The world of work needs better leadership. Fast.

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report has a strong message for corporate leaders and managers: improve or lose the majority of your workforce.

Gallup has released its State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report and its message is loud and clear: the world of work needs better management. And the price of not improving is high. 

Quiet quitting: a solvable crisis

Despite there being an overall surge in employee engagement in the last year, the majority of employees across the world are practicing what we call ‘quiet quitting’. According to Gallup, quiet quitting is when an employee is effectively “Filling a seat and watching the clock. They put in the minimum effort required, and they are psychologically disconnected from their employer.” Quiet quitters are more likely to become stressed or burnt out, and significantly more likely to quit altogether. 

The main cause of quiet quitting? Bad management. 

Feeling disengaged from a company goes hand in hand with feeling disengaged (or worse, actively resentful) towards those in charge. While it’s concerning to find that so many of us feel this way, Gallup is hopeful that this demographic of quiet quitters can be re-energised:

"Quiet quitters are often your greatest opportunity for growth and change. They are waiting for a leader or a manager to have a conversation with them, encourage them, inspire them. A few changes to how they are managed could turn them into productive team members.” 

Employees know exactly what they want from leaders

Helpfully, employees are not at all uncertain about how they’d improve company leadership and management. 85% of those surveyed for Gallup’s report cited three things as a solution to their work woes:

• Wellbeing
• Pay and benefits 
• Engagement or culture

with engagement and culture standing out as the core way for companies to improve employee attitudes. Specifically, a lot of respondents said they would like more recognition, opportunities to learn, fair treatment, and clearer goals from their company leaders. 

Engagement matters more than where employees work

For those in leadership positions that are uncertain about where they stand on remote work policies, Gallup has found that

"Engagement has 3.8x as much influence on employee stress as work location. How people feel about their job has a lot more to do with their relationship with their team and manager than being remote or being on-site."

These particular stats could put an end to the rumbling debate around remote work—proving that employee engagement and productivity don’t come down to whether or not they work in an office, but how they are treated by those in charge. 

At Remotify, we work closely with company leaders to create workplaces that are truly great places to be—no matter where in the world your teams are. Want to find out how we can help you bolster your culture and keep your teams happy? Give our friendly team of experts a call today!