83 percent of Kenyan employees only warm seats in offices, Gallup report
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83 percent of Kenyan employees are detached from their work only warming seats in offices according to Gallup report
83 percent of Kenyan employees are detached from their work only warming seats in offices according to Gallup report.
According to a survey by Gallup, nearly 83 percent of Kenyan workers detached from their work and are only stuck with their employers because prospects of another job are thin.
According to the ‘State of the Global Workplace 2023’ report from Washington, DC-based analytics and advisory firm Gallup, only 17 percent of Kenyan employees are engaged, with 83 percent either “quiet quitting” (not engaged) or “loud quitting” (actively disengaged).
According to the report, quiet quitters are workers who are psychologically estranged from their employer but are yet “filling a seat and watching the clock” by only exerting the bare minimum of effort.
Gallup classifies loud quitters as employees that “take actions that directly harm the organization” including undercutting goals and opposing leaders at the workplace.
“Gallup’s research into wellbeing at work finds that having a job you hate is worse than being unemployed — and those negative emotions end up at home, impacting relationships with family. If you’re not thriving at work, you’re unlikely to be thriving at life,” says Jon Clifton, CEO at Gallup.
However, despite the Gallup report demonstrating that employees’ confidence in the Kenyan job market has declined to 38% for the third year in a row, many companies in Kenya are still carrying the quiet and loud quitters.
Although Gallup does not put a dollar figure on how much the low involvement is costing Kenyan businesses, it estimates that it is costing the world economy $8.8 trillion, or nearly 9% of its worth.
“True engagement means your people are psychologically present to do their work. They understand what to do; they have what they need; and they have a supportive manager and a supportive team. They know why their work matters. They are work ready,” says Gallup.
Kenya’s engagement level of 17 percent is below that of the likes of Uganda (18 percent), Tanzania (24 percent), the Republic of Congo (30 percent), and Mali which topped the rank with 47 percent. It is also below the world’s average (23 percent) or sub-Saharan’s 20 percent.
About 31 percent of Kenya’s workers surveyed by Gallup said they experienced stress daily while 25 percent said they experienced daily anger.
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The latest share of workers in Kenya feeling daily anger is a rise from 23 percent a year earlier and above the 21 percent global average.
Gallup says engagement has 3.8 times as much influence on employee stress as work location.
“In other words, what people experience in their everyday work — their feelings of involvement and enthusiasm — matters more in reducing stress than where they are sitting,” says the research.
The research found that workers’ confidence in the Kenyan job market has plummeted to 38 percent from 43 percent in the previous year, ranking it 18 out of 35 countries surveyed in sub-Saharan Africa.
This marks the third straight year of declining confidence of workers in Kenya’s job market given it was at 47 percent in 2021 when Gallup run a similar survey.
At 38 percent, the confidence of Kenya’s workers in the job market trails that of its neighbours Uganda and Tanzania with confidence at 44 percent and 60 percent respectively.
Mali (73 percent) is the country where workers feel is a good time for job seeking.
Kenyan workers’ confidence in the country’s job market trails sub-Saharan Africa’s average of 50 percent and the world’s 53 percent, according to Gallup.
The low engagement and declining confidence in job prospects in Kenya have come in an environment of increasing layoffs as established companies run into headwinds.
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