According to the CIPD Employee Winter Outlook for 2012-2013, employee engagement levels dipped to just 35%. At the same time, a massive 61% of employees are neither engaged nor disengaged with their jobs and their companies.

On a more positive note, engagement is highest in small businesses, with 60% of staff in small businesses saying they’re happy at work. Perhaps this is because a disengaged member of staff can cause more problems within a small team and issues can be spotted more easily than in a large business?

Employees with the shortest service are the most engaged at 43%. This means that as a manager, you need to make sure you look after your staff as they continue their service with you. Don’t get complacent and assume that they’re still happy just because they haven’t left.

56% of staff agree they have achieved the right work life balance. Is this enough or do you want more of your staff to have the right balance?

Here are some more interesting numbers from the survey:

• 19% feel it is likely or very likely they could lose their job
• 20% are looking for a new job
• 26% of senior managers are looking for a new job
• 36% of employees with 1 or 2 years service are job seeking
• 33% report that redundancies have been made
• 14% say redundancies are planned
• 42% of employers have frozen pay
• 20% report that working hours have been decreased

How engaged are your staff? How has this changed in the last year?