Job Engagement Levels Across the Generations at Work

Introduction

For over a decade we have been exposed to steady reporting of the low level of employee engagement. This is not merely an American problem; the levels of engagement around the globe are reported to be dismally low. Within this consistent reporting a recurring chorus has emerged: Not only are less than 30% of employees fully engaged in their work, this statistic is even lower in the fastest growing segment of the workforce – Millennials. This chorus seems to be reaching a crescendo and organizations are focusing on increasing resources to address this concern. But is the engagement level of Millennials really as low as reported? Are Millennials more likely to be actively disengaged than their older coworkers?

In this chapter, we take a fresh look at these questions. We conducted a series of field studies to determine if there are indeed differences in the level of engagement among Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennial cohorts. These studies involved employees from a wide variety of organizations and job categories. Rather than relying on a measure of engagement that focuses on contextual antecedents to engagement, we utilized a measure of engagement that is more clearly aligned with the conceptual definitions of engagement originally developed by Kahn (1990). This allowed us to take a deeper look at engagement by examining the cognitive, emotional, and physical components of employee engagement. Our conclusions are at odds with reports in the popular press. We discuss reasons for this variance and provide a discussion of actionable items for addressing the issues of engagement and disengagement across the generationally diverse workforce.