage point in engagement represents approximately 1.6 million US employees. The Q3 decline is equivalent to about 3.2 million fewer engaged workers, bringing the total decrease since 2020 to approximately 11 million.
The decline reflected two aspects of employees' work experience: knowing what is expected of them and feeling cared about as a person.
Gallup says businesses should care more about their employees' morale, as disengaged workers can impact a firm's productivity, customer service, quality, safety and profitability.
Interestingly, employees' understanding of what was expected of them declined around twice as much among hybrid and fully remote workers. Jim Harter, chief scientist for Gallup's workplace management and wellbeing practices, suggests this could be due to physical distances contributing to psychological distance between employees and their organizations, especially as companies introduce AI at work.
AI's engagement advantage – the higher employee engagement seen in organizations that integrate AI --narrowed for remote and hybrid employees to just two percentage points in Q3, while remaining around four to five points for on-site workers.
Gallup's bottom line is that AI adoption may be outpacing the communication and managerial support needed to make it effective. It recommends clarifying AI expectations, strengthening manager support – especially for distributed teams – and tracking AI's impact on productivity and engagement.
Today's workplace is turbulent, to say the least. In addition to the AI-driven layoffs, many employees feel so pressured to adopt AI that they're pretending to use it to impress bosses – usually because they aren't confident that they can use it effectively.
Businesses might argue that AI cuts costs and saves them money. But a new Gartner survey found that was true for just 3% of organizations. Despite this, 85% still plan to spend more on the technology.
