This is a difficult period to be a manager, and a new report shows that many of them feel the pressure at the moment.
The global commitment of employees in 2024 has dropped, largely due by a decrease in the commitment of managers at work, according to the Gallup report by Gallup State of the Workplace published on Wednesday.
“Managers have a lot of things that happen to them, and I think we really have to think about what managers are mainly responsible,” Business Insider Jim Harter, chief scientist of Gallup, for the management and well-being of the workplace.
Around the world, employees’ commitment increased from 23% to 21% last year, which cost the global economy about $ 438 billion in productivity, the report estimates. It has only fallen twice in the past 12 years, the other time in 2020.
While individual contributors have seen their commitment remain the same at 18%, managers’ commitment increased from 30%to 27%.
“If you go to the microphone level, at the team level, managers with a higher commitment have a higher team commitment. Managers with a lower commitment have a decline,” said Harter. “The role of the manager is therefore just essential to do things right.”
Flurling of specific groups, managers under the age of 35 and female managers experienced a 5% drop and a 7% drop in engagement, respectively.
The report pulled data from 227,347 respondents employed at the age of 15 and over, with answers collected from April 2024 to December 2024.
For the commitment in particular, the respondents were invited to give their level of agreement on a scale of 1 to 5 concerning 12 declarations on subjects such as support, professional development, the mission of the company and the objective at work. Based on their responses, they were determined to be committed, not committed or actively disengaged.
The managers are naturally in a delicate position, juggling with the requests of the senior leaders of a management and their direct reports of another.
But the past few years have also introduced new responsibilities for many managers in addition to their traditional tasks, as noted by the report. Think of the disruption of the supply chain, the roller coaster mountains, the introduction of AI tools and the growth of employees’ desires for flexibility after a distance from the Pandemic era.
“The new requests associated with the former requests for the manager’s work have caused a sort of overwhelming feeling for many managers,” said Harter.
So what can we do with the commitment of managers and, therefore, a broader commitment of employees? Gallup’s report highlights update and training.
Employers should provide basic role training for new managers; According to the report. New and old managers would also benefit from continuous coaching in best management practices and having someone at work that actively encourages their development, noted the report.
Harter also recommends that managers define clear expectations with employees, have regular checks ideally once a week, and have a system in which each person “knows how much they do in terms of operation individually, how they collaborate with their team, then how they bring value to customers that the organization serves”.
“I think that the management of performance and the commitment and well-being of employees can all adapt if we really help managers,” said Harter. “Managers can improve if they have the right type of training and learning in progress that accompany the role.”
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