U.S. and China Lead the World in New Buckingham Employee Engagement Index

The U.S. and China lead the world in employee engagement, according to a new standardized international employee engagement index created by the Marcus Buckingham Company. Called the StandOut Global Engagement Index (GEI), the report compares employee engagement in 13 countries.

Spain and Argentina ranked lowest in employee engagement. The company claims that this is the first survey of its kind.

“These findings point to two key themes in the state of engagement today,” said Jason Averbook, CEO. “The first is that despite China and the U.S. leading the pack in terms of the most fully engaged workforces, even in those countries less than a quarter of employees are wholly committed. The second is the urgent need for country-specific resources — not a one-size-fits-all approach — to drive up the percent of fully engaged workforces, team by team and country by country.”

The study found that, “While the ability to use strengths at work is the No. 1 indicator of engagement globally, secondary drivers meaningfully differ by country.”

For instance, in the U.S. and China, it’s important for people to feel part of a mission; whereas in other countries it’s more important to work with people with shared values or with those who “watch my back.”