5 Ways To Stay Engaged In Your Career As Attention Spans Decline

Employee engagement is a big topic for business leaders around the globe. Why? Studies show that high work engagement is linked to higher productivity and greater profits for the industry. Work engagement is an employee’s personal commitment to the organization’s goals and overall success. Surveys show that highly engaged employees result in 21% greater profitability; disengaged employees cost companies between $450 and $550 billion annually; and over-engaged employees cost corporate America $150 billion a year, due to absenteeism and burnout.

According to Gallup, engaged employees have higher well-being, better retention, lower absenteeism and greater productivity. But their findings show that the workplace reflects lower levels of employee satisfaction and engagement, as well as less connection to purpose. How can big business strike a healthy and profitable balance? One approach is to consider the declining attention spans of the workforce.

Employee Engagement Amid Declining Attention Spans

In today's fast-paced world, people are constantly bombarded with notifications and distractions from their phone, creating a challenge for people across all industries to keep workers engaged. A recent study shows that people think they check their phone around 25 times per day, but data shows that the actual number is over 80. On top of that, the average employee checks email 77 times and Facebook 21 times during the workday. That’s a lot of time spent on our devices that most of us are unaware of, according to Katie Moser, director of marketing at GoGather, a corporate event planning company.

I spoke by email with Moser who describes her time working in the event industry, where she has witnessed the changing event landscape first hand. She told me that she personally was drawn to the ever-changing attention spans of attendees, diving further into this concept to discover how people can take this challenge and, instead of fighting it, embrace it and use it to their advantage.

With the average attention span dropping from 2.5 minutes to 45 seconds in the past 20 years, Moser is taking that to mind when helping her team organize their next events. “People may see these trends and lose hope for future employee engagement in the workplace,” Moser says, “but I believe that instead of fighting the focus on social media, we should be taking notes. Think of your experience on social media: shorter content, visual content, videos, it’s all substance that creates a dopamine hit. So how can people get that same dopamine hit in the workplace?” Here are five points she offers:

1. Get social: “Keeping in touch with colleagues, talking to your friends, etc. are not necessarily distractions from work,” Moser insists. “They are another way to give your brain a break from work and return refreshed. Why do you think so many people enjoy the networking portions of events or after work social hours?”
2. Break up work: She notes that events are moving toward shorter-form content (just like social media has) with some longer-form content sprinkled in. “Try to build in chunks of focus time complemented by shorter bursts of productivity to help you stay focused,” she suggests. “Long, grueling days of work are difficult to maintain.”
3. Get moving: Moser cites emerging research here on the benefits of moving throughout the workday—not just getting in one long workout at the end of the day. “Conferences are building in wellness breaks and giving people more ability to stand up and interact throughout the day,” she points out, suggesting that you stand up, stretch and move around. “This is a great practice that can be adapted by a majority of industries.”
4. Fuel. “You need good food to fuel you all day,” Moser states. “Make sure the attention of your employees, event attendees or any other person’s attention you’re trying to hold is fueling their body well for the workday. Providing good fuel and hydration can be vital for strong engagement.”
5. Use your phone for good: “It's difficult to completely toss your phone during the workday,” she acknowledges. “You may need to answer important calls or messages. But use it to your advantage: can you set it in work mode during busy times? Can you use it to remind yourself to eat, walk, socialize? Conference organizers are also figuring out ways to incorporate phones rather than vilifying them, whether that's through an event app, encouraging photos and social sharing or other ways that could be used across industries.”

A Final Word

Focused attention and engagement are critical to the success of any organization’s employees and the company as a whole. “There are many more practices that can be helpful in the evolution of keeping people interested and engaged, but through my experience in the event industry I’ve found these to be the most beneficial,” Moser concludes. “It’s a very fascinating concept that I think will be important for all industries to keep an eye on as it will continue to change throughout our lives and on.”