Study: Engagement Hype Not Matching Reality

Honeymooners and Hamsters: Few buzzwords have gained greater traction among HR professionals than the term “engagement.” The hard-to-define and even-trickier-to-measure term populates the lexicon of many organizations today. Despite its vagueness, companies appear obsessed with having workers who have some measure of intellectual or emotional investment in their jobs (and by extension, their employers). Yet according to a study by consulting firm BlessingWhite, less than one in three North American workers are “fully engaged” and nearly one-third are either “disengaged” or at risk of becoming so. Princeton, New Jersey-based BlessingWhite’s report, titled “The State of Employee Engagement 2008,” is based on a survey of more than 7,500 employees and 40 human resources and line managers across four continents.

The study identified five levels of employee engagement in North America. In between the engaged and the disengaged are the “almost engaged,” followed by “honeymooners”—people new to their jobs who have yet to become fully productive—and “hamsters,” defined as people who are “spinning their wheels” but contributing little. Even worse are the “crash and burners,” identified as top producers who have become disillusioned or dissatisfied in their jobs—usually an indicator that top talent is about to be lost.