Only 13% of employees worldwide are "engaged" - that is to say psychologically committed to their work and interested in helping their organizations. 63% of the global workforce consists of "not engaged" employees - those who lack motivation and interest in voluntarily helping their employers. The remaining 24% are "actively disengaged" employees who are unhappy, unproductive and negatively affect their colleagues. These not-very-optimistic statistic results are from a study by Gallup entitled State of the Global Workplace which examined employee engagement in 142 countries, including the Czech Republic.
In comparison to the years 2009-2010, the number of engaged employees rose by 2% between 2011 and 2012 (from 11% to 13%) and the number of actively disengaged employees decreased by 3% (from 27% to 24%). The levels of engagement, however, still remain very low. As for regional differences, the most engaged employees are in the U.S. and Canada (29%), the least engaged are in East Asia (6%). In Central and Eastern Europe, the percentage of engaged employees is 11%.
Regional differences in employee engagement 2011-2012
(Source: Gallup - State of the Global Workforce)
| Region | Engaged | Not Engaged | Actively Disengaged |
| U.S. and Canada | 29% | 54% | 18% |
| Australia and New Zealand | 24% | 60% | 16% |
| Latin America | 21% | 60% | 19% |
| Commonwealth of Independent States and neighboring countries | 18% | 62% | 21% |
| Western Europe | 14% | 66% | 20% |
| Southeast Asia | 12% | 73% | 14% |
| Central and Eastern Europe | 11% | 63% | 26% |
| Middle East and North Africa | 10% | 55% | 35% |
| South Asia | 10% | 61% | 29% |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 10% | 57% | 33% |
| East Asia | 6% | 68% | 26% |
As for the region of Central and Eastern Europe, which includes the Czech Republic, the most engaged employees are in Poland (17%). The Czech Republic remains in the third to last place with 8%, ahead of Turkey (7%) and Croatia (3%). Not engaged employees make up 62% and actively disengaged employees make up 30% of all employees in the Czech Republic.
Most of the engaged employees in the region are managers (26%), professionals (18%) and administrative staff (13%). The least engaged are workers in farming, fishing and forestry (2%). With regard to education, university graduates are the most engaged (17%), followed by those who have only a primary school education (11%) and secondary school graduates (10%).
Differences in employee engagement in Central and Eastern Europe 2011-2012
(Source: Gallup - State of the Global Workforce)
| State | Engaged | Not Engaged | Actively Disengaged |
| Poland | 17% | 68% | 15% |
| Estonia | 16% | 64% | 20% |
| Latvia | 13% | 72% | 15% |
| Bulgaria | 12% | 68% | 21% |
| Macedonia | 12% | 57% | 32% |
| Albania | 11% | 69% | 20% |
| Montenegro | 11% | 58% | 31% |
| Slovak Republic | 11% | 69% | 20% |
| Hungary | 11% | 56% | 33% |
| Lithuania | 10% | 62% | 28% |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 9% | 58% | 33% |
| Czech Republic | 8% | 62% | 30% |
| Turkey | 7% | 60% | 33% |
| Croatia | 3% | 65% | 32% |
According to the conclusions of the Gallup study, organizations that achieve the highest levels of employee engagement integrate it into the following four key areas:
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Corporate strategy and philosophy of leadership
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Accountability and performance
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Communication and knowledge management
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Development and education
The study involved 73,752 respondents over 18 years from 141 countries and another 151,335 respondents from the U.S.. The respondents answered 12 questions related to their performance, the so-called Gallup Q12 .
More information about the methodology, as well as more detailed results can be found directly in the State of the Global Workplace study which is freely available for download on this page.
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