Government Employee Disengagement is Costing the U.S. Billions

*All statistical data pulled from Gallup Report – State of Local and State Government Workers’ Engagement in the U.S. Report.

Employee disengagement is costing state and local government agencies over $100 billion every year in excess cost.

When employees are not interested in their jobs, it cost the US economy a lot of money in lost production, poor performance and mistakes leading to slow government services.

According to Gallup, only a shocking 29% of government employees are engaged at work. Engaged employees provide high quality service to their communities. Disengaged one’s at times do more damage than good. Unfortunately, 71% of state and local employees are not engaged.

However, there are pockets of excellence. In Mississippi, there are almost three engaged employees for every one disengaged employee. Mississippi is the exception, not the rule. Places like New York and Illinois only have one engaged employee for every engaged employee. Roughly half the workforce is disengaged.

Disengaged employees also bring about low retention rates. Government agencies face unique challenges in retaining employees due to factors such as lower salaries compared to the private sector and overall stability of the agency’s budget and operations. There are generally less opportunities for career advancement within the public sector which hurts retention rates.

So what can be done to improve employee engagement and retention rates within government agencies?

For as long as there has been employees there have been initiatives to improve engagement while boosting productivity and profits. Many of these have proven to be effective time and time again such as training and development opportunities, offering flexibility and creating a positive and inclusive culture.

An effective way to improve retention rates is to offer higher pay. This is often an impossibility in a government agency. A cost effective way to improve engagement and retain talent is to implement a Mentoring Program.

Mentoring programs match your new, fresh talent with veteran staff. Mentees often feel burnt-out, overwhelmed, apathetic and uncertain about their roles. However, with a mentor they are helped and given guidance.

Too often, government employees don’t think they are making a difference. They can feel like a cog in a giant bureaucratic machine. A mentor can orient their individual work to the overall mission of what the government agency is trying to do. A mentor can help a mentee envision how their work matters and contributes to the whole. This can reignite passion and make work more meaningful.

In addition, mentoring programs can help build strong relationships between employees and their mentors. These relationships can foster a sense of community within the workplace, which can lead to increased employee loyalty and retention.

Mentoring programs can also benefit the mentor, as it provides them with an opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise, which can boost their own job satisfaction and engagement.

Career Development is one of the most important factors when employees are deciding to stay with an organization longer term. If they are growing as people and the culture is thriving they are much more likely to stay. Mentoring provides career development opportunities that no other programs can offer. Mentees get direct access to senior management staff who can give them advice on how to move up the ranks, train them on skills they need to thrive and draw out road maps to achieve career success.

Employee disengagement doesn’t have to be costly. Retention rates in government agencies don’t have to continue to plummet. Mentoring can play a huge role in improving engagement in a cost effective manner while improving retention rates and productivity. Investing in mentoring programs shows employees you are taking the initiative to care for them and this action in itself goes a long way.

Mentor Resources can help any company or government agency to leverage technology to create tailored career development programs that are cost-effective. Our mentoring software - Wisdom Share is a cloud-based program that is simple and comes with guided workflows. Included are tools for administrators to attract, enroll, connect, and guide participants. We also provide analytics to ensure you can monitor your employee development program and easily see ROI metrics.

Reach out to us today for a Free Demonstration of our software.