Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report found that only 18% of South African employees are engaged at work. It’s a statistic that’s difficult to ignore, particularly given how much organisations are investing in wellbeing, learning, recognition and employee experience.
When engagement levels remain this low, it’s tempting to blame it on employee motivation… but I’ve found that it is more often a matter of reach and employee experience. Over the years, I’ve visited organisations that genuinely care about their people. They’ve invested in leadership development, wellbeing programmes, communication campaigns and career opportunities, and their strategies are well considered.
But somehow, it doesn’t show on the frontline. Many employees describe hearing about new initiatives long after they’ve been launched or receiving inconsistent company news based on who’s on shift, who’s leading the briefing or whether someone remembers to pass the message on. For these people, access to the organisation feels indirect, inconsistent and dependent on circumstance rather than design.
None of this is intentional; it’s a consequence of how information moves through many frontline environments. Shift patterns, dispersed teams and multiple layers of communication make it difficult to deliver a consistent employee experience. The further information has to travel, the greater the chance that important updates, opportunities and support reach employees late… or not at all.
Organisations spend a great deal of time measuring engagement, but far less time measuring reach. We know how many people attended a wellbeing session or completed a learning programme, but we don’t always know how many employees had an equal opportunity to take part in the first place. That’s a very different question, and the answer often explains why engagement remains stubbornly low.
The missing piece in engagement strategies
More than just a product of leadership style and organisational culture, engagement is moulded by the everyday mechanics of work: how information flows, how easily people can access support, whether they understand what’s happening around them and whether they have opportunities to contribute (and be heard!).
Those practical experiences are easy to overlook because they sit in the background of daily operations, but don’t be fooled; they determine whether employees feel connected to the wider organisation or confined to the boundaries of their own team or shift.
Before introducing another engagement programme, I’d encourage leaders to examine the reach of the investments they’ve already made. Ask employees what they have actually seen over the past six months. Which opportunities were they aware of? Which leadership messages reached them? Where do they go when they need information or support? The answers might surprise you, and highlight opportunities that employee surveys alone can’t uncover.
At Wyzetalk, we’ve always believed that improving communication starts with making sure every employee can participate in the organisation on equal terms. Giving people direct access to information, opportunities and conversations empowers them to experience work differently. They feel connected to the business, understand where they fit in and are more likely to see a future there.
I think that’s what the 18% engagement statistic is really asking us to reconsider. Rather than looking for new ways to “engage” employees, let’s ensure that every employee has an equal opportunity to experience the organisations we’ve already built.
Three places to start
1. Spend a day following information, not people.
Instead of shadowing an employee’s workflow, trace the journey of a single piece of information. Follow a new policy, leadership update or wellbeing initiative from the moment it’s launched to the moment it reaches the frontline. How many handovers does it go through? How long does it take? Where could it be delayed, changed or missed? This will help you understand why different teams experience the same organisation so differently.
2. Stop assuming awareness.
Before looking at participation rates, ask a sample of frontline employees whether they were aware of a recent initiative, how they heard about it and whether they knew how to access it. If awareness is low, the problem may have more to do with reach than engagement.
3. Reward consistency
Employees shouldn’t have vastly different experiences because they report to different managers. Compare how teams receive information, access opportunities and interact with leadership across different sites and shifts. If one manager consistently keeps people informed and another doesn’t, you’re relying on individuals rather than systems to create a positive employee experience.