54% Indian employees unhappy with their jobs

Indian employees are more engaged than their global counterparts but still 54 per cent of them remain somewhat dissatisfied in their jobs signaling an urgent need for companies to take proactive steps, says a report.

According to a report on employee engagement in India by Dale Carnegie Training, a leader in improving workplace performance, Indian employees are significantly more engaged than their global counterparts with 46 per cent employees fully engaged compared to the global average of 34 per cent.

"As the war for talent intensifies, strategic employee engagement initiatives offer companies an effective tool to attract and retain premium talent as well as the tipping point to enhance productivity," Dale Carnegie Training India, Walchand PeopleFirst Chairperson & Managing Director Pallavi Jha said.

As per the report, large companies in India with more than 100,000 employees tend to have the lowest amount of disengaged employees (just 5 per cent) while smaller companies (500-1000 employees) had 14 per cent of their employees actively disengaged.

"Our study indicates a high level of engagement amongst the Indian workforce compared to the global average, however an alarming 54 per cent of Indian employees remain somewhat dissatisfied in their jobs signaling an urgent need for companies to take proactive steps to sustain engagement," Jha said.

Further, engagement levels were seen to steadily increase with longer tenure with a solid 76 per cent of those working for 20-25 years at the same organisation being highly engaged.

Around 58 per cent were proud to work for their company reinforcing positive employer branding of Indian companies and good work environments.

Interestingly, 30 per cent of the fully engaged employees said they would stay at their current organisation even when offered 50 per cent salary increases, thus indicating a non-monetary loyalty that companies are often hard-pressed to develop.

"In the coming times, it is evident employee engagement will assume greater significance becoming the center of a company’s business and talent strategy so as to achieve its business goals," the report said.