81% of Kenyan Workers Dissatisfied, Experience High Disengagement – Gallup Survey

A Gallup Survey on the state of the global workplace has revealed that about 81% of workers in Kenya are actively seeking new jobs or looking out for new opportunities due to rising dissatisfaction.

This number is above the continental average of workers actively seeking new jobs which stands at 75%, and above the global average which is 77%.Moreover, only 16% of Kenyan workers under the survey believe they are thriving in their current work place – dwarfing the Nigerian and South African figures that sit at 20% and 32% respectively. Senegal has the highest percentage of workers in the continent who feel engaged and connected to their workplace, that figure standing at 40% – and regionally, Tanzania has the highest percentage with 31%. “Over 75 per cent of the global employees are not fully committed or actively disengaged at work, and it’s costing the world economy a whopping US$8.9 trillion annually,” the Gallup report states. 

Workers in Sub-Saharan Africa experience greater levels of stress, anger, sadness, and loneliness after a day at work. Chad has the highest percentage of angry and sad workers, both figures standing at 43% and 62% respectively.

Liberia has the highest worker stress levels with 64% of its workforce under survey citing they felt psychologically drained by their work. 

About 34% of Kenyan workers under the survey experience stress, 22% citing anger, and another 23% reported feeling sad. The analytics company established that increasingly engaged work places, which sensitized team work and employee satisfaction, reported higher outcomes and less employee indifference. 

“In a 2024 meta-analysis, the largest study of its kind that includes data from more than 183,000 business units across 53 industries and 90 countries, Gallup has found that high-engagement business units are likely to see significantly higher employee wellbeing — as well as higher productivity, profitability and sales — than low-engagement teams,” said the report. 

“As this data demonstrates, boosting employee engagement isn’t an easy feat and some employment analysts are noting that companies are now building up “emotional salary” to increase employee engagement and productivity,” the report further elucidates. 

About 62% of Kenyan workers think it is not a good time to look for a job due to immense levels of unemployment and diminished labour perks in the market. However, retaining their present roles did not promote emotional satisfaction as the report suggests. 

There are many reasons why 74% of the workers in Africa would say they are struggling. Due to the continent’s weak labour laws – harassment, salary delays, overworking, poor remuneration, and lack of necessary equipment – are rife. 

These factors demotivate workers who are then incapable of upscaling productivity. A disengaged workforce is unable to innovate new products or provide quality services thus negatively affecting various sectors of the economy. 

“On many wellbeing items (stress, anger, worry, loneliness), being actively disengaged at work is equivalent to or worse than being unemployed. In contrast, when employees find their work and work relationships meaningful, employment is associated with high levels of daily enjoyment and low levels of all negative daily emotions. Notably, half of employees who are engaged at work are thriving in life overall,” the report said. 

The Gallup survey also established that many women experienced more stress in the work place compared to men. However, men outnumbered women in actively seeking new jobs. More junior employees also cited that they were demotivated compared to their managerial counterparts. 

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