While the North American economy has shown steady improvement over the past year, employers and the workforce are not yet following suit.
Aon Hewitt’s Global Engagement Report finds that employee engagement levels in North America have declined to the lowest levels since 2008, and the way employees perceived their general work experience in 2012 remains unchanged from the prior year.
There are some dynamic shifts in how North American employees felt overall about their work experience. While certain areas had increases in employee perception scores, others dropped.
The areas with the highest increases in employee perception scores in North America include innovation, effective communication, managing performance and pay. And the areas where work experience scores worsened in 2012 include diversity, customer experiences and business unit/division leadership.
“While some aspects of the work experience have improved in North America, the overall drop in engagement could indicate that companies have not been sufficiently investing in talent,” says Dr. Ken Oehler, Aon Hewitt’s global engagement practice leader.
“As North American organizations grapple with competing pressures—demand for profitable growth, financial market volatility, political uncertainty and global shifts in workforce demographics—declining engagement levels may have negative, longer-term consequences on business performance.”
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