Are you “engaged” at your job?

Are you “engaged” in your work? The 2025 study by ADP Research that I reference in my TEDx talk concludes that 81% of all adult employees worldwide are “not fully engaged” at work, which means these employees are “not giving it their all.”

So are you fully engaged at work? You know the saying…”if you have to ask…” Here are 4 ways to know whether or not you are engaged at work. 

If you are engaged at your work…

• You know and agree with your organization’s goals and objectives.
• You actually want your organization to succeed, not just financially, but in its mission, which you also believe in.
• You talk positively about your job to friends and family.
• You see your future self in a much higher responsibility role at your current organization.

First, answer honestly, then let’s dig into each one of these points. Where’d you land? This is my personal opinion, but if you asked yourself whether or not these 4 things are true about you and got 2/4, I’d put you higher than “not engaged”. Also, I think time on the job at the company has a profound impact on each of these points.

Your organization’s goals and objectives – do you even know them? Sometimes this one is like knowing your high school’s alma mater, your song. That said, for any new employees, it’s the organization’s – the LEADERS’ – responsibility to make sure all new employees are “onboarded”. That’s usually just a big word for “here’s how to do your job”, but if your organization cares at all about creating a great culture, it’s much more. The organization’s goals and objectives and mission should be the most important thing you learn on (or before!) day one of your job.

What does “success” look like for your organization? Your manager or leadership should have already clarified for you individually what success looks and feels like, but what’s that answer for the entire organization? What would your life – and the organization – look like if BOOM! you achieve your mission? Do you like that version of the world? 

You talk positively about your job to friends and family. The easiest one to actually measure. Your words matter. How do you talk about your job, your workplace, your coworkers, your organization’s leadership? Truth in, truth out. Garbage in, garbage out. Any organization’s culture can be captured in a given employee’s words. What are yours?

Where do you see your future self? Also easy to measure. Either you have a vision of yourself in a higher role, or you don’t. Don’t make it more difficult than it is. Where do you see yourself in 3, 5, 10 years? If it isn’t “here”, then you kinda know where your head is.

As you walk through these points, you can pretty easily see why ADP Research found what it found. Where are you? Why? It’s a healthy exercise to walk through criteria like these as part of a bit of introspection. It’s kinda like doing a “year in review” or in military terms, an AAR (After Action Report), to understand what went (or is going) well, what needs fixing, and what the next year (or other period) should look like.

So, are you engaged at your job? Do you want to be?