PROFILE AN EVEN BETTER PLACE TO WORK
Reversing SA’ s
PRODUCTIVITY CRISIS
GARY BATEMAN
Employee disengagement quietly drains performance. Gary Bateman, Regional Partner at An Even Better Place to Work, helps companies measure and act.
Leaders need to understand that the person walking into work each morning is bringing the weight of external realities with them.
South Africa has an employee disengagement problem and it’ s costing more than most companies realise. Gary Bateman, Regional Partner at An Even Better Place to Work, is part of a growing movement helping organisations confront this silent performance threat with tools that make engagement measurable, actionable and sustainable.
With more than two decades of experience in organisational development, Bateman has seen firsthand the mounting impact of disconnection in the workplace.“ We’ re operating in a reality where nearly 70 % of employees are not fully engaged,” he says, referring to data from Gallup, Culture Amp, and local institutions such as Stellenbosch Business School SBS and Stats SA.“ That’ s not a people problem – it’ s a performance issue.”
The statistics show that disengagement is costing South African businesses an estimated R160 billion in lost productivity every year. Absenteeism adds another R15 billion, with about 15 % of employees absent daily, two-thirds of which are unrelated to illness.“ Disengagement is showing up in absenteeism, high turnover, lower innovation and ultimately, weakened business results,” says Bateman.
Reframing engagement as a business driver
What sets Bateman apart in the employee engagement space is his emphasis on real-time actionable data and self-managed improvement. Through An Even Better Place to Work, a platform used by global companies including Siemens, Sony and Emirates, Bateman is helping South African organisations shift from reactive engagement models to proactive culture-building.
68 SA PROFILE www. saprofilemagazine. co. za