Employee Engagement Levels Rise, But They're Still Pathetic [STUDY]

Employee engagement levels are up slightly in March 2012 over September 2011, according to the latest National Norms Survey by Modern Survey, but frankly, the numbers are still embarrassingly low.

Let's tackle the majority first. The Modern Survey research reveals that 67 percent of employees are underengaged or disengaged in their current position; of those, 30 percent are completely disengaged. Look around your office: for every three coworkers you see, one feels lukewarm about his job, and one doesn't care about work at all. Certainly not a proportion conducive to productivity or business efficiency.

A fully engaged team goes above and beyond each day to improve the business and do their best work. Unfortunately, just 10 percent of the surveyed workforce reported being fully engaged. And 24 percent said that they were "moderately engaged," which is to say that they'll do good work and like their job, but things could be better.

"Based on our new survey findings, the U.S. workforce reports that they want two things more than anything: They want senior leadership's clear vision of where their organization is going, and they want the opportunity to personally grow and develop once again," said Don MacPherson, the president of Modern Survey. "Both of these things have been stunted during the economic malaise of the last few years."

What are you doing to keep your team engaged and motivated?