China has the highest number of engaged staff in the world

Bosses in China should be lauded for their efficiency in motivating staff.

According to new research from The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC), the nation was recently found to have the highest percentage of engaged employees in the world.

Polling more than 1,000 employees in 13 countries, the report found 19% of China's employees said they were "fully engaged." The percentage was tied with the United States.

India emerged second at 17%, followed by Brazil at 16%. On the other hand, Argentina and Spain rounded out the bottom of the list at 13%.

“These findings point to two key themes in the state of engagement today. 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,” said Jason Averbook, CEO, TMBC.

“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.”

Despite obvious cultural differences between the countries in the study, ‘I have a chance to use my strengths every day" stood out as the one item that employees think is the most important for them to be engaged with their company.

Marcus Buckingham, the founder of TMBC, said this illustrates that every member of every great team wants most the chance to express the very best of themselves.

"Companies have overburdened the team leader with tools and systems like performance management systems, learning management systems, employee engagement systems, that are designed to serve the organization rather than the team leader," he said.

Buckingham suggested managers would do well to stop trying to fix weaknesses and figure out better ways to leverage strengths.

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