ew nationwide employee survey has found that the average Australian worker would not recommend their workplace to others, is disinclined to exceed expectations, and is likely to be hunting for another job.



The State of Employee Engagement in Australia survey, conducted by Engaged Marketing, asked 3361 Aussie workers about their attitudes towards their current employer and workplace.



According to the research, Australian employees are unlikely to recommend their workplace as a great place to work, with ‘Detractors’ outweighing ‘Promoters’ by almost 25%.



It was also found that workers are disinclined to do more than what is expected of them, with an average discretionary effort score of just 5.8 out of 10.



Loyalty to employers was also low, as researchers found that just 55.3% of participants felt a sense of loyalty towards their employers.



Christopher Roberts, Engaged Marketing’s managing director, said that the survey’s findings were of great concern to employers across Australia as they pointed to significant issues around productivity, referral and recruitment.



“It’s alarming how few Australians would recommend their current workplace as a great place to work to family and friends,” he said. “Given the power of word-of-mouth, this has the potential to significantly and negatively impact an organisation’s future recruitment prospects. Worker discretionary effort is also low, with many staff not willing to do any more than what is expected of them during the normal nine-to-five working day.”





Roberts referred to workers’ unwillingness to exert their discretionary effort as “another alarm bell”, adding that there was a strong link between internal employee engagement and employee loyalty.



“Given 43% of the population are classified as ‘Detractors’ of their workplaces, this is a real human resource issue for organisations that may result in greater costs to recruit and retrain new employees,” he said. “Employee stated loyalty is low, which not only means that many are thinking of leaving, but you also have to wonder how productive an employee with this mindset is going to be while they’re still working there.”



Roberts advised that employers must remember the importance of giving employees a sense of purpose and value.



“Staff engagement is more than just staff satisfaction, it’s about ensuring staff feel genuinely valued, are having some of their core human needs met, and understand the role they play in delivering organisation’s business strategy,” he said. “Ultimately, this boils down to the type of leadership in the organisation. Leaders need to understand exactly what is driving employee commitment, and then link the organisation’s business strategy to employees’ core needs, motivations and purpose to drive engagement.”

