- U.S. workers are more engaged. A recent Gallup poll found employee engagement rebounded in the second quarter of 2024 after hitting an 11-year low in Q1.
- Remote workers are leading the way. Fully remote workers drove this increase in engagement, which translates to 3.2 million Americans more engaged at work.
- Managers have learned how to lead remote workers. The rebound points to managers doing a better job connecting and communicating with their remote employees, according to Gallup.
U.S. employee engagement rebounded to 32% in the second quarter of 2024, up from its 11-year low of 30% in Q1, according to Gallup’s latest employee engagement survey.
Though employee engagement has still not returned to prepandemic levels, this uptick represents 3.2 million American full- and part-time workers feeling more involved in and enthusiastic about their work.
Most notable in Gallup’s data was the 5% jump in engagement among fully remote workers, a rate that outpaced overall engagement gains.
Remote workers, in particular, increased in strong agreement by 6 points or more in several important workplace elements:
- Doing what they do best
- Having clarity of work expectations
- Having the materials and equipment to effectively and efficiently do their work
- Feeling the organization cares about their well-being
- Receiving meaningful feedback.
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How to Increase Engagement Among Remote Employees
Connected Managers Foster Such Engagement
Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief scientist on workplace management and well-being, cited the latest report as reason for “cautious optimism.” He points to managers as a key driver in the shift.
“Managers and leaders are now more engaged. Since the first quarter of 2024, they have increased significantly in knowing what is expected of them [and in conveying expectations to workers],” Harter said. “It appears managers are now, on average, more in touch with remote employees.”
Historically, fully remote employees have been more engaged than their fully onsite counterparts, but they’ve reported significant declines in feeling connected to the purpose or mission of their organization since the pandemic, Harter said.
Increased managerial communication and connection can address such issues.
Fully remote employees shifted from 39% engaged prior to the pandemic in early 2020 to a low of 33% in the first quarter of 2024 and now back to 37% in the second quarter of this year. Before the pandemic changed the nature of work, nearly 60% of remote workers reported clearly knowing what was expected of them. This dropped to 41% last quarter, recently jumping to 47%, but still well behind the 60% high.
Remote workers are also lagging in comparison to prepandemic levels in having an opportunity to do what they do best, Harter said.
Employee Engagement Boosts the Bottom Line
Employee engagement strongly influences productivity — the more engaged employees are, the better the impact on the bottom line, said Jill Havely, managing director and head of global community excellence for employee experience at WTW.
WTW’s Global High Performance Employee Experience report showed high-performance organizations demonstrate higher profit margins and revenue growth. Havely said, “Interestingly, these organizations prioritize trust and recognition, which has led to higher employee engagement.”
In addition, the relationship between higher engagement and lower turnover rates increased after the onset of the pandemic, Harter said.
To enable such improvement, it’s particularly important to communicate and connect with fully remote employees, who report higher loneliness globally, he added.
“Physical distance can often turn into mental distance unless remote work is well managed,” Harter said. “A key is for managers to create new expectations and habits around ongoing meaningful conversations and feedback. Remote workers can quickly feel out of touch with the rest of the organization if leaders and managers are not intentional about staying in touch with them.”
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