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These States Have the Most (and Least) Engaged Employees

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If you hate your job, the best part of waking up is … hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep. We’ll take a look at a recent study that ranked the nation’s states based on level of employee engagement at work. Read on to see where your home turf ranks – you may be surprised as to which states are lowest on the list.

Most engaged states vs least engaged states in America

(Photo Credit: Dennis Skley/Flickr)

The Gallup Daily Tracking study was conducted from January 2013 through December 2014 with 166,409 adult participants working full- or part-time jobs for an organization. The research gauged employee engagement in each state according to three classifications: engaged, not engaged, and actively disengaged. It was discovered that the overall national average for employee engagement was a mere 31 percent, which is only a one percent improvement since the end of 2012. To give you a better idea of what the three categories in the study represent, here’s a rundown of each:

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Engaged: You are passionate about your work and your workplace.

Not engaged: You’re “checked out” and don’t care about productivity or performance so much.

Actively disengaged: You hate your job and couldn’t care less about work. What’s worse, you try to bring others down with you, because misery loves company.

Let’s take a look at the top three most engaged states in the country, and which states just can’t even.

3 Most Engaged States

1. Montana (39 percent engagement)

2. Mississippi (37 percent engagement)

3. Louisiana (36 percent engagement)

3 Least Engaged States

The bottom spot is pretty popular, apparently. Coming in with a three-way tie for most actively disengaged states in the nation are: Connecticut, New York, and Michigan (21 percent across the board).

If your state didn’t make the top three or bottom three on the list, then take a look at the map below to see how engaged your state is or isn’t.

America's Employee Engagement Level by State Gallup

(Photo Credit: Gallup

According to the research, “States with higher active disengagement have significantly higher unemployment and underemployment rates than states with lower active disengagement,” which was partly due to these states having fewer small businesses (10 employees or fewer) than those ranking higher for employee engagement levels. What’s more, businesses with engaged employees have 22 percent higher profitability than those with workers who couldn’t care less about their jobs, thanks to “higher productivity, higher retention rates, fewer accidents on the job, and fewer quality defects,” says Gallup. Therefore, happy employees = a healthy bottom line for employers, as well as a nicer work environment for you and your colleagues.

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Leah Arnold-Smeets
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