New Zealand Engagement Poll

In conjunction with The New Zealand Herald’s Your Career Expo which was held 27-28 September, JRA (NZ) Ltd ran the New Zealand Engagement Poll, measuring employee engagement over a seven-week period in the lead up to the Expo.  Readers of The New Zealand Herald newspaper were invited to complete a simple, six-question poll online during this time. In addition to these respondents, visitors to the JRA stand over the two-day Expo were also invited to complete the poll.  The aim of the poll was to measure how engaged New Zealand workers are.  Here are some of the key findings:

We found that nearly 29% of respondents are engaged in their work whilst 51% are ambivalent and 20% are disengaged.  Compare this to the overall engagement profile from our unlimited/JRA Best Places to Work in New Zealand 2008 survey (BPTW 2008) results where 33% of respondents are engaged, 59% ambivalent and only 8% are disengaged.  The most significant difference is in the number of respondents who are disengaged in their work – 12% more than the BPTW 2008 survey.  This may partly be due to the focus of the Expo which primarily  attracted people who were seeking new employment.     

The most engaged group of employees are those aged 60+ years and those aged under 20 years and 25-29 years are the least engaged - this reflects the BPTW 2008 data.  Female workers proved to be more engaged in their work than their male counterparts, 32% compared to 25%, which again is consistent with the BPTW 2008 data.