Latest Gallup poll on generations in the workforce paints unsettling picture

Posted On August 20, 2013

Boomers and Xers make up 88% of the workforce, but only about 27% are actively engaged employees, according to the most recent Gallup research. In fact, the only generation with a strong margin of actively engaged employees was the Traditionalists (I call them the Matures), whose engagement profile is 44% – yet they represent only 4% of all employees.

So what does this mean for employers? If nearly 75% of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged – that is, they would considering leaving their place of employment if another opportunity surfaced or they are actively seeking alternate employment – the potential for lost institutional knowledge and increased hiring and training costs is high.

It doesn’t surprise me that the numbers stack up as they do. We’ve recognized the impact of past layoffs on future employee loyalty for quite some time. Those 4% of Traditionalists are the last group of employees who expect to spend an entire career at one company. But this doesn’t mean that companies are doomed to suffer revolving- door employment. By understanding what the different generations value most – and by creating avenues for shared knowledge at all levels of an organization – business leaders can both improve engagement and minimize the impact of turnover on knowledge retention. These are the tools and tactics we discuss in my sessions on Attracting and Retaining a New Generation of Employees.

Categories: Generations, Workplace