The Cost of and Cure for Employee Disengagement

At our high growth clients, the bulk of the work gets accomplished via cross-functional, remote and onsite teams. Star performance is achieved when a team is working cooperatively, when each member has a clear idea of how they contribute, when each does their part and when each is committed to the common goal. It’s an intricate high performance dance that requires strong, capable leadership, a balance of rewards and consequences, and happily engaged team members with the right mix of skills, behaviors and attitudes. 

The whole structure can fall apart, however, when a team member or two becomes less engaged or disengaged. If they are actively disengaged for example, they may even become hostile and a threat that goes way beyond their own poor performance. They can poison a whole team and have a negative effect on productivity, on customers and undermine leadership.

Our latest annual study of employee engagement showed that over 10% of the workforce was disengaged and over 3% of those were actually hostile. Because we typically work with companies who are among the “Best Places to Work,” we interpret these statistics as being less than what exists across the more general workforce. Here are two graphs that show the results in two large metro areas with a breakdown into four employee groups as follows:

Knowing that even one hostile employee can infect those around them and spread harmful germs, what can you do to fix the problem? The first step is to find out where disengaged employees are hiding and address their concerns. 

After surveying 500,000 North American workers, hostile employees rated five engagement survey items as the ones that caused them the most dissatisfaction. We list them here with the antidote…

1. Disengagement Driver: Lack of open and honest communication between employees and managers

Recommended Engagement Action: Make sure all employees are encouraged and feel safe in asking questions and challenging practices and ideas.

2. Disengagement Driver: Lack of professional growth and career development opportunities

Recommended Engagement Action:  Find out what motivates each individual member of your team and co-create a plan for the future that includes a piece of what they care about doing.

3. Disengagement Driver: Lack of recognition

Recommended Engagement Action: Appreciate your team members’ value and contributions openly and often.

4. Disengagement Driver: Lack of leadership’s appreciation of people as their most important resource

Recommended Engagement Action: Give employees praise when earned, some flexibility, and opportunities to grow.

5. Disengagement Driver: Lack of understanding of how they fit into the organization’s future plans

Recommended Engagement Action: Keep your employees well informed of the company overall strategy and how their work contributes to the plan.

Your goal should be to eliminate hostile employees and greatly reduce the number of disengaged workers. The more engaged your workplace, the closer you, too, will be to a great place to work.  And highly engaged workforces equate to:

• 8% greater productivity
• 12% higher customer satisfaction
• 51% less voluntary turnover

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/leading-for-employee-engagement/