Nearly 83 percent of workers in Kenya are detached from their work and are only stuck with their employers because prospects of another job are thin, a new survey shows.
Gallup, an American analytics and advisory company based in Washington, says in the ‘State of the Global Workplace 2023’ report that engagement levels among workers in Kenya are at 17 percent, with 83 percent classified as either "quiet quitting” (not engaged) or “loud quitting” (actively disengaged).
The study classifies quiet quitters as employees who are psychologically disconnected from their employer but are “filling a seat and watching the clock” by simply putting in the minimum effort required.
Gallup classifies loud quitters as employees that “take actions that directly harm the organization” including undercutting goals and opposing leaders at the workplace.
“Gallup’s research into wellbeing at work finds that having a job you hate is worse than being unemployed — and those negative emotions end up at home, impacting relationships with family. If you’re not thriving at work, you’re unlikely to be thriving at life,” says Jon Clifton, CEO at Gallup.
However, many firms in Kenya are still carrying the quiet and loud quitters, with the Gallup study showing that employees’ confidence in the Kenyan job market has dropped for the third year running to 38 percent.
Gallup does not quantify how much the low engagement is costing Kenyan firms but says globally, this is costing the global economy $8.8 trillion or about nine percent of the value of the global economy.
“True engagement means your people are psychologically present to do their work. They understand what to do; they have what they need; and they have a supportive manager and a supportive team. They know why their work matters. They are work ready,” says Gallup.
Kenya’s engagement level of 17 percent is below that of the likes of Uganda (18 percent), Tanzania (24 percent), the Republic of Congo (30 percent) and Mali which topped the rank with 47 percent. It is also below the world’s average (23 percent) or sub-Saharan’s 20 percent.
About 31 percent of Kenya’s workers surveyed by Gallup said they experienced stress daily while 25 percent said they experienced daily anger.
The latest share of workers in Kenya feeling daily anger is a rise from 23 percent a year earlier and above the 21 percent global average.
Gallup says engagement has 3.8 times as much influence on employee stress as work location.
“In other words, what people experience in their everyday work — their feelings of involvement and enthusiasm — matters more in reducing stress than where they are sitting,” says the research.
But the detached employees are in a Catch-22 situation when it comes to deciding to resign from work given the falling prospects of landing another job.
The research found that workers’ confidence in the Kenyan job market has plummeted to 38 percent from 43 percent in the previous year, ranking it 18 out of 35 countries surveyed in sub-Saharan Africa.
This marks the third straight year of declining confidence of workers in Kenya’s job market given it was at 47 percent in 2021 when Gallup run a similar survey.
At 38 percent, the confidence of Kenya’s workers in the job market trails that of its neighbours Uganda and Tanzania with confidence at 44 percent and 60 percent respectively.
Mali (73 percent) is the country where workers feel is a good time for job seeking.
Kenyan worker’s confidence in the country’s job market trails sub-Saharan Africa’s average of 50 percent and the world’s 53 percent, according to Gallup.
The low engagement and declining confidence in job prospects in Kenya have come in an environment of increasing layoffs as established companies run into headwinds.
