Global employee engagement is decreasing amid turbulent world events, such as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, falling to 61 per cent in the first quarter of 2022, according to a new survey by Kincentric.

The survey, which polled 12 million employees in 125 countries, found in the last two years, employee engagement peaked at 73 per cent in the second quarter of 2020, before falling to 67 per cent by the fourth quarter of that year and hovering between 65 per cent and 69 per cent in 2021.

Employees’ desire to stay within their current organization continues to decrease, according to the survey, which noted only 50 per cent of workers said their employer has enough employees to perform sufficiently, compared to 43 per cent of managers who said the same.

Read: Canadian employees’ engagement in line with global average of 21%: survey

While 59 per cent said they feel recognized for their efforts, just 54 per cent believe they have future career opportunities at their company. However, employees’ engagement levels were eight-times higher when senior leaders made them feel excited about the future.

“While there are indicators of decreasing levels of employee engagement in the data, we have also identified areas of tremendous potential for organizations to build employee-centric systems, structures and processes that will meet the needs of the transformed workplace,” said Jeff Jolton, managing director of research and insights at Kincentric, in a press release.

“These challenges present an era of opportunity for organizational leadership and the human resources function as drastic changes in ways of working can impact company performance.”

Read: Employee recognition has larger impact on engagement, productivity than salary: survey